Updating RV Pendant Lights

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Kitchen pendant lights were not something I focused on while we were shopping for our fifth wheel. To be honest, the lighting in general was totally on the back burner. We were more concerned with floor plans, storage spaces, structural integrity, etc… But the second we started ripping things out during demo and I looked up to see this statement and I knew it was in need of a legit update. Yikes!

The Original

Initially, I thought we could just hit the plaque and actual pendant light shades with a coat of spray paint and call it a day. That was not the case. There was just no covering all that swirly-scrolly-viney mess so we started from scratch.

The Build

Right away we wanted to use a planked design to coordinate with our faux shiplap walls. So when my parents mentioned a bunch of old barn wood planks headed to the firewood pile we snatched the whole lot. The planks are a bit smaller than the ones on our walls but they’re perfectly sized for this project. And again, they were free! #alwaysawin

The new plaque design is super simple and as light as we could make it. We used a thin sheet of plywood as the base, glued on the barn wood planks, and framed it out in simple moulding.

We marked the center of the 2nd and 5th planks on a bit of painters tape and drilled holes for the wiring. The holes needed to be big enough for both wires to come through the plaque so we used a bigger 1/2″ bit. Drilling through the painters tape also helped the planks from flaking or chipping around the edges of the hole.

Once completely assembled, dried, and drilled the plaque got white washed. To make the wash I mixed about 1 part paint(I just used what I had on hand) with 2-3 parts water. I also did about 3 washes since the planks really soaked up the liquid. Each coat is buildable as far as coverage goes so I tend to stay on the sheer side when mixing the batches. The mount(which we left intact from the original plaque) got 1 coat of gripper primer and 2 coats of paint.

The lights

For the actual pendant lights we reused the original stems and just bought new shades. I hit all the pieces(unassembled!) with a few coats of black spray paint so everything matched. Also, if you follow us on Instagram you saw my new found electrical skills putting together the new wiring kits!

Lastly, we added some new 12v LED Edison bulbs. We’ve used these previously in the fifth wheel and they look ahhhhhhmazing! We get asked pretty regularly about swapping out old lighting and electrical. Generally speaking we follow one basic rule: match the new to the old. So if your system uses 12v wiring and bulbs(like ours) just replace them with the same.

The After

This came together really simply and we used a lot of supplies we already had on hand. Something about that makes this finished project just a little more satisfying! Anyone else get that feeling when you start using up your stash?!

So have you updated any of the lighting in your RV? Replaced the pendant lights in your space? You know I’d love to hear all about it in the comments!