In the past month, we’ve added lots of new products and ideas to our catalog to help you develop your interior design projects even more and even better!
New fabric cords in many different finishes and patterns, new LED light bulbs, and lots of new lampshades in a variety of designs and shapes: there’s truly something for everyone!
But we haven't forgotten about our tutorials, and in fact today we're bringing you a new one, focused on the item that connects all the elements of your lamp: the cord, lampshade, and light bulb all need to be connected to the socket.
For today’s guide, we’ll refer to a socket with a threaded body and 2 rings, made of thermoplastic material, which you can find—along with many others—on our store.
We are often asked how to connect a socket to our cords and create your very first, basic lamp. It’s actually quite simple, and today we’ll show you how! The first step is to disassemble the socket and separate all its parts. Unscrew the two rings from the threaded body, which you’ll need later to secure the lampshade, as well as the threaded body itself. You’ll be left with the back part of the socket, which contains the contacts and has the strain relief screwed on. To separate the contacts from this part, you need to unlock the anti-loosening mechanism, a locking system that prevents the upper ring from unscrewing when you remove the light bulb.
To do this, simply lift the metal tab inside using a screwdriver until it passes the plastic block on the socket body—it’s easy! Remember to perform all these steps STRICTLY WITH THE POWER OFF for your safety.
At this point, unscrew the strain relief and insert the electrical cord, which you previously stripped (if you don’t remember how, you can review our guide on how to strip fabric cords!), into the two terminal blocks.
Once you’ve inserted the two segments of cloth covered wire into the terminals, with the insulation stripped back to expose the copper strands inside, firmly tighten the terminal screws with your flathead screwdriver. All good? The hardest part is already behind us!
Let's reposition the contacts at the back of the socket, making sure to engage the anti-loosening mechanism to ensure the components are securely closed and locked, by turning the contact block in the opposite direction from the one previously used to unlock the light socket.
We’re almost finished assembling our socket, connecting it to the fabric cord. Once the contacts are connected at the back, we screw the cord grip back on so the cord stays firmly in place, as well as the threaded body: everything’s ready to screw in the light bulb and bring new light to our home!
All clear? Did you manage to do it, or did you run into any issues? Let us know in the comments, and tell us which tutorials you’d like to see in the future!
