An easy and inexpensive way to replace old recessed lights with an updated LED Recessed Light, no rewiring required!
Okay guys, this one was just too good not to share. If you have old, dated recessed lights around your house, today’s post is for you my friend.
I’ve had replacing the old brass recessed lights around our house on my mind for months now – I’ve known since the day we moved into this new/old house that these old recessed lights have to go, but I just wasn’t sure just what we should replace them with. That was, until I found these brilliant little lights…
Seriously, they’re pretty genius. No mess, no rewiring, and surprisingly inexpensive. They were so darn easy to install, it’s hardly worth writing a tutorial, but we were honestly just so blown away by these brilliant little lights, I really couldn’t help but share them! I mean, if you’ve got any old, dated recessed lights kicking around your house, you’re going to want to know about these super simple retro-fit recessed LED lights. So, now that I’ve told you how smitten we are, let me show why…
We have these old brass recessed lights scattered all throughout our home – in the Study, the Living Room, the Kitchen, and almost the entire basement. They’re literally everywhere. While most are still in pretty good condition (albeit full of 35 years worth of moths and flies), some have seen better days and every last one of them gives off a very dated, early 90’s feel. Swapping them out for something that has more of a seamless look was definitely on my radar. Brady and I looked into several different options to replace them, many of which were far more expensive than we had expected. And then, I came across these. No messy renovations. No rewiring. Just screw them into the existing lightbulb socket and pop them up into place. You can even set the colour temperature to one of six different settings. And all for a fraction of the cost of all the other options we’d be considering. It sounded too good to be true, but the reviews were surprisingly good, so I figured we had nothing to loose in trying them – and I SO glad I did! They’re freaking brilliant!
Curious how they work? Here’s how I swapped my old recessed light out and installed this new LED version in less than two minutes (yes, I actually timed it!)…
How to Install Retro-fit Recessed LED Lights
- Remove light bulb.
- Pull down existing light until the clips catch on the holders. Squeeze clips together to release.
- Squeeze in the two clasps on the existing bulb socket to release the top of the existing light.
- Screw the new new light wires into the existing bulb socket.
- Set the light temperature to your desired setting (I like 3000K in our main living areas and 2700 in cozier rooms such as our Study).
- Squeeze together the clips on either side to fit them into the old holders inside the existing recessed housing.
- Push the light up until it’s flush with the ceiling.
Can you even believe how quick + easy that was?! I’m still in awe! So far, we’ve swapped out all of the lights around our main floor, including our Kitchen, Living Room & Study, but I have plans to do the basement here too.
Just in case you wanted to see the install of these brilliant little lights on video, I’ll share a link to my YouTube video below:
Wishing you SUCH a lovely day my friends!
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Jen says
Say there is an issue with the replacement LED. How difficult is it to get it out with those springs?
Kristi says
Hey Jen! It’s super easy to pull the lights back down to replace if needed, our old lights were actually installed the same way. It’s much like a bathroom fan, you just pull the light down from the ceiling until it catches at the end, then squeeze the two spring ends together until they slide through the housing that holds them. Because the light comes as one piece, I’m not sure you could very easily replace the bulb if you needed to though, if you were having problems, you’d likely need to swap out the whole light – luckily, it’s a super quick and easy swap as you can see in the video. Hope this helps!