How to turn a downlighter to a pendant

[Dave64]

Hi all, my kitchen is all downlighters, but I figured, I could go two pendants over the island.. how do I convert downlighter to pendant without re-plastering? Mnay thanks guys!

 

[Mike Johnson]

Google downlighter blanking plate, above the existing light should be a junction box for the cable, so that bit should be easy, the main problem is going to be supporting the new pendants from the blanking plate sufficiently to prevent them dropping onto the island, without a noggin in the ceiling spanning the joists to screw the blanking plate into you will be relying on the strength of the plasterboard to support the pendant, easy enough to angle a piece of wood into the hole to span the gap and spread the load a bit, but again it will be relying on the strength of the plasterboard to take the weight of the pendant.

When you pull the existing downlight from the ceiling take a picture of the wiring configuration for reference when you wire up the new pendant.

 

[UNG]

Hi all, my kitchen is all downlighters, but I figured, I could go two pendants over the island.. how do I convert downlighter to pendant without re-plastering? Mnay thanks guys!

A lot depends on what access you have to the area above the ceiling, if you don't have any way to access the area above the ceiling it can be done with a limited amount of filling / plastering and a bit of repainting

 

[Mike Johnson]

A lot depends on what access you have to the area above the ceiling, if you don't have any way to access the area above the ceiling it can be done with a limited amount of filling / plastering and a bit of repainting

Good point, I made the assumption that it was a normal house configuration, kitchen downstairs with habitable rooms above, but the OP did say they wanted to carry this out without plastering.

 

[freddo]

Depending on the size of the downlight hole you may be able to fit a circular dry lining box, these have standard fixing spacings for installing a pendant.