Hi Anita!
A > I live in an apartment and sick of tripping over wires and having to A > live with dimly lit rooms. I live in a bright light that comes from A > above me. Fixing anything to the ceiling is out- as I live in one of A > those apartments with popcorn ceiling.
You may be able to buy/create a swag lamp but the apartment management may frown on puncturing the ceiling with the hooks necessary for hanging.
A > So I bought a couple of wall scones. I would like to know what I need A > to get this done. A > A > The wall scone has three wires and the home depot guys gave me a 16 A > guage wire and a heavy duty plug- the plug is big and butt ugly :) .
As another poster indicated, you can use extension cords, some of which have a right-angle plug. There are also flush-mount extension cords (the plug will swivel). I've also used right-angle plugs with zip (lamp) cord.
You shouldn't have a problem with overloading the plug and wiring but we'll give a quickie lesson. A 100 Watt bulb (or two 50 watts -- I know, don't exist) will use approximately 1 Amp. Most extension cords are rated for 10-13 Amp service -- more than enough.
Your light fixture has three wires: black, white, and a bare or green. Cut the socket part off the extension cord. Split the wire about two inches, strip off about 3/4" of insulation from each wire. The white wire goes to the ribbed lead of the extension cord ("white is wibbed"
-- it's also the wide blade at the plug: "white is wibbed is wide"). The other lead goes to the black wire. The remaining lead (the green or bare one) isn't used -- secure to the fixture, making sure the bare wire doesn't touch the black nor white wires' bare wire. (Touching the insulation is OK.)
Ummm....twisting the wires. The white wire goes to the ribbed wire; twist clockwise. Put a correctly-sized wire nut to the two twisted wires, twisting clockwise. The bottom of the wire nut should extend past the bare wires, so cut the length appropriately (about a half-inch -- I prefer to have the wires a little longer than necessary, twist together, then cut to length).
If there is a hole in the fixture to pass the wire through the hole, tie a knot, then wire it up. The knot serves as a strain relief so the wire-nutted connections aren't strained.
Inspect your work. Put a lightbulb in your fixture and test (plug in). Hopefully it works - if not check to see if there is a switch which needs to be turned on, either at the fixture or elsewhere.
A > I am going to mount the scones directly 5-6 feet above the socket and A > attach the wires to the wall with those things you get from ikea to A > coer the ugly wires.
You could also use a length of surface-mount wire covers. They have flat ones (about 1¬" wide) or three-quarter round ones (about 3/8" diameter). The round ones I think come in 6' sections -- cut to length (serrated steak knife is nothing else available).
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- And, pray tell, whose imagination are you a figment of?