How To Remove Old Recessed Light Housing for a Lighting Makeover

With the power safely off, go ahead and remove the old light bulb from your recessed fixture as you normally would—simply turn it counterclockwise, remove it, and safely set it aside.

With the bulb out of your way, you’ll now turn your attention to the fixture’s light trim. The exact steps may vary depending on your fixture, but this is generally done by gently prying the trim away from the ceiling (try using a flathead screwdriver or putty knife for this). Don’t pry too hard with a tool—pull it straight down by hand when disengaging the clips. Set the loose light trim aside with the bulb.

This step may vary depending on whether you’re working with a remodel light or a new construction light. 

Remodel (Old-Work) Lights

This type of light is attached directly to your ceiling’s drywall, making it quite easy to remove. They usually have a spring-loaded clip inside—simply pry the metal clips open in order to remove the housing.

New Construction Light

Most new construction lights are attached to wooden joists in the ceiling—you might need to get into your attic in order to remove this type of housing.

With the housing disconnected, it should now be freely hanging from the ceiling by the wires. Double-check that these are off with your circuit tester. Next, you’ll grab the small electrical box attached to the light and open it up by either flipping a clip open or unscrewing the door.

Inside the box, you should see plastic wire nuts connecting the wires from the light to the wires from your home circuit. Unscrew these plastic connectors (counterclockwise) to disconnect the wires. There will also be a retaining ring on the cable clamp—unscrew this as well, then pull out all light wires. If you don’t plan to use this fixture again, you can always skip this step and simply snip the wires with your wire cutters. You should now have the housing completely disconnected—set it aside.

Push your house-circuit wires into your old-work electrical box. If you snipped the wires in the last step, don’t forget to use your cable ripper to remove 3 or 4 inches of cable sheathing and paper. Do not strip the wires down to bare copper, as this will become an electrical or fire hazard.

To make sure the loose ends of your wires aren’t a hazard when power is on, you’ll need to terminate them. This is a simple process of screwing each wire end into its own plastic wire nut. Make sure you only use one wire nut per wire—don’t combine them. When this is done, make sure the connectors are securely on with your electrical tape.

Tuck the old-work box back into the ceiling, and use your drill or screwdriver to secure it to the attachment wings on the box. This will usually be a simple matter of inserting 2 or 4 screws.

With the cables rendered safe and tucked into the box in the ceiling, all that’s left is to cover the box with your non-metallic blank plate. Use your screwdriver for this step to make sure you don’t over-rotate the screws by accident.

If you power other fixtures or devices using the circuit you’ve been working with, it’s now safe to flip the power back on. If you’re not using the circuit, you could always leave it switched off to guarantee safety.

Lastly, you just need to paint over the blank plate to make it disappear into your ceiling! We recommend finding an exact match for your ceiling paint if possible for a more finished look—or else you could take this opportunity to repaint the ceiling with a fresh coat!