After we took down the old, inappropriate and damaged fluorescent tube fixtures in the room and installed new, period-appropriate fixtures, we gained something we hadn’t had before – the ability to control the fixtures with a dimmer. The new fixtures each take four screw-in light bulbs. By installing LED light bulbs, we had lighting we could turn up and as the mood or event warranted.

The existing two-gang switch box had two on/off toggle switches in it.

One controlled the fixtures we had taken down and the other controlled the cove lighting along two walls. There was really nothing wrong with those switches. They were brown and had a brass cover, which matched the look o the other switches and receptacles nearby. Except for one thing – all of the other switches for lights and fans in this space are push-button switches.

Since we wanted to have the new switches on a dimmer, which meant one of the switches had to be replaced anyway, this seemed to be a perfect opportunity to make the switches match in operational style as well as in color.

We bought the new switches from Classic Accents. That’s the company that makes these switches that look like they’re from the 1920s but are, in fact, fully in compliance with today’s electrical code requirements.

After we turned the power off at the breaker panel, we removed the cover plate and the old switches. We tagged the wires so we could remember which went to each switch, and pulled the wiring out a little more to check its condition.

It turned out someone, or several people, had added short pieces of wire in the box that weren’t needed. We removed those and wound up with the neutrals in a single splice, a double pigtail to feed the incoming power to each switch, and an unspliced wire to connect the load to each switch.  Good to go.

Installing a single-pole, single-throw (SPST) dimmer switch is the same as installing any other SPST (on/off) switch. One wire connects the house power to the switch and a second wire connects the switch to the load – the lighting fixture(s). So, taking care to connect the two load wires to the proper switch for each, we did that. Then we folded the wires back into the box, mounted the switches, and put the new cover that we’d also bought from Classic Accents on the front.

The cool thing about the way this turned out is that the new switches and cover plate look as though they could have been there since the house was wired. The on/off switch we chose has the classic look of a mother-of-pearl disk inlaid in the tip of the “on” button. The “off” button is solid black. To turn the lights on or off, you just push the appropriate button until it clicks into place.

The dimmer switch has a mother-of-pearl disk inlaid in the tip of each button, and it works differently. The top button gets pushed to turn the light on and to turn it off. It’s a momentary switch. If the lights are off, pushing and releasing the top button will turn them on. If they’re off, pushing and releasing that button will turn them off.

The bottom button can’t be pushed. If you try, it just stays put. But you can turn it. It’s the dimmer control. Turning it clockwise makes the lights brighter and turning it counterclockwise dims them. Separating the functions onto the two buttons makes this a preset dimmer. You can use it to set the light to the level you want and then use the upper button to turn it off and on. It will come on at the level you set until you change that again. There’s no need to turn the light up or down to turn it on or off and, with the two separate buttons, there’s less chance that the setting will get changed accidentally.