We are working on staging our home for sale. Part of that is replacing the "hollywood" bar lights over the mirrors in both bathrooms. In case you're wondering, they looked somewhat like this:

DIY Vanity Light Installation - a set on Flickr

After I bought the new lights, I realized that there wasn't an electrical box. My search on the internet confirms this, but I can't find how to install one. The boxes I seem to be able to find are for ceiling fixtures. I'm pretty sure I don't need to use a pancake box like the guy in the above link. But I did see that he braced the box to the nearby studs. Do I need to do this as well? Once I have the box in, I think I'll be ok. I replaced 6 ceiling lights in the house already.

Oh, and the house is newly painted, with holes already textured, so I'm trying to avoid making new holes as much as possible.

Thanks for your help in advance!

stanfortyman

If the fixture is not too heavy you can just use a plastic cut-in box. These have "wings" or tabs that swing out and get tightened to the back side of the sheetrock.

kriswithmany

What qualifies as too heavy? I'm putting up a 5-light fixture, with individual glass shades. This one:
3-Light Vanity Fixture

Except it has 5 lights, like I said above, instead of the 3.

stanfortyman

THAT, in a 5-light, would be considered too heavy IMO.

I would find a stud to secure a box to then.

kriswithmany

Thanks! I think I might get those expanding braces, as I doubt that the stud is close. I'll have to double check. It looked like my best bet for keeping the hole small, and not having to re-texture.

Sorry about the double response. Just figuring out how things work here.