If even a small bit of the chain is available, you can attach a new length of chain.

Or just replace the socket with a new one? I did that to one of the lights in my pantry--you just remove the cover of the socket, unhook the two wires, and attach them to the new socket and reinsert it into the housing. Took me about twenty minutes--just make sure the power is off, and you don't even have to take the fixture down if you can reach it with a stool or ladder. A new socket costs about $4.00.

Well I'm glad my kids aren't the only ones! First time they did it was a rental. I watched my landlord take the existing pull chain switch out of the guts of a 100 year old light fixture and replace with an off the shelf pull chain switch. You can probably repair yours the same way that he did. He got the replacement switch in the lighting department at Home Depot, so they should be commonly available.

Then, in my house, I hated the pull fixture in my laundry room. I got a gilt wood looking fixture at HD on clearance for $10. Turns out the "gilt wood" is a plastic that drills and tools easily, so I simply drilled a hole in the fixture that was the same size as an off-the-shelf replacement pull switch, and converted a direct wire fixture to a pull switch. So really anything you can drill that has room to retrofit the switch in the housing can be modified. BUT, you need to wire the switch on the hot side, and if that doesn't mean anything to you, DON'T DO IT. It's not worth burning your house down for cosmetics!

detail of where I drilled hole for pull chain insert. plastic was white where I drilled, so I used some bronze rub'n'buff I had lying around to blend it with the fixture finish. If you look closely, you can see where I drilled another hole higher up and changed my mind. I can't even remember why :-). Ahh, the joy of puttering around!

Unfortunately pulling out the cheesy drop ceiling in my laundry room and restoring the original plaster is a bit more time-consuming than what qualifies for "puttering around", so it's not done yet. Actually, the quirky blend of the "fake-elegant" light with the utilitarian pull chain and the cheesy ceiling tiles--well, that's just life in an old house sometimes...

Rejuvenation will put a pull chain in most of their fixtures. You can even get them to put in a GU24 (or whatever it is) socket so you can use it in CA when you remodel. (Or just want to save a few bucks on electric bill to help pay for that expensive fixture you just bought from Rejuvenation).

I think any lighting store can convert a fixture to a pull-chain; I had to ask once since we have one ceiling fixture without a wall switch. Slateberry, I'm impressed you did it yourself. I'm an electro-moron, but I will study your instructions and try to make sense of them to at least see if I can UNDERSTAND what I am going to be asking someone to do :-) even if doing it myself is on the risky list.

Karin L