How to connect 3 IKEA string lights into One

how to connect string lights together

After getting an IKEA SKINA string light, Andrew found them to be too short on its own. Each string is only about 3 meters and wasn’t long enough to drape from one end of the balcony to the other. Three would be just right.

Unlike most Christmas lights, the SKINA does not come with a plug on the far end to allow you to daisy-chain them.

But Andrew suspect it wouldn’t be hard to connect the string lights together. Here’s how:

IKEA Item:
Photo: IKEA.com

SKINA LED lights x 3

Other Materials and Tools:

Flux
Soldering iron
Solder
Hot glue
Craft knife
Twist ties

How to connect IKEA SKINA string lights together

The first thing to know is that you can’t wire the lights end-to-end. You need to splice them together about halfway.

1. Lay out the first and second string of lights in the orientation you want them.

2. Next is to find the point in the first string to splice in the second. Look at the diagram below of 2 strings, with the splice point indicated:

IKEA SKINA string lights - how to connect them together

Let me explain that each string of 16 lights actually consists of two separate mini-strings of eight. Each mini-string of eight is wired in series, and contains eight LEDs that are powered by ~3 V.

The solution is simple: just connect the second string up-stream of any LEDs in the first so that you have FOUR sets of eight in parallel.

In the diagram above, if you connect the black wire of the second string anywhere along the black wire in the first and the red wire in the second string anywhere along the red in the first, then they should work.

3. Splicing the wire.

Find the eighth LED in the first string. This eighth LED is where you want to cut the extension wire of the second string.

For the full details on how to splice it, check out this Instructable.

Cost: $25 per string, $75 total.

Time needed: 1 hour.

~ by Andrew R Gross