The reason that many people who want contemporary light fixtures in older homes choose battery-powered lights is that they do not want to deal with the writing for new lights. After all, if you hook up lights that have to be switched on and off, you have to get at the wires behind the drywall. This is easy to do when the house is being built because the wires can be run up the studs and hooked in place long before drywall is put up, but it is harder once the house has been finished. If you are trying to add new lights to compliment the ones that you have – maybe your home has no lights in the living room and you are tired of using the lamps all of the time – the job is going to be more difficult.
That being said, you should know that these difficulties are often overstated. People act like you are just going to be searching blindly behind the walls until you find the right wires so that you can hook them to your new lights. This is hardly the case. The blueprints for the house should clearly show you where the lines have been installed. Also, the wires are going to move up and down the studs so that they can be fastened to them. Use a stud finder to located the studs near an outlet and it will be very easy to find the electrical wires that are attached to it.
