Under certain circumstances, a wall fixture can be wired to a standard outlet plug.
"Creative improvisation" can be a powerful tool in a homeowner's arsenal when it comes to remodeling or redecorating a home. People are taking all kinds of home decorating items and using them in creative ways today, including retrofitting lighting fixtures. Can a wall light, for example, be converted into a plug-in fixture? The answer is yes, but as with any electrical device, safety considerations must come before design goals.
Basic Electrical Safety Considerations
A lighting fixture that is normally mounted on a ceiling or a wall and wired directly to an electrical box certainly can operate just as well on any three-prong grounded electrical plug connected to a wall outlet---like an ordinary table lamp. The electricity that runs to a permanent fixture ceiling or wall box is the same as the electricity running to a wall outlet; in fact, in some cases the two sources may share the same electrical supply wiring. Just about any wall or ceiling light fixture can theoretically be wired to a three-prong grounded plug without creating a hazard.
The important safety consideration in such a wiring retrofit will be the load capacity of any additional wiring needed and the plug. In most cases, wiring a wall fixture to a plug will also necessitate creating a length of insulated wiring, like an extension cord, to bridge the distance from the fixture to the plug to make a wall or ceiling fixture a practical portable light.
The actual joining of the wires coming out of the back of the fixture and the wires coming out of any extension cord would have to be insulated, unable to come apart and unlikely to make contact with people and flammable materials should hot wires ever separate from the fixture. This can only be accomplished by mounting the fixture on a standard electrical box that can contain and protect the joined wires. Any wiring extension cord would also have to contain wires beefy enough (of the correct gauge) to handle the number of watts of current needed to power the fixture. Finally, the plug itself would have to be rated to handle the necessary load and contain a ground wire. If---and only if---you can meet these minimum safety standards, yes, you certainly can wire a permanent fixture to a plug.
Other Considerations
But while such a wiring job can be done safely under these conditions, other considerations must also come into play.
For example, most ceiling and wall-mounted permanent fixtures do not have any kind of on/off switch. In order to control the fixture, you would have to devise some other means to introduce a switch into the picture. One way to achieve this function would be with a remote control wall outlet adapter. The receiver part of this device plugs into the wall outlet and the light fixture is plugged into the receiver module. The current is turned on or off with a hand-held or wall-mounted remote switch which transmits a radio signal to the receiver box and turns the power on or off to the fixture. These remote on/off switch modules are available at most hardware stores.
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