Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Around The House). This thread is read-only.
I have my new cabinets all ordered and planned out – the electrical and plumbing is pretty much good to go but was wondering what the best strategy for wiring the lights to hide as much as possible and controls for them? I kinda hate things dangling down to the counter. I want to go LED strips under the main cabinets and a couple pucks inside the top of the glass front cabs.
Last kitchen I did, I ran light cord behind the drywall, they knew where they wanted the controls and the outlets. Also were all the cabinet lighting they wanted lite.
John, Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[emoji848]
I install an outlet in the last cabinet. I perfer the flat strip style lights, and mount them flush under the bottom of the cabinet. Between each section just drill through the tails of the cabinet like the picture below:
[External image (mfischer.com), not copied]
I hate the looks of things dangling down too
Those LED light strips would probably work good
Led strip lights are very harsh and often too cool and blue/white. Try for diffused light so you avoid hotspots on the counter and reflected light.
If you use tape lights, they make a nice diffuser channel. I like to make a small hole and fish down to the lower cabinet for power. Low voltage cut in rings for switches and dimmer.
Non diffused light with hotspot and reflection
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
Diffuser channel
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
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Glasseyi wrote:
Last kitchen I did, I ran light cord behind the drywall, they knew where they wanted the controls and the outlets. Also were all the cabinet lighting they wanted lite.
John, Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[emoji848]
Yeah that makes sense. I’m thinking where to mount the transformer and if I should put a switch with the 120v lights by the entrance so the control looks like any other light.
Hugh Jass wrote:
I install an outlet in the last cabinet. I perfer the flat strip style lights, and mount them flush under the bottom of the cabinet. Between each section just drill through the tails of the cabinet like the picture below:
[External image (mfischer.com), not copied]
Yeah those strips look simple and effective.
HiltiWpg wrote:
Led strip lights are very harsh and often too cool and blue/white. Try for diffused light so you avoid hotspots on the counter and reflected light.
If you use tape lights, they make a nice diffuser channel. I like to make a small hole and fish down to the lower cabinet for power. Low voltage cut in rings for switches and dimmer.
Non diffused light with hotspot and reflection
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
Diffuser channel
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks for the channel idea, I hadn’t seen those before, and its a good point about the reflection of all those point sources. Yeah I’m a huge LED color light snob from years of marine reef aquariums with start of the art LED’s too lol.
I’m not sure what you mean by “ Low voltage cut in rings for switches and dimmer” though.
My thinking is to possibly run a wire from the light switch gang by the door to the top of the cabinet and install a receptacle controlled by a newly installed light switch. That way in the future I could always swap out any light system and just plug it in. The outlet would be hidden from view by the crown on the cabinet. I also have light cove coming for the cabs so I don’t have to worry about the channels being visible.
I already have the cans all done in the ceiling. I put in 10 mini cans and used 8W soft white GU10 LED’s which look very close to a halogen 50w, they even are dimmable. It’s amazing how bright they are and still use so little energy. The rest of the kitchen’s pendants and fixtures use Edison style 8w LED’s with the exposed filaments which look old fashioned but are LED’s. All in I think I’m at 120w while the incandescent equivalent for my medium sized kitchen would prob be close to 1kW.
I like to use a line dimmable driver, easier to keep everything 120v. I like to mount the driver in the lower cabinet or somewhere out of sight.
The low voltage cut in rings are just a mounting ring, similar to an old work box. They are great for the low voltage side and make it easy to cut a large hole to fish from under the cabinet etc. I like to make the smallest hole possible under the cabinet and fish down to the lower cabinets.
I hate seeing drivers under the upper cabinet. I had never though about it before until I had a very short lady complain that she could see it and it was ugly!
Now everything gets hidden!
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