Saturday, February 23, 2013

KITCHEN MOOD LIGHTING

This past summer when I remodeled my kitchen I wanted to add under and above cabinet lighting.  I didn't want to spend a fortune paying an electrician to do it so I opted to have the electrician add a few extra outlets above my cabinets so that I could add lights down the road.  This is a really simple project that I think anyone could do.

I decided to use small, halogen puck lights for under my cabinets.  I picked these up at Menards for around $20 I think.  I love that these are small, blend in well, and they clip together easily.  Also, they are dimmable which is a HUGE plus.

The pucks come with VERY tiny screws to secure them to the cabinets.  I found this to be the hardest part of the entire project!  Seriously, I probably dropped that darn screw 100 times.  Picture this:  I'm holding a heavy drill above my head, practically laying on my back on the counter, trying to balance this tiny screw...didn't go so well.  Take my word and PRE-DRILL tiny holes.  You will save yourself A LOT of frustration if you do this first.  :)


Next, I drilled holes in between each cabinet to thread the cords through.






All of my cords plug in to outlets above the cabinets so I ran the cords up between the end of the cabinet and the wall.



For the tops of my cabinets I used rope light.  I ordered mine on Ebay but I think you get get it at a lot of places.  Make sure you get either the exact length you need or get the rope light that is cuttable.  I didn't secure the rope light at all, just laid it up there.  Oh and never plug your rope light in while it's all coiled up.  I did and it all melted together.  I had to re-order all of mine :(


I use a lighting control system called X10.  I won't go into a lot of detail now (I'll write up a more detailed post at a later date) but basically each cord gets plugged into a module- pictured below.



Then I can control all of my lights by this handy dandy remote.


I love the way the lights look at night.  These aren't the best pictures but you get the idea. :)





Disclaimer: I am not an electrician...this is just the way I installed my lighting. :)

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