I’m looking for some advice on some cabinet lights. I have a couple of built-in corner cabinets in my dining room that are floor to ceiling with a bottom portion that has a solid door and a top portion that has leaded glass doors.
I’d like to add accent lights to the upper portion. I figured I would go with a low voltage system such as the puck lights I have seen.
One idea would be to replace the existing solid shelves with glass shelves and have a single light at the top of the interior of the cabinet although I am not sure how effective this would be in shining light down thru several shelves to effectively illuminate the bottm portion of the cabinet.
The second idea would be to mount lights under each of the solid shelves.
How would or have you handled this. One question I have with the solid shel option is how best to hide wires etc. so that the lights and there wires are as unobtrusive as possible. One thought was to rout a shallow groove in the underside of each shelf as a wire chase.
I’d appreciate any input on this in terms of design and light hardware choices.
Replies
I've been using Sea Gull Lighting's linear lighting system they call Ambiance. With solid wood shelves, I'd run the lighting vertically in the front corners of the cabinet to get light in all the shelves. The system has something which amounts to a small track, with peanut-sized lights which you can place anywhere on the track. The cross-section is less than 1"x1", so it will hide nicely behind the stiles in your doors. The bulbs are small -- 3W or 5W -- which is good. Those 20W halogen pucks are very hot. More bulbs of smaller wattage spread the heat around, so the wood doesn't get as hot. http://www.rinutonedistr.com/sealowlinear.html is an online source for the system.
Jamie,
it sounds like this gives you more of an ambient light effect. would that be true? Are these low voltage or 120 that need to be hardwired?
I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by "ambient lighting". I used to use those puck lights under kitchen uppers, and inside display cabinets, but have changed to this system. Particularly if you use halogen bulbs, there's a nice clear light. For use under kitchen uppers, I generally aim for 10W per foot or so, using the 5W bulbs.
These are 12 volt systems. You get a 12 volt power supply. If the cabinet is a built-in, I buy the a supply that can be hardwired to the house current. If the cabinet is a standalone, I buy a power supply with a power cable and a plug, and put a switch somewhere. You can also buy trick dimmers for these 12 volt systems. The dimmers are touch dimmers with four steps of brightness. You can use any exposed piece of metal (like a hinge) as the antenna. You tap the piece of metal to make the lamps change brightness.
Thanks for the input. I think I'll give these a try. I took a look at the website and it appears that you can run your power line and then interpose the lamps about anywhere you wish along the cord. Is that correct?
yup
I'd second the recommendation for the Seagull system. It will cost you some bucks, however, compared to the puck lights its a vast improvement and much more flexible from a design standpoint
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