Cabinet lighting tips!

[Big-Foot]

Hi folks,

I'm in the process of renovating the entire house and am now in the kitchen.

The upper cabinets I have will be flush mounted to soffets and I need to install Xenon lighting inside some of them. I have already wired up 110v switched circuits and outlets in the soffets. The lights I have are line voltage and surface mount.
From what I have seen out in the www, many people place the lights at the front of the door rather than the center. Maybe to somewhat shield the light?

It's going to be a royal PITB to plug in the light and push the outlet back up into the soffet, but I can't think of any other way...

Any tips for cabinet lighting sure would be nice!

Thanks...

 

[bdamico]

I have 10 xenon flush in my kitchen cabinets. They're centered. They get hot. If I was doing it now, I'd try leds

 

[Big-Foot]

Thanks for the info... Nice looking kitchen! Can you share with me/us how you did the wiring? Any pics? Thanks!!!

 

[marty_p]

Randy:

I will be installing lighting both above and below our kitchen cabinets this summer; fluorescent above and LED below.

Swing by a local Lowe's or HD and check out their displays. I was in a Lowe's over the weekend and was blown away by the latest LED light bars. Their light output is almost blinding, they are dimmable, and their reflection off a bright stone surface is incredible!

And as for the wiring, just connect the fixtures the best way you can by running the wiring through the back bottom of the cabinets, over the cabinets, through the walls, etc!

 

[bdamico]

Thanks for the info... Nice looking kitchen! Can you share with me/us how you did the wiring? Any pics? Thanks!!!

Upper lights, I drilled out with hole saw and ran wires to wall. Lower lights are surface mounted (you can't see them unless you stick your head underneath cabinet) and I ran the wire up back of cabinet to meet the wires from the upper cabinet. Simple install.

 

[Big-Foot]

I'm thinking of retruning the Xenons now to get LEDs. Just not crazy about putting transformers up inside the soffets..

Thanks guys...

 

[Big-Foot]

Just got back from Menards with 120v line-voltage LED pucks... A LOT cooler...

 

[Coolerman]

I did LED lighting above, below, and in the kitchen cabinets with two of these kits from these guys:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=24452&site=ROCKLER

Super simple installation: Total time less than 2 hours.

Plugged the transformer into the Fridge outlet so it's hidden, ran wire to a switch mounted under the cabinet next to the fridge, then daisy chained the wire to each module. The modules mount with super sticky tape. They have been up since December 2011 and none have come loose or failed. The wife loves them and wants me to install more in the bottom cabinets so she can see better. I'll try to shoot a pic tonight of how they look.

 

[Big-Foot]

Thanks for the info Cooler.. Looking forward to those pictures..

I am looking into these for lighting up the toe-kick areas;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150784666209?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

[Chukster]

Remodeled my kitchen about 2 years ago & put these lights in under the cabinets & inside the glass-front cabinet in the corner.

http://www.budgetlighting.com/Connexx-LED-Light-Strips.html

We got the 'Contractor Kit' which is a set of 24 modules; for about 180 bucks. The wire in between modules is the same gauge as the wire in Ethernet cable; since I ran out of the supplied wire and I had some CAT-5 cable lying around; zip-zip!. I mounted the undercabinet modules about 1" back from the edge, but ran the wire along the right-angle intersection and tacked it in place with hot-glue. Holes thru were 1/16th or 3/32nds. Very quick, still looks wonderful!

 

[Big-Foot]

Thanks Chuck! I will be looking into these further for my new house!