Design with lighting: optimizing the use of cabinet lighting

By Jim Mallery
RefacingCabinet.com Columnist

In the first article you learned several ways you can wire your kitchen cabinets for lighting. Now that your glass door cabinets have power, this second, concluding article will show you how to optimize the use of cabinet lighting. Here are 8 suggestions that can help "electrify" the effect.

8 Ways to Enlighten Your Kitchen Cabinets

1. Shelves. You may want to consider glass shelves. You can replace an entire shelf with a piece of glass resting on the shelf pins. Or you can have a special shelf frame made (or make one yourself) with inside edges that are rabbeted for the glass to rest in. Glass shelves allow light to flow through the cabinet, so you won't need individual lights for each shelf.
2. Mirrors. Explore the option of adding mirrored backs to your cabinet. A mirror will spread the light and make the cabinet seem larger. Overall, light inside the cabinet can add depth to the items you are displaying.
3. In this corner. Corner cabinets are logical locations for both glass doors and interior lights--you can envision these corner units as the anchor of your kitchen cabinets. It's also easier to hide wiring inside them because of their shape.
4. Watt? If you are using a light fixture with a conventional incandescent bulb, you may want only a 25-watt bulb. Certainly, go no larger than 40 watts. However, such bulbs are used less frequently these days.
5. Choices. You can choose from a variety of light styles made for inside-cabinet use. You can get puck lights, strip or bar lights, light ropes, or mini-spotlights; they most likely will be fluorescent, halogen, and xenon.
6. Puck. If you have added glass shelves, you may need a light only at the top of the cabinet. A simple puck light, the type that is used for undercabinet lighting, will suffice. Some types of puck lights can be recessed into a hole in the top of the cabinet, and others need to be surface mounted.
7. Color. You can explore colored lighting to bring warmth or energy to your display.
8. Transformed. Some lighting uses a transformer to reduce household current to 24 or 12 volts. This lighting is cooler--halogen lights inside cabinets must be low-voltage because of heat problems.

Inside cabinet lighting can bring pizzazz, warmth and depth to your cabinet display. It is one of the easiest ways to brighten your kitchen.

About The Author

Jim Mallery, a semi-retired journalist and onetime registered contractor, has extensive experience remodeling, repairing and rebuilding homes.