Cabinet Lighting

with Tape Light

Would you like to know how? What materials to purchase?
Where to purchase these materials?

This cabinet lighting task requires a real life application to explain by example the installation procedure.

See all tape light products, if you already know what you need.
Here is a Cabinet Lighting Overview, this will give you some alternatives to tape light.

We will be installing cabinet lighting inside this oak chimney cupboard. If you are interested in the cupboard plans you can find them in the Woodsmith Magazine Vol. 20 / No. 116.

In my spare time I have learned to appreciate my wood shop. As I was building the oak chimney cupboard I realized what a difference interior lighting would make for this and many other cabinets.

There are many lighting products available for our cabinet lighting application. Rope lights, puck lights, tape light and fluorescent under cabinet fixtures are all options to consider. In this particular piece, the shelves are adjustable, so under cabinet fixtures would not be practical, as they are made to fasten to the underside of the shelves. Rope lights or tape lights would be a better choice.

I have chosen tape lights for this project. Tape lighting is easy to work with as it is flexible and the bulbs can be changed when they burn out.
(This brand of tape light bulb is rated for 20,000 hours.)

On a scale of 1-5, this project would be a 2.

Many wood workers are familiar with 12 and 24 volt transformers and know how to wire them up. In case you are not familiar with this process let me explain. This transformer has four wires. The black and white are where the power comes into the transformer and the other two wires (purple in this case) are what powers the tape light with 24 volts.

Deciding what material you will need is probably that hardest part of this project. If you will take some time and study the tape light products it will become evident what your exact requirements will be. Here are some basic guidelines:

For most cabinet lighting projects you will need the following.

Products by:
BLI Lighting Specialists

Products by:
Radio Shack

Products by:
Aubchon Hardware

Inline Switch (optional)

Products by:
Other

Wire Nuts
18 Guage Extension Cord

(tape light, transformer, connector blocks, end caps
cabinet lighting materials

tape light behind face frame The tape light will run the height of the top cabinet on each side, behind the face frame. The tape itself is mounted with 3M double stick mounting tape to the back of the face frame.
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This cupboard is made up of 2 pieces, the top and the bottom cabinets. They are held together with 6 stove bolts 2 1/2" x 1/4" and brass threaded inserts. This part of the project needs to be built different that what the plans call for in order to accomadate the room needed to store the transformer and the wiring.

As you can see by the right hand image the top cabinet bottom is not one piece as in the orginal plans. I had planned all along to light this cabinet, it was built with that in mind. The transformer will be mounted in this empty space between the two cabinets.
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low voltage transformer

transformer installed in it's enclosure

The wires of the transformer are fed up through a predrilled hole behind the face frame. This allows the 24 volt wires to be fed up through the bottom of the top cabinet.
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On the top side of the bottom shelf the wires come through the hole and fasten to the connector block. On the other side of the connector block the tape light is attached.It is best to strip the leads on the tape light first. Next adhere the tape light to the double sided mounting tape.
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That's all there is to installing cabinet lighting using tape light. It's easy, straight forward and you'll be glad you took the time to do it properly.

There are many possibilities when using tape lights. It is available in 2", 4" and 6" spacing so you can decide on the level of light you'd like for your cabinet. You could double up on your 2" tape light to make your cabinet twice as bright. It's all up to you and how you want your cabinet lighting to look.

For a more high tech solution to cabinet lighting you might consider Flexible LED Strips.

Steven Border is Director of Web Development for Budget Lighting, Inc. BLI Lighting Specialists owns the business product and information site BudgetLighting.com http://www.budgetlighting.com oak chinmey cupboard lit