Kitchen Strip Lighting Ideas | 5 Best Ideas

We’re big fans of LED strip lights here, and nowhere can they be better used than in the kitchen. But with so many options to choose from, where should you put them?

So, without further ado, let’s look at the five best ideas for kitchen strip lighting.

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LED Strip Lights Under Kitchen Cabinets

We start with the classic location for strip lights in the kitchen – under the cabinets.

It’s classic for a reason – it provides beautiful lighting, it’s up at about eye-level so we always notice it, and it really adds to the ambient lighting of the space (the mood you feel when walking into a room).

We added an LED strip to the underside of our kitchen cabinets and it really does lift the mood of the room for such a small feature.

As well as lifting the mood, placing your LED strips here has some other advantages:

• Enhanced Task Lighting: Kitchen cabinets are usually above the countertop, so your LED strip lights are going to eliminate shadows on the countertops beneath.
• Space-Saving: The strip lights fit seamlessly under your cabinets, to the point where if they weren’t switched on, you’d easily forget they were ever there. This means you’re maximizing the workspace on the countertop, as well as keeping your kitchen clutter-free.

Pro tip: Try and find some LED strips that you can plug into the wall, as opposed to the battery-powered ones.

This will make them a lot easier to switch on and off, especially if you’re like me and you tape the battery pack to the underside of your cabinets too, to keep it out of view.

LED Strip Lights Inside Kitchen Cabinets

Next up we have placing your LED strip lights inside the cabinets. This can be in addition to having them on the underside of the cabinets as we spoke about in the last section, or instead of. Personally, I would do both.

Placing the strip lights inside your kitchen cabinets allows you to show off the contents of the cabinets, so you’ll only want to do this for your cupboards with fine china or nice glasses in. You don’t want to be showing off your tin of baked beans!

As well, this should go without saying but it’s only going to be of use to place your lights in the cabinets if they have a glass front, meaning you can see into your kitchen cabinets from outside.

If you don’t have glass-fronted cabinets, you can always go down the route of motion-sensor led strip lighting, so that the LED strips will come on whenever you open the cupboard door.

Pro tip: Place your LED strip lights at the top of each shelf, not the bottom. The reason for this is simple – you’re far more likely to be able to see the whole strip if it’s placed at the top than at the bottom. If it’s at the bottom, as soon as you place anything in the cabinet it will block a portion of the LED strip.

LED Strip Lights on the Ceiling (Above Kitchen Cabinets)

We’ve looked at LED strips below the cabinet, and we’ve looked at them inside the cabinet. So now, why don’t we look at them on top of the cabinets – on the ceiling?

Ceiling strip lights in the kitchen are a great way to get that ambient lighting in your kitchen while also keeping it out of the way to some extent.

Ceiling lights in general are always quite out of the way, and LED strip lights on the ceiling are no exception. You get the best of both worlds – great lighting, but at the same time not constantly having an LED strip at eye-level.

Pro tip: While most of you will have a gap between the top of your cabinets and the ceiling where you can place your LED strips, if your kitchen has part of the celling lower or higher than the rest that creates the opportunity for cove lighting, place your strips here instead. Thank me later!

LED Strip Lights Under Kitchen Island

If you’re lucky enough to have an island in your kitchen, lighting it up with LED strip lights is one of the best things you can do.

You have a couple of options here if you’re looking to do this. You can place your strip lights around the base of the island (as you can see in the image above), or alternatively you can place them around the underside lip of the worktop, so that your LED lights are off the ground and shining down as opposed to on the ground shining up.

Both look great, and for me I would personally go with the ground lighting, however having them on the underside lip of the countertop will also work well!

LED Strip Lights Along Kitchen Floor Perimeter

Last but certainly not least, we have LED strip lights placed around the outer perimeter of your kitchen floor.

LED strip lights placed along the kitchen floor perimeter can transform your space, and it’s a subtle way to light up your kitchen without the harsh overhead lighting needing to be switched on.

I’ve got motion-sensor strip lights on my kitchen floor, meaning they turn on whenever I walk into the kitchen. This is perfect for when I’m up late at night working and venture into the kitchen for a late-night snack!

Also, I’m not quite sure what it is but there’s something very ‘spa-like’ about walking into a dark room and having just the bottom third or so of the room lit up. You’ll need to try it to understand what I mean!

Closing Remarks

So here we have the five best uses for LED strip lighting in your kitchen.

I would definitely recommend picking up some LED strip lights and giving some of these implementations a try.

They’re not expensive to buy, they last a long time due to them being LEDs, and they’re really one of those things where you can set it and forget it, and you know they’ll be working to make your kitchen lighting that much better day in, day out.

So, what are you waiting for! Let us know in the comments below how your kitchen turns out!

Related Posts

• Kitchen Island Lighting: Best Options You Need to Know
• How to Lighten Up a Dark Kitchen: 8 Lighting Tips
• Should Pendant Lights be Centered to Kitchen Islands?

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