For anyone who’s in the middle of remodeling their kitchen, I’d recommend pulling down drywall and running wiring in wall for all your lighting needs while you can.
The start of the remodel after all the cabinets were removed.
I removed old wiring for an old whole house 70s intercom system and radio. I added all new wiring for electrical outlets and ran all the wiring in the wall for the under cabinet lights.
Because I’m using Lutron Caseta dimmers, I went with FlexFire Architectural series LED strips installed in aluminum channel for heat management. All the drivers are hardwired to the switches and there is a small box in the top cabinet in select cabinets where the electrical wiring for the LEDs is connected to the wiring I ran in the walls.
For anyone remodeling their kitchen…I second @beddini recommendations to go with flexfire LEDs, run Romex wiring in the walls before the cabinets go up, and run your LEDs in aluminum channel for heat management and get a chop saw to cut the aluminum channel for a clean install. We are super happy with the end result!
Is it all white lighting only or do you have color accents also?
Did you put lighting in any of the other cabinets besides the two shown? I have been debating about some for our lower cabinets... Two are the "extra space" corner ones and they get particularly dark to dig around in.
Yes it’s all white light. I wanted control and dimming capability from Lutron with my Lutron dimmers so they can only control one channel. And flexfire only offers white light that works with Lutron. I didn’t see the need to use color in the kitchen. I went with flexfire for their warranty in standing behind their product and their support for Lutron.
It’s not a power supply. For me it’s just a junction box for the romex wires and the low voltage wire. Mains power goes to the dimmer switch, then out to the driver which I have mounted in select base cabinets. Then from the driver, romex runs through the walls and pokes out in select places in the top area of my cabinet where I mounted that junction box to connect the low voltage wire to the romex inside the junction box.
Here is a picture of the driver hardwired under a base cabinet.
All my base cabinets have pull outs, I didn’t see the need too honestly. I thought about getting fancy and adding them to the upper cabinets but in 15yr I’ll be in my mid 60s and didn’t want the maintenance nightmare of replacing them. Lol
In my bedroom closets I added a regular outlet high up inside connected to a wall switch and just used plug in ceiling mounted garage led lighting for over a workbench. But I agree, it was a game changer to have lighting there!
I reached out to Flexfire and provided a drawing of my kitchen and provided detail on where I wanted lighting. They assisted with proving the material needed for the job. So they included the drivers in my package when I purchased.
