Lighting suggestions for cabinet

Lounge
#1

We have a medium sized walk in Pantry and there is a small cabinet/pantry in it. It was there when we purchased the house. It's set in the corner behind the door when you open the pantry. I has shelves and doors and it is hard to see things at the back and there is no light in it. I have taken off the doors and I am going to put slide out shelves. I have been looking for some lighting choices to add to it. I am thinking something like this. I will just use a smart plug to turn it on and off with motion and opening the pantry door. Just thought I would ask here is anyone had any other suggestions.

The pic below is with one of the pull out shelves just sitting in it as I have not got them all built yet or installed. My plan is to place a light along top of each shelf. I would like to only have one plug, so I want to string the lights together.

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#2

Cheap and effective. No control unless through a smart plug for simple on/off (and not certain how that will work with the motion on/off function). But it will work great. And probably keep the person who uses the pantry happy.

There are other solutions (wifi) on Amazon - controllable by Amazon. But -- more expensive and no hand wave turn on/off.

Final option is to split a Z-Wave light strip (I have done this before on a standard light strip). You buy extension wiring from Amazon, cut, put on the extension on each side, the voila. But still, no motion on function w/o further integrations. Fully violates the KISS rule.

#3

Careful with that "wave to turn on" I had one of those and tried to do the same thing. When I cut power via a smart plug it doesn't turn on when power is turned back on. So I ended up going with this:

It worked really well and it was thin so I ran it continuous and ran down along the edge to the next shelf. Worked out great.

#4

A real snazzy solution is a split smart Z-wave led strip and a motion sensor in cabinet. Have wave on/off plus smart control via Hubitat and your voice assistant (google, amazon).

#5

Yeah I really don't want that, I believe there is a version without the wave thing.

There is.

#6

The LED strips were my first thought but getting them laid out to look right seems tricky.

#7

It wasn't bad at all. I ran them down in "inside" of the face frame if that makes any sense. It actually turned out better than the "wave" ones I had like the ones you posted above. The light looks better and is more evenly lit because it's also running down the sides and the light is pointing straight back. It's complicated to explain.

#8

Did you consider cutting with extender cables between shelves of a single strip. Additional USD 20 in material for cables/connectors, but easy DIY project.

#9

If you could link to an example that would be great.

#10

Have you considered Hue light strips? They can be cut to size (with some restrictions I believe) and daisy-chained. Control could be basically anything you wanted.

1 Like
#11

If there is a light in my home that can be smart, I do my best to make it so.

We have several closets that are dark with no electric easily accessible. I found these on Amazon. A magnetic piece attaches to wherever you need light, and the light attaches to the magnitic piece. The light can be rotated also. Batteries last a long time but YMMV depending on how often the light is turned on.

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#12

I just finished this remodel and used 7 of these. They daisy chain together, have a nice installation clip, offer 3 potential colors, and come in different lengths. For this customer they were not big on smart home stuff so one of the Alexa devices that has zigbee, a motion sensor, smart plug, and a button for overriding motion was perfect.

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#13

can you post a link?

#14

@brad5

I bought these back in 2016 on Amazon. They no longer have them. I did see them on Aliexpress but again, not available. Search for AnSaw LED stick on lights. These are battery operated, and don’t eat batteries.

I have a different set in the bathroom that are rechargeable but I charge them weekly. Really happy with the AnSaw. Perhaps another company rebrands them.

Download the Hubitat app