Under-cabinet lighting is the upgrade that makes a kitchen look like a magazine kitchen, and it is also the one that makes the counters usable at night. It is inexpensive as lighting projects go. The choices are about the type of light, how it is controlled, and where the wiring and the driver hide, and getting those right is what separates a clean install from a strip of tape with a cord dangling to an outlet.
Types of under-cabinet light
- LED tape or strip. Continuous light with no hot spots, cut to length, mounted in an aluminium channel with a diffuser so you do not see individual dots reflected in a glossy counter. The best-looking result and the one we install most.
- LED light bars. Rigid fixtures in fixed lengths that link together. Easier to install than tape, slightly less even. Good in a kitchen with lots of short cabinet runs.
- Puck lights. Round spots. Cheap and quick, but they create pools of light and dark between them. Fine for accent inside a glass cabinet; not the best choice for task lighting on a counter.
- Battery pucks and stick-ons. A renter's solution. Batteries die, adhesive fails, and the light is dim. Not a real install.
Colour temperature and brightness
Match the rest of the kitchen. Most homes here run warm white, around 2700 to 3000K, in the ceiling lights, and under-cabinet light that is cooler than that looks blue against the counters. If the kitchen has cool white cans, match those. A high colour rendering rating matters more than people expect: it is the difference between food and countertops looking natural or grey.
Brightness should be enough to work by without a glare bouncing off the backsplash. A dimmer solves this and lets the same strip serve as task light at dinner time and a night light at midnight.
Placement
- Mount the fixture toward the front edge of the cabinet bottom, not against the wall. Against the wall lights the backsplash and leaves the front of the counter dark; toward the front lights the work surface.
- A light rail or valance along the bottom front of the cabinets hides the fixture from anyone standing or sitting across the room. Many cabinet lines include it.
- Keep strips continuous across a run rather than one short piece per cabinet so there are no dark gaps.
Plug-in vs hardwired
Plug-in systems run the driver to an outlet above or below the cabinets, with an inline switch or a remote. Fast, no electrical work, and a visible cord unless there happens to be an outlet in the right place. A reasonable choice when there is an outlet above the cabinets.
Hardwired systems connect the driver to a switched circuit, so the lights come on from a wall switch or dimmer like any other fixture. It is the finished result, and it needs a wire from a switch location to the driver. In a kitchen with a switched outlet or an existing switch loop near the cabinets, that is simple. Otherwise it means fishing a wire down the wall, which is easier than it sounds when the cabinets hide the path.
If a backsplash is going in, run the wiring before the tile. If the kitchen is being remodeled, put under-cabinet lighting in the plan from the start so the switch and the driver locations are built in. Either way it is a normal lighting install for us, and it pairs well with recessed lighting in the same visit.
Questions we get
Can it be on a smart switch?
Yes, if it is hardwired to a switch and the driver is dimmable in a way the switch supports. Some tape systems dim from their own controller instead; we match the parts.
Will it get hot under the cabinet?
Good LED tape runs warm, not hot, and the aluminium channel spreads the heat. Cheap tape stuck straight to the cabinet without a channel runs hotter and fails sooner.
How long does it take?
A plug-in system in an average kitchen is a couple of hours. Hardwired with a new switch is usually a half day.
Light the counters properly
Wright Way Services installs under-cabinet lighting across Newnan, Coweta County and Fayette County. Call (770) 301-4638 or request service.
Open 24 hours · Newnan, GA
Want a hand with this one?
Wright Way Services handles it all in one call — plumbing, remodeling, smart home installs and the whole punch list. Serving Newnan, Coweta County and the surrounding area.
