Integrated Shelf Lights and Under Cabinet Lighting

Welcome back to the kitchen build! This time, I’m going to be working on cabinet lighting, which includes both under-cabinet lighting and in-cabinet lighting. 

Every shelf in every upper cabinet has under-shelf lighting, so all of the cabinets have aluminum bus bars in them, which power the light bars. Here is one of the light bars, which fits into a groove in the underside of the shelf. It has spring-loaded brass tabs which contact the bus bars and give power to the light. So no matter where you put the shelf, the lights will work without an actual wire connecting this light to the power source. 

I need a lot of shelves for these cabinets, so I’m going to be spending some time in the shop. I’ll be using the maple stock I’ve set aside for the shelves, and this is the good stuff because most of it won’t be painted. All the interior shelves will have a clear coat, but the stuff that goes in the pantry will be painted. I have to make 33 shelves total. So I’m going to get to milling, and chopping, and cutting, and gluing, and all that glamorous stuff. 

Here is the first round of stock prep, all planed down to final thickness. They still need to be ripped and crosscut, but I’ll do all the shelves together. 

Next I want to work on the shelves for the pantry which aren’t going to be painted. They are the ones that are in the cabinet with the bypass doors, and I have been saving these pieces here with some nice, crazy spalting. 

Finally, these are going to be the painted shelves for the pantry, which will be made up of all of the scraps and off cuts that are laying around. I’ll glue them up into panels first, then joint and plane them as a unit. It’s a little bit easier to do it that way because then you don’t have to worry about getting all of these pieces all nice and pretty before this step. 

That takes care of all of the stock prep. They are all ready for final dimensioning now, so that’s next. 

After getting everything to final dimensions and sanding them all, they are ready for finishing. I’m using a clear conversion varnish, which is the same product as the white stuff I’m using on everything else, just without the pigment. So it still takes a catalyst and uses the same thinner. 

Let’s take a look at the wiring for the in-cabinet shelf lighting. Here are all the components for the under-shelf lighting. At the core, I have the driver, which converts the wall voltage to DC. I’m using a 24-volt driver for 24-volt lights. It has the input for power on one end, and then four outputs on the other end, so it can output to four different lights or light systems. I’m only going to be using one. On the side, it has a port for switches. 

The power output of the driver is going to come across this cord to this little junction block thing, which splits the power for the positive and negative, and send it out in either direction. 

From there I have these little doodads, which are going to go into the positive and negative terminals. These are the things that are going to provide power to the bus bars, which I already mounted inside the cabinet. These devices have flanges that get mounted inside the cabinet somewhere, and the little brass part on the end contacts the bus bar somewhere and provides power. So that’s how the lights are provided power wirelessly. 

As far as switching goes, I have this additional little block which takes the one switch port on the driver and converts it into three, which I need because I have three cabinet doors on one driver. I am using infrared switches that turn on the driver (and thus turn on the light) if they are uncovered and turn off the driver (and the light) when they are covered. These get mounted on the front lower rail of the cabinets. 

So I’m going to install all of that into the wiring chase on the underside of the cabinets. 

These light bars then get press-fit into the groove I cut into the shelves. 

Now when I drop these shelves into the cabinet, the light turns on. After I get all the shelves in, I can hang the doors on the cabinets. 

Here is the final look. When you open the doors, the lights fade on. And that’s the gist of the in-cabinet lighting.

Next, let’s take a look at the under-cabinet lighting, which is very similar but less complex. Again, I have a driver, but this time the switch is powered by a standard light switch which will be over on the refrigerator panel. The output is pretty similar as well, with a cable that will connect to a ribbon lighting strip.

This lighting strip is going inside of a channel which has a diffuser to make the light a little more uniform. And that channel pops into a cavity I made in the underside of the cabinets. 

With that under-cabinet lighting wired up, I can install the cover panels. I put some little slots in there to give some air circulation around the driver. 

I also have some lighting for the sink base and the shelves in the corner. I don’t have the doors wired on switches yet, but this is a look at how it will look. I am using exactly the same system and the same exact parts as the under-cabinet lighting. 

Last lighting-related item in the kitchen for now are these over sink lights, which are the only ones that we have picked and procured. 

That is going to do it for this one. Thank you, as always, for joining, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the cabinet lighting, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!