The complete guide to kitchen strip lights

Kitchen strip lights can create ambience-especially if you choose LED strip lights for your kitchen ceiling that can change colours, allowing you to go from weeknight dinner to party mode with the flick of a switch! Fun colours like a bright purple or a moody red will give your space a completely different feel, perfect for entertaining or hosting a party.

LED lights have a long lifespan, and they’re very energy efficient – so you can run them for longer without costing you as much as traditional lighting or spotlights might.

Kitchen LED strip lights can make such a difference in your space. Cool blue lighting underneath cabinets or units gives a contemporary, futuristic feel – perfect for a modern kitchen with clean, geometric lines. For a more traditional kitchen, kitchen cabinet strip lights in a warm glow will make your kitchen feel cosy and homely, without needing harsh overhead lighting.

Even if you have standard overhead kitchen lighting, if your lighting is spotlighted you may get annoying shadows from your cabinets – or even worse, you might cast a shadow over the countertop where you’re working, which can even be a safety risk. Kitchen cabinet strip lights get rid of this issue, and make sure there’s light exactly where you need it.

While you might want to get an electrician or builder in to run LED strip lights for kitchen ceilings, for the most part, strips are affordable and easy to install – they can be run under cabinets without needing complicated lighting equipment and plugged into a spare socket. If you want to build strip lighting into your existing electrical wiring, consult an electrician and make sure what you’re doing is safe.

While a lot of the examples you might see online feature LED strip lighting in big, modern kitchens, it’s not limited to huge spaces. Even modestly-sized kitchens can benefit from strip lights under cabinets or under floor units–strategically placing the strips can help to bounce light into dimly-lit spaces, and make the room look even bigger. For more ideas on how to maximise a small space, we have plenty of guides on small kitchen ideas.

For a light that fills the space and gives your entire kitchen a whole new lighting look, consider kitchen ceiling strip lighting. If you have any kind of feature details on your ceiling, like cornices or coving, LED strip lights can really make an impact. If your home is a bit more modern, you might have recessed spacing in your kitchen - using LED striplights will really show off this part of your architecture. A sleek LED strip in the corners of these spaces creates a bright highlight that will change the feel of your kitchen, and give a super sleek look! A qualified electrician can easily install these strips, build it into your existing electrical works and hide any cables.

Tucked away above your cabinets or cleverly hidden underneath them, LED strip lights are great for adding functionality and a new feel to your kitchen cabinets. When you think about it, it really makes sense-read our guide to under-cabinet lighting to see the benefits, and how to style this kind of LED lighting. Having a bright, clear light right above where you’ll do most of the work in your kitchen makes it easier to read recipe books, inspect food, and makes chopping, dicing and slicing safer. Adding LED lighting in this unobtrusive space is especially great if you have lots of overhanging cabinets, or a sink between two cabinets that’s always in shadow.

Adding kitchen cabinet strip lights is an easy DIY project, as most strips are self-adhesive or come supplied with fixing screws. Look for LED strips with easy-cut points to make sure there’s no overhang under your cabinets, plus thin cables that can be inconspicuously trailed back to socket points.

For a really modern look, LED strip lights underneath your kitchen units are a great, speedy way to give a kitchen a facelift. This is a really popular look that will make even tired kitchens look sleek, as well as giving you an extra light source – plus, they give the room plenty of atmospheres. Install kitchen unit strip lights underneath cabinets and footwells to backlight your kitchen floors, and show off your kitchen tiles or feature flooring.

Alternatively, if you’ve already got LED strip lights for the kitchen ceiling lighting up the room, and some kitchen unit strip lights to keep work surfaces clear and bright; adding some lighting under units will really complete the room, and pull everything together.

There are lots of ways we can help add kitchen lighting to your Wren kitchen – or you can book an appointment to find out more.