Cabinet Lighting Advice

[tobyriches]

Hello all. I am looking for some advice on installing downlighters in a built in shelving unit I am building. This is the design -

The shelving will comprise of 5 x 18mm mdf carcasses with 6mm backs inserted into dados top and bottom. The idea is to hide all wiring behind the backs.
Originally I thought I would have to get an electrician involved, but a bit of research has turned up these from Ikea - :?

4 lights plus transformer and a remote control dimmer switch is 70 quid, not bad. The whole system is plug and play using existing plug sockets. Anyone got any experience of using such a system, or should I be using something else for what will end up being a high end piece of furniture.

 

[Lester Burnham]

I made something similar recently and wanted to illuminate each shelf quite subtley and with a bit of dimmer control. I bought two 5 metre reels of led tape from ebay. (Just do a search for led tape). you can get dimmers and plugs etc from the same source. I rebated the shelf at the back to hide the tape, its only about 8mm wide and 2mm thick. I ran the tape along the horizontal run of shelves so each individual shelf had uplighting at the back. The tape is even self adhesive, and you can cut it . It worked really well. You can get multi coloured lights but I went for white only.

Your idea will work fine but you are limited with the number of lights and they are not so discreet, but that may not be an issue. I am no electrician but it was simple to wire up.

Good luck.

Regards. LB.