Door activated cabinet lights.

[Juicegoose]

Recently I finished a buffet style entertainment center build. It became obvious after the build that although I had the foresight to make the center panel of the back removable it was still dark. This had me going to the local Big box store in search of a light that would be activated when I opened the back panel. I found some and they sucked!! the operation wasn't good at all cheap cheap cheap.

This also got me thinking about lighting in my kitchen lower cabinets. They are dark and I usually have to grab a flashlight to see stuff at the back. So the question is this. For those of you with much more experience then I, what have you used for cabinet lighting? As the cabinets aren't open on a regular basis I don't mind keeping it battery operated.

Thanks guys.

[wdwerker]

Just paint the insides white, or laminate it with liner grade laminate. We have put LED undercounter puck lights in cabinets, don't use halogen, too hot for an enclosed space. Some of the puck light kits have a touch pad switch. Hardware Resourses in Fla has them on their website.

[Juicegoose]

The entire entertainment center is white but the kitchen cabinets are not and I doubt the CFO would let that fly. I'll look into the led options.

[Dlhunter]

If you have a face frame and the inside reveal is big enough you can run a strip of the adhesive backed led's down the inside of the face frame to give you full light from top to bottom. I've done this before on wall cabinets with glass doors. As far as the switch goes my electrician handled that. Most times they were turned on by a wall switch. One time we did a door activated light on a pantry cabinet. The door was made with a 1" overlay on the upper rail. We got a switch that was mortised into the rail so that it was concealed when the door was closed. It looked much like a ball catch or one of those switches alarm companies use on entry doors. Check with your local lighting supplier. If you do go the led route be prepared to get out your wallet. They've come down in price quite a bit but still aren't cheap by any means.

Good luck

[Lawrence Brown]

As Dlhunter said, LED's are a good option these days. They are still a bit pricey, but they fit just about anywhere. Rockler has a decent selection now, complete with a few different switch options and so on. I'm guessing Woodcraft has similar. Not sure where you're located, but if you don't have one of those near you, you can order from both places online.

[firemanbsa]

A gentleman here in my hometown had many of the same complaints 25 years ago, and founded a company to make this dark problem disappear. This company produces a lot of different types of LED lights and the customer support is great. The products are made in the USA. The company name is Task Lighting and their website is tasklighting.com It wouldn't be hard to add a switch that turned the lights on when you opened the door. The products are a little pricy, but are well made, I have installed them in several projects, and wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

[woodcanuck]

IKEA makes a set of cabinet light strips that have a proximity sensor in them. When the doors to the cabinet are closed, the lights are off....as soon as you open it, the lights are on. I think it's a strip of LEDs.