Since we are in the process of making improvements and finishing off the kitchen (see the new back splash here) we thought it was time to tackle another project we’ve wanted to do since the first night we cooked in this kitchen. Install under cabinet lighting. The kitchen is low on the lighting to begin with (one lone light above the island and one over the sink), and although we are planning on upgrading from the ugly builder grade ceiling lights supplied, adding new wiring isn’t really in the plan.

Unless your prepping on the island itself, it can be pretty dark under the cabinets so we purchased some LED puck lights – these ones (affiliate link): Lightkiwi® C9203 3.5 inch Cool White LED Puck Lights Premium Kit (3 Pack).

We liked them because they were a much lower profile than a lot of the other LED lights we found and were extremely bright and the wires were nice and long. We did a dry fit to figure out where we wanted the lights to go and ensured the wires would reach up above the microwave where the spare plug was.

Then came the scary part… in order to successfully run the wires up to the plug in the cabinet above the microwave without them being seen, we needed to drill through the cabinets. Eeeek!

We drilled through the side of the single cabinet to the left of the stove as well as in between the two adjoining cabinets to the left of the stove.

This left some big scary holes.

We then fed the wires through the holes and up between the cabinets.

This left an intimidating jumble of wires hanging down.

We purchased some wire clips like these to attach the wires up under the cabinet out of sight.

Then attached the lights with some Command Strips.

Drilled a hole through the top of the over-microwave cabinet and plugged them in.

Ta-Da! No more dark corners!

I highly recommend tackling this project if you could use some more lighting in your prep space. It went pretty quickly, Ken tackled it in a few hours after work one night. Now we have lights at the flip of a switch and no visible wiring for a nice clean professional look.