Under Cabinet Lighting and How to Plan It in a Kitchen

You stand at the worktop to chop an onion and your own head throws a shadow over the board. That shadow is the reason under cabinet lighting exists, and it is the single most useful light in most kitchens, yet it is often chosen last and fitted in a hurry.

I plan kitchen lighting for a living, and the same handful of mistakes come up again and again: the wrong fitting type, the wrong position, the wrong colour, and no dimming. Here is how to get each one right before the cabinets go up.

Why under cabinet lighting matters more than the ceiling

Ceiling downlights and pendants light the room from above and behind you. When you face the wall to work, your body blocks that light. Under cabinet lighting sits between you and the task, so the worktop is lit from the front and the shadow disappears.

For food preparation, a worktop needs roughly 300 to 500 lux. Most ceiling layouts deliver 150 to 250 lux at counter height, so the task layer has to make up the difference. It also adds a soft wash on the splashback in the evening, which is often all the light you need when the cooking is done. If you are new to the idea of planning light in layers, our guide on how to layer lighting in a living room covers the same principles in a different room.

LED strip or puck lights

These are the two common choices, and they give very different results.

For a working worktop, choose strip. Buy a strip with at least 120 LEDs per metre, or a COB strip with a continuous emitter, and mount it in an aluminium profile with an opal diffuser. The profile carries heat away and the diffuser stops the line of individual dots from reflecting in a glossy worktop.

Aim for 500 to 1,000 lumens per metre of cabinet. A run under a 600 mm deep wall cabinet at around 450 mm above the worktop will then give comfortable working light without glare.

Where to mount the strip

This is the decision that people most often get wrong, so it deserves its own section.

The common advice to mount at the back

You will often hear that the strip should go at the back of the cabinet, close to the wall, to show off the tiles. I disagree for working kitchens. A rear strip lights the splashback brilliantly but leaves the front 300 mm of the worktop, where you actually chop, noticeably darker. On glossy tiles or glass splashbacks it also creates a bright reflected line right at eye level.

Where I put it instead

Mount the strip in the front third of the cabinet underside, about 50 to 75 mm back from the front edge, and angle the profile slightly toward the wall if it allows. The light then falls across the whole depth of the worktop, with enough spill to wash the splashback. Most wall cabinets have a 15 to 20 mm recess or a lip at the front. If yours do not, add a slim light pelmet so the strip cannot be seen from the dining table.

Colour temperature and colour quality

Match the colour temperature of the task light to the rest of the room. If your ceiling lights are 2700 K, choose 2700 K or 3000 K under the cabinets. Mixing a cool 4000 K strip with warm ceiling lights makes the worktop look clinical and the food look grey. Our guide to warm or cool light and how colour temperature changes a room explains why the difference feels so strong.

Colour quality matters even more in a kitchen than in a living room, because you are judging whether chicken is cooked and whether herbs are fresh. Look for a CRI of 90 or above on the specification sheet. Cheap strips often sit around CRI 80, and red and brown foods look flat under them.

Power, switching and dimming

Under cabinet LED strips run on low voltage, usually 12 or 24 volts, from a driver. Choose 24 volt for any run longer than about 3 metres, since it suffers less voltage drop and the far end will not look dimmer than the start.

• Size the driver with headroom. Add up the strip wattage and choose a driver rated at least 20 percent higher. A 4 metre run at 10 watts per metre needs a driver of about 50 watts.
• Give it its own switch. Under cabinet lights should not be tied to the ceiling circuit. You will want them on alone in the evening.
• Make it dimmable. Use a dimmable driver and a compatible dimmer. Full brightness for cooking and 20 percent for a late cup of tea is the reason people come to love this light.
• Plan the driver location. Put it in an accessible cabinet, never sealed behind a panel, because drivers are the part most likely to fail.

Think about the corners too. An L shaped kitchen often leaves a dark patch where two runs of cabinets meet, because the strips stop short of the corner unit. Run the profile right into the corner on both sides, or add a short 300 mm section, so the light is continuous. The same applies above a hob with an extractor hood: most hoods have their own lights, but check they match the colour temperature of the strips, or the cooking area will look a different colour from the rest of the worktop.

Plug in kits are fine for renters. Anything hardwired into the mains, including a new switch, should be installed by a qualified electrician, and in many places kitchen electrical work must be certified.

Frequently asked questions

Should under cabinet lighting be at the front or back?

For most kitchens, mount it in the front third of the cabinet, about 50 to 75 mm back from the edge. This lights the whole worktop where you work, not only the splashback. Hide it behind a lip or pelmet so it is not visible from seated positions.

What colour temperature is best for under cabinet lighting?

Choose the same colour temperature as your main kitchen lights, usually 2700 K or 3000 K in a home. Matching avoids a cold patch of light on the worktop. Pick a CRI of 90 or higher so food colours look natural.

Are puck lights or LED strips better under cabinets?

LED strips in a diffused profile are better for worktops, because they give an even line of light without dark gaps. Puck lights suit short runs, glass display cabinets or shelves. Pucks tend to show bright spots and pools on a glossy surface.