DIY Under Cabinet Kitchen Lighting!

When purchasing our house, the builder offered under cabinet lighting as an upgrade costing over $1000! No thank you. Here was our process for this super easy DIY we completed in one evening.

Under cabinet kitchen lighting DIY, easy cabinet lights, How to DIY under cabinet lighting on a budget

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under cabinet lights

We ordered these affordable under cabinet LED lights on Amazon that had great reviews! The kit comes with everything you need for set up and installation. The options we selected were:

6-bar-kit : we needed 4 total
Warm White 3000k : we got the daylight at first but it was WAY too cool toned compared to our recessed lights (rookie mistake!) so we exchanged them for the warm white, which was perfect

THE PLAN

Normally, you’d hire an electrician to hardwire the under cabinet lights to a light switch, but because we have our microwave/vent above the stove, we were able to avoid having to do that by using a smart outlet in the upper cabinet, where the microwave is plugged into. By doing this, we saved the cost and hassle of hiring an electrician AND gained the convenience from being able to integrate smart home functions.

We currently use the older version of the TP-Link smart plug but would recommend this latest version (much more compact)

THE PROCESS

The only “DIY” part we had to do was drill holes in the cabinets (2 on each side) to run the wire up to the upper cabinet where the outlet is located. You can only see the wires if you look at the cabinet directly from the side, which we never do.

Under cabinet kitchen lighting DIY, easy cabinet lights

“Ok Google, turn on the cabinet lights”

The under cabinet lights are voice activated thanks to our google home mini. We’re slowly getting spoiled by not having to lift a finger.

Task lighting in the kitchen is so useful and impactful while prepping ingredients for cooking and if you have a similar configuration with the microwave above the stove, this could be a great affordable solution for you too!