Under Cabinet Lighting in Newport Beach

If you do one thing to a kitchen that feels dim after dark, make it under cabinet lighting. Ceiling light comes from behind you and puts your shadow on the counter. Light mounted under the upper cabinets comes from in front of you and falls exactly where you are working. In a Newport Beach kitchen that is bright all afternoon and gloomy by eight, it is the difference between cooking comfortably and squinting at a recipe.

What We Install

We install hardwired LED lighting, not plug in strips. The two approaches look similar on day one and very different a few years later.

LED tape in an aluminum channel with a diffuser. This is our usual choice. The channel is recessed into or tucked behind the front lip of the cabinet bottom so the diodes are not visible, and the frosted diffuser turns a row of dots into a continuous line of light with no hot spots reflecting in a polished counter.

Low profile LED bars. A good option for existing cabinets that cannot take a routed channel, or where a continuous run is interrupted by a range hood or a window over the sink.

Either way the fixture sits toward the front of the cabinet, not against the wall. Mounted at the back, the light grazes the backsplash and leaves the front of the counter no brighter than before.

Drivers, Wiring and Access

LED lighting runs on low voltage supplied by a driver. Where the driver goes is the detail that decides whether the system is serviceable. We put it inside an adjacent cabinet or above the uppers in an accessible spot, never sealed behind a finished backsplash. The line voltage feed comes from a switched circuit, which in a remodel we run while the walls are open. On an existing kitchen we look for a route through the cabinets or from the attic before suggesting any drywall work.

Color and Dimming

Choose the color temperature to match the rest of the room, typically 2700K or 3000K in homes here. Mixing warm ceiling lights with cool under cabinet strips is the most common mistake we see, and it shows the moment both are on. Look for a high color rendering rating as well, so food, wood and stone look like themselves.

Under cabinet lighting should be on its own dimmer, separate from the ceiling lights. Full brightness for prep, a low glow later in the evening. Some owners also add a motion sensor or a low toe kick strip on the same driver as a night light for early mornings.

Glare Off the Counter

Bright days and dark evenings meet on the counter surface. The same polished stone that throws afternoon sun into your eyes will also reflect a row of bright diodes if they are exposed. A recessed channel, a diffuser and a cabinet light rail on the front edge solve this. If you are still choosing counters, a honed or leathered finish reduces reflection from both the window and the lights.

Salt Air and Longevity

Close to the water on the Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island and Lido Isle, cheap bare aluminum channels and exposed connectors corrode. We use coated or anodized channels, sealed connections and drivers kept inside cabinetry, and we note the manufacturer warranty on each component so you know what is covered if a driver fails. Drivers are the part most likely to need replacing, which is why they must be reachable.

Cost

Under cabinet lighting on its own usually runs $900 to $3,200 in a Newport Beach kitchen. What moves the price is the number of cabinet runs, whether a switched feed is already nearby, whether channels can be routed into existing cabinets, and how many breaks there are for windows and hoods. Added during a cabinet replacement, it costs noticeably less because the walls and boxes are already open.

We are happy to look at an existing kitchen and tell you if this alone fixes the problem. Often it does. Call (949) 250-9169.