DIY Upper and Lower Cabinet Lighting

Well hello! It's been awhile since I've done a proper tutorial, yes? It's about time! I finally finished up one of the last items on my list for the kitchen renovation. I called this room done last fall, but I did have a couple little things left on my list. I was happy to get this knocked off!

I installed the under cabinet lighting back then but never showed it to you because I wanted to get the upper cabinets done too. It was great having them down below but the upper lights are the real showstoppers. I LOVE how they look all lit up!: 

I'm so thrilled with it! If you'd like to see how I've done this in the past, check out this post. If you don't have an outlet and switch dedicated to these lights that tutorial is one you'll want to use. I used timers back then and they worked great -- and actually you could easily use timers on these too. The only difference between then and now is that I had an outlet run up high in the wall this time and I used different lights. This version works great if you only have one run of cabinets you are working with. The one I did years ago will work better if you have a bunch of cabinets you want to light up. 

So check out both posts to see what will work best for you! There are pros and cons to each type of lighting -- last time I used rope lighting and numerous incandescent light strips and I really like the warm light those let off. They are bulky compared to these though, so this is a much less intrusive design. I'll go into to more detail on the pros and cons later in the post too. 

This is one of those projects that looks intimidating but is SO not. I promise you, you can do this! I have to give credit to Kelly -- her blog is where I found these lights and she gives a great tutorial here as well! 

The lights I used are easier to use than rope lighting because they are so tiny and because they come with a sticky back -- that's a big help. These are the lights I used: 

First thing about these -- they say warm light, but I don't consider them warm, at least not when compared to regular incandescent lights. They look much warmer during the day than at night. I absolutely love the look, but just know that "warm" is a bit of a stretch. :) 

Here they are lit up: 

If you purchase these, you will need this power adapter for each run -- I bought two, one for the under cabinet lighting and one for the uppers: 

I had an outlet installed (connected to a switch) before we finished up the drywall in the kitchen. It's on a wall at the end of the upper cabinets, and I had it placed low so it's hard to see: 

I used cord hiders to hide all the cords on this project -- I use these all over my house:

I hate cords -- it's my thing. I think they can ruin a beautiful project quick so I always have them on hand. 

For the lower lights I ran the cord and cover up inside the cabinet on the left inside. For the uppers I ran the cover down the left side of the cabinet, behind the trim: 

You only see it if you look for it. There's a slight bump where the adapter and lights connect but other than that it's seamless. If someone ever notices it you know what I give them -- a cookie. :) 

The strips have a sticky back -- so peel the paper off and just stick it to your surface. Mine have stuck fine to painted and unfinished trim. For the lower cabinets I just ran the lights along the back of the DIY light rails I installed (I still need to show you how I did that) : 

For the uppers I ran it along the back of the header. I drilled holes between each set of cabinets and threaded it through: 

When you get to the end of where you need the lights, cut them. Make sure to do this where the little scissors are: 

Now, you can cut this, then attach it to 12 volt wire with a soldering iron and then continue them. The manufacturer does not recommend putting two whole 16 foot strips together. So if you have a spot where you want the lights, then a break, then you want them again, this is your solution, but only using one 16-foot length. (Kelly shows you how to do that in her post so be sure to check that out if you need to do that.) 

I actually bought the iron because I thought I'd have a break in the cabinet over our fridge. I pulled the light through in the back of the cabinet (where it met up with the other cabinets that are further back) and needed to get that light to the front of that cabinet (to attach the lights to the back of the header). To do so meant running it along the sides, which you would see. 

Instead of trying to use wire and the iron, I came up with a simpler solution. I went ahead and ran the lights along the sides of that cabinet, and then picked up some tiny crown molding (found mine at Home Depot): 

Then I installed it a little low so you can see the glow of the lights coming out of the top:

Remember these are LED lights so they stay very cool to the touch. This is a trick you can use with your regular crown molding too! It's a cool look, especially in a basement or theater room. It offers low ambient light in a room that you want mostly dark. Just make sure not to have your crown go all the way to the ceiling. 

If I had connected wire I would have had to hide that running along the sides anyway, so this was an easier solution. 

It was hard to get a good photo without the lights blowing out -- my best pic was actually taken with my cell phone: 

This really shows the true look of them when they are on. This was during the day and they look warmer here. They are LOVELY! I love the low light at night. 

As I mentioned before, there are two ways to do cabinet lighting. The light strips and rope lights I shared years ago here have a warmer glow, but it's a lot harder to find the incandescent strips now. And they do burn out eventually. The LED lights will go forever, are cool to the touch and are just easier to maneuver. 

These are easier to use on one bank of cabinets like we have here. They'd also work great in a bookcase or built ins. Once you've had under cabinet lights it's hard to be without them -- that's why I installed those months ago. It really is great for task lighting in a kitchen at night, even with all of the overhead lighting on: 

There is one final change to make -- I had the sconces and these lights run on the same switch and I've changed my mind on that. I'd rather have them operate independently. Thankfully there's an easy solution for that so I'll show you that soon! 

Also, these are not dimmable with a standard dimmer, but you can get this one that you wire to them. It's manual though, so it needs to be in a spot where you can reach it. It would be ideal for under the cabinets -- you could attach it underneath and adjust the light. 

I hope all of this makes sense! If you have any questions about this process please let me know. These are a really affordable and energy efficient way to add accent lighting to your kitchen! Here's an image to pin for later if you are interested: 

Some affiliate links included for your convenience! 

Hook: a little lamp with a big conscience

With over 60 years experience and a portfolio of over 3000 lighting and fan solutions you could say Faro Barcelona knows a thing or two about lighting! This makes it especially exciting that the team has chosen to unveil its latest lamp 'Hook' at the Stockholm Furniture Fair this week. Made in Spain, the versatile Hook can be used with three different accessories to create a wall lamp, magazine rack and shelf, creating both indirect lighting and brightening up dark corners of your home. It's also designed to reduce environmental impact by between 30% to 70% compared to other non eco-designed products. Amazingly, the profit will be donated to Mary's Meal - an NGO which aims to provide chronically hungry children with one meal every school day, encouraging education that can lift them out of poverty in later life, meaning that for every lamp sold, one child will be fed for an entire school year.  Faro Barcelona are also donating 2 euros from every sale to Fundació el Maresme, a non-profit organisation that promotes and encourages social integration and improving the quality of life of people with disabilities.  A lamp that lights up your home and other people's lives - how wonderful is that?!  

If you're visiting the Stockholm Furniture Fair you can say hi to the Faro Barcelona team and meet the new Hook lamp at Hall A Booth 16:30 from 7th - 11th February. 

Have a lovely evening!

This post was sponsored by Faro Barcelona. All words are my own and I only ever work with brands I love and know you will too! Thank you for supporting the brands that enable me to create fresh content for you to enjoy.

Beautiful DIY pedestal candles (using dollar store items!)

Hello there! Can you believe I'm writing to you at night? I haven't done this for years now! Ah, the memories! I was out of town in Chicago yesterday and most of today so I'm sharing this late. 

I'm continuing my dollar store candle DIYs with this beauty! You can see the snowy candles I shared earlier this week here. This is such a good one folks...I actually made these six years ago and I can't believe it's taken me this long to make them again! I think one of them broke a few years back and I never got to making a new match. 

I started over with two this time and they are so pretty! You'll need two things from the dollar store -- a glass candlestick and a glass cylinder candle holder: 

You can use any glue that will adhere glass. There's a few out there so just do what is easiest. This time I used this aquarium sealant I had from a past project: 

Just few put a few little dabs along the top of the candlestick holder: 

And center the larger candle holder on top. Leave it alone to cure for the recommended time -- my sealant said 24 hours so even though it was sticking fine within 20 minutes, I left them alone for awhile. 

There are so many possibilities with these candle pedestals! I threw a few together to show you the different options for Christmas. I used cinnamon stick filler and nestled a glass votive inside with a tealight candle: 

I love the simple look of some glittery berries too: 

This is where I must say -- remember to never leave these unattended! If you want to use something like these berries I'd recommend a battery-operated candle -- I was using what I had to share these options with you.

I had some pretty glittery strands that I put in the bottom: 

This simple one with a few sprigs of greenery is a favorite of mine!: 

I love the fake snow in the bottom -- how pretty would that be with red candles? I wish I had red!: 

I ended up using some gold sand I've had stored away -- it's so pretty!:

I felt like the new stacked stone fireplace needed some candlelight and these are perfect!: 

These are super pretty with just the candle too! No need to add more -- but it's fun to dress them up for the holidays. 

At two bucks a pop you could make a ton for a beautiful centerpiece on a table or buffet! They really are so pretty: 

This is one of my favorite dollar store DIYs! You can do so much with them! They'd be pretty and simple gifts too. Do you have any dollar store decor hacks you love?

Here's an image to pin if you are interested in saving this project for later or you can go here to repin:

Affiliate link included for your convenience! 

My pretty new light fixture in the kitchen!

Hey there! I'm back today with some lighting updates around the house. I found a GREAT deal on a beautiful light a couple weeks ago while we were in Cincinnati. Our routine is usually to stop by IKEA, then head over to Kings Island for our son. This time I took a super quick trip into the Ballard Designs outlet store on the way to the amusement park. 

If you aren't familiar with this outlet, it's minutes away from IKEA in West Chester and it's a large store with Grandin Road and Frontgate as well. They usually have some fantastic deals but it had been years since I had been in. 

Luckily for our boy (who was totally over shopping at this point), I found a gorgeous light within two minutes of walking in. I get weird feelings about stores sometimes -- it's odd but it never fails me. I just knew I'd find a light I loved that day and so we went. I get that vibe about random stuff and it my intuition is almost always right. I wasn't even really looking for a new light, but something was drawing me to the store. I tell my husband it was meant to be when it happens. ;) 

The light was the Hadley pendant and it was big, but I knew had a number of places I could put it. I really want to change out our stairway light and our foyer light, and at first I thought I would put it in one of those spots. 

But we got home and I had a better idea…over the kitchen table. I knew it would look so good in there for a number of reasons, but was a little worried it would be too big. I measured the old light fixture (you can see it here) and turns out it was way wider than the new light and actually taller too. I was surprised because the new one seemed larger. I think because it's the same size uniformly, unlike a chandelier. 

Anyway, I got it up and was SO THRILLED:

Most of the lights in our home have stayed the same or maybe moved around here and there, but I don't change them out often. But the kitchen table light is one that I've probably changed out four times now over ten years. None of them have ever felt 100 percent right till now!

I absolutely LOVE IT: 

It works because it's so "light" feeling -- you can see through it completely so it doesn't feel like a heavy fixture. It's normally priced at $300, they had it on sale for about $230 and they had even more of a sale that day so I got it for $130. Score!! 

Our old chandelier had eight lights bulbs but it got so bright I changed most of the bulbs out to 40 or 25 watt -- so even with half the lights at 60 watts, this one lets off similar light at night. We still use our dimmer most times with it anyway: 

So of course you change one and something else feels off, right? I hate when that happens. I had a couple lights from Joss and Main in my cart online for a week or so, and I knew they would work so much better with than our current lights in a couple nearby spots. 

This one in our family room was one I've wanted to change out for awhile. It just felt really heavy to me and that spot is supposed to be more of a flush mount light anyway: 

I went ahead and got the Marceline flush mounts from Joss and Main and absolutely LOVED the lights, but they were such a pain in the butt to install. 

I have to preface my rant by saying I absolutely LOATHE installing light fixtures. Lighting is by far my least favorite DIY project -- there's always always always something annoying that happens when I install a light. All of the screws and junk have to be just right for everything to hang correctly and it drives me absolutely crazy. 

These had me cussing and sweating. I hated them with a burning passion. Flames…flames on the side of my face. (Name that movie!) If you purchase these know that they are beautiful and lovely but you need to purchase longer screws before you try to install them. Just a warning. But I loved them!: 

I don't want that family room light to be such a focal point so I'm so happy with the look of this one, and it's higher too. 

Another annoyance with these is that the glass is permanently smudged. I have tried absolutely everything to get them clean…and they are clean. But the glass is damaged in a way that when the light is on they look dirty: 

When the light is off you don't see it. I'm emailing Joss and Main to see if they'll send new glass because it's really not good. I'm still not over the anger from the installation yet so they are staying up. :) Too much drama to even consider taking them down right now, ha!

I replaced another light with one of these too -- five years ago I added a $5 light from the Habitat store to our small hallway by the stairs:

This was an area that could take a little more presence but I didn't want it to hang any lower than the old one. 

I just love it here!: 

I think the new kitchen light looks so great with these and I like that the two flush mounts match -- they add some consistency we were needing: 

This one was also a pain in the butt to install and also has the weird glass problems, but I still like the lights a lot. These are a GREAT option for "boob" light replacements. They don't hang down too far and look great. Just be prepared to be annoyed when you install them. :) 

I got all three lights for the price of what the Ballard light is originally priced at -- not a bad deal at all! Have you been eyeing either of these light fixtures? The kitchen light is my new favorite and I throw heart eyes at it every time I walk in. I just love it. 

Tell me I'm not alone in the installing lights thing -- is it the worst job ever or what? I'd rather drywall and that's saying a lot. 

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A DIY kitchen renovation update (nine months later)

HEY there! What a fun weekend that was! I ended up getting a ton more done in the loft last night -- all of the cabinets are built up and installed and that was a BIG job. I also got everything put away in the cabinets and seat storage -- it is glorious! I have room to spare, whoot! Today I hope to work on baseboards and trimming out the window seat and maybe the window itself as well.

I'm totally digging that space and it's really starting to match the vision I had all these years! I have said it a million times, but I find when I really take my time and let the ideas develop in my head the spaces come out better than I could have hoped.

One of the rooms where that showed the most was our kitchen renovation that I completed last fall. I've been meaning to update you on some of the key pieces and since we've lived with it for about nine months now, I figured this would be a good time.

This renovation took me almost a year -- in the summer I'm usually a sloth so not much happened over those months, but overall it took a long time. We paid cash for everything and I did about 85 percent of the work in this room:

My first project was extending the kitchen island and I'm still so thrilled with it. The larger surface area is FANTASTIC for baking and cooking and entertaining. If there is one thing I'd recommend doing, this would be it:

I used our old island and built off of it. It now has wine storage and the end holds the microwave and more storage. We also can sit at least three at the island -- four if you pull a chair up to the end. The butcher block has held up well and I love the warm wood against the cabinets. It does show wear easier than other countertops, but I'm used to that and love it. You can't be a stickler if you want wood countertops. :)

Speaking of that microwave, I think that's the number one question I get -- how do we like having it lower?:

adding a microwave in the island

I LOVE it. It took my husband longer to get used to it but now he doesn't mind it. A couple things to consider -- we don't use our microwave a ton. Maybe once a day, if that. Also, I'm tall and I still find it more convenient. I shut the door with my knee when I'm taking stuff out. :) The biggest thing is I think it's easier to get food in and out -- with really hot dishes maybe not so much, but as far as safety I think pulling them up and setting them down on a surface is easier and safer than pulling them down from up high. 

I was melting chocolate the other day and it was SO nice to be able just stand there at the end of the island and check on it over and over. And overall it's wonderful to not have it as the focus in the room. (Most new people to our home can't even find it, ha!!)

Another little adjustment I made early on (and I'm so glad I did) was to move the island away from the walls a little bit: 

extending cabinets to ceiling / adding lighting to cabinets 

It just makes it feel more spacious in here and when we have people over it's easier to move around. I wouldn't move it too far -- we have our trash compactor in the island so I like that it's close enough I can just turn around from the sink to get to it. But moving it out has made the room feel bigger and easier to navigate. 

OH! The other question I get a lot is about that rug! It's from Target and I love the rug but DO NOT vacuum it. It will fall apart, I learned that fast. We still get random tufts that stick up occasionally and I just cut them off. I know you're not supposed to do that but there's no way around it -- and surprisingly it's held up well. 

We invested in two splurges in this kitchen -- the slide in oven was one: 

DIY wood vent hood

I LOVE IT. It's so easy to operate, easy to clean and it cooks and bakes great. I love the look of it too -- not having a back to it makes the whole kitchen look more custom. I'm also happy that we went with a vent hood that vents outside -- I feel like it does help to get rid of smells quicker. 

The countertops were another splurge but I shopped around and actually found what I wanted for $1000 less than my first quotes, so do some checking. Honestly, I hesitated a bit to go with a hard surface. We had laminate that looked like granite for years and I really loved it. I was afraid I'd break a bunch of dishes knocking into granite but I haven't done that once. It was another addition that really amped up the whole feel of the kitchen. 

One thing I didn't consider is that the counters are about an inch thick, so our already deep sink (which is a MUST if you are redoing your kitchen) got even deeper. It wasn't undermounted before so it was an adjustment for me to get used to at first. It felt SO deep when I would wash dishes: 

how to pick out countertops / installing a sink

Now I don't notice it, but it was a big adjustment at first. If you are really tall (I'm 5'9", my husband is 5'11"), then you may not want to go too deep with your sink. I wouldn't give mine up for one meeeellion dollars though. Also, having an undermounted sink is a gift from the heavens, no lie. Being able to wipe crumbs right into the sink without it getting stuck around the rim is fantastic! 

One thing to consider -- if you are making smaller updates like we did years ago with our sink and faucet, consider something that can be used down the line if you upgrade again. I specifically went with a sink that could be undermounted, even though we didn't do that until years later. 

I get asked about the backsplash a lot too -- I went unconventional with that and it's been awesome. It's so easy to clean and I feel at ease using it behind the stove top as well. It's hard to see the planking in photos, that's the only thing that bothers me. But in person it's obvious and gives the kitchen some farmhouse feel:

the best sprayer to use for painting kitchen cabinets 

The biggest undertaking in here was painting the kitchen cabinets -- I'm SO SO glad I decided to tackle that myself. I hesitated thinking it would be too much work and honestly, it takes time but it's not a ridiculous amount of work. The biggest hassle is waiting between coats so it takes a good week to two weeks to do it correctly. (Side note, this is their true color. They lean a little blue in some of my pics.)

A few weeks after the reno I shared an update on the cabinets and how some of them had not cured even that long after. I had anticipated that but was still surprised. I'm happy to report that they are now wipeable and scrubbable and there are zero imperfections beyond what I first saw. 

One thing to mention -- if you decide to paint your cabinets I recommend you put hardware on them. Especially at first until they fully cure (but don't put them on too soon -- I waited and then didn't tighten them for weeks). The less you will actually handle them the better, and using hardware will keep them looking beautiful for a long time. 

The final thing I'm SO happy we did was part of a bigger project years ago when we moved things around in the family room. Our old back door used to be in the middle of this bay window and things were so cramped over there: 

building a window seat

That area was where our kitchen table used to sit and when we shifted everything over it allowed this area to be transformed. That window seat is one of my favorite spots in our entire house. I absolutely, positively adore it. AND it offers tons of storage. 

I have been keeping mental notes of what I've wanted to share with you all these months and I think I hit them all! If I missed something you're curious about please let me know. ALL of the sources for items and projects in this room are linked in this post. We didn't move any plumbing or cabinets and that helped with the budget a ton. I shared a breakdown of the whole renovation here. 

And because I can't resist, here are a few before photos to show you how different this kitchen looks now...