Planning LED strip lighting: drivers, channels and placement

Strip works best as a line of light with a job to do. Under overhead kitchen cupboards it lights the bench where downlights throw your shadow. In kickboards it gives a soft night light for the kitchen or bathroom. Inside shelves and display cabinets it lifts what's on them. In a ceiling bulkhead or shadow line, it bounces light off the ceiling for a gentle glow across the room.

On stairs, a strip under each tread or a low line along the wall marks each step without glare, and suits a sensor so it comes on as you approach. Behind a bedhead or TV, it softens the contrast between a bright screen and a dark wall.

Where it works less well is as the only light in a room. Strip is ambient or task light. Pair it with downlights, pendants or wall lights rather than expecting it to light the whole space.

Most strip lighting lives inside something: a cabinet, a shelf, a bulkhead or a stair. Once that's built, there's no easy way to add a recess for the channel, a cable path or a spot for the driver. Retrofitting usually means surface channel and visible cable, which rarely looks as good.

So the strip has to be on the cabinetmaker's drawings. Mark each run, the channel profile and whether it's recessed, the cable path back to power, and where the driver sits. Get the joiner and electrician talking if you can. A groove routed into the underside of a cupboard in the workshop is a quick job; cut in place, it's a messy one.

In a renovation, this happens alongside the rest of the kitchen or bathroom wiring. Running the cables at rough-in, while walls are open, keeps everything hidden.

LED strip runs at extra-low voltage from a driver that converts mains power. The driver is the component most likely to fail over the years, so where it goes matters more than which strip you buy.

Don't seal drivers behind fixed kickboards, inside plaster or under insulation. A ventilated cupboard, the roof space near the manhole or an access panel in the joinery all work. The driver should be sized for the strip it feeds with some headroom, and long runs may need power fed in at more than one point so the far end isn't dimmer than the start.

Connecting a driver to mains wiring, or adding a switch or power point for it, is licensed electrical work. Plug-in kits exist, but if the lead disappears into a cavity, it needs a properly placed outlet, not an extension lead hidden behind the cupboard.

Bare strip stuck to timber looks spotty and runs hot. An aluminium channel gives it a straight, rigid mount and draws heat away from the LEDs, which helps them last. A diffuser over the channel softens the dots into a continuous line.

Channels come in many profiles: shallow ones for under cupboards, deeper ones that hide the dots better, angled ones that aim light at the wall or bench, and recessed ones that sit flush in plaster or joinery. Dotless strip, with the LEDs under a continuous coating, gives a smooth line even in shallow channels.

Match the strip's colour to your downlights so the room doesn't mix two whites, and in kitchens choose a strip with high colour rendering (CRI) so food and timber look natural.

The best strip lighting is the kind you never see directly. Under cupboards, mount the strip toward the front edge so it lights the bench rather than just the splashback. Behind a lip, bulkhead or shadow line, keep it high enough that someone sitting down can't see the strip itself.

Glossy benchtops and splashbacks reflect strip like a mirror. A deeper channel, a diffuser and an angled profile all cut those reflections. If you can, test a short length in place before the final fix.

In bathrooms and outdoors, use strip sealed for the location and keep the driver away from water. How close strip can go to a bath or shower depends on the position, so check before you buy.

Strip on its own switch is usually more useful than strip sharing a switch with the downlights. Kickboard or bulkhead lighting is often the light left on late at night, or the one that comes on by itself from a sensor.

Strip dims either on the mains side, with a dimmable driver and a matched wall dimmer, or on the low-voltage side, with a controller between the driver and the strip. Both work when the parts suit each other. Mixing them, or using a dimmer not made for the driver, is the usual cause of flicker.

For scenes, timers or app control, plan the controller's spot at the same time as the driver's, so both stay reachable.

Bring the joinery drawings, a note of where you want each run, and any strip or channel you've already chosen. We'll mark the driver spots, cable paths and switch positions so the joiner and the electrician work to one plan. The wiring comes with a Certificate of Electrical Safety, as all electrical installation work does.

If the cabinets are already built, strip is still possible, with more compromises. Surface channel, a driver in the next cupboard and a tidy cable route can still give a good result.