Oh my goodness – week five! The living room is so close to being finished but I still have a few finishing touches left. This past week I pretty much focused on adding LED tape accent lighting to our new media unit.
The LED lighting system featured in this post was sponsored by Kichler. I only work with brands I know and trust. All opinions are my own.
As I mentioned in my week four post, the lighting in our living room has always been a challenge. My new lighting plan includes sconces closer to the sofa, but I still wanted to add some light to the opposite side of the room.
I was originally thinking of adding some picture lights to the top of the media unit, but then I reached out to my friends at Kichler and they suggested I consider LED tape lighting as accent lighting within the unit.
The Kichler Layout Design Service team helped me by creating a layout plan and figured out all the individual pieces I needed.
With my layout plan and all my materials in hand I got to work. This tape light system is very straight forward and was easy to install. I did need Chris’ help soldering one connection, because that is something I have never learnt how to do.
How to Install Tape Lighting
Start by deciding the placement of your track and cut it to size. I decided to place our LED tape about 2″ from the edge of each narrow shelf, and 6″ from the back wall above the TV.
These low profile plastic tracks cut easily with sharp kitchen scissors and come with pre-installed screws every 6″. I cut my track about 1/2″ shorter than the space to make sure there was enough space for the wire to turn around the edge.
I installed the tracks in place with the pre-installed screws and a regular hand screwdriver. To make the installation easier I used a small hammer to lightly tap the ends of the screw in place – this held the track enough to keep it straight and prevent it from warping.
I do recommend making multiple passes down the track tightening each screw gradually to keep the track as level as possible. I found if I did it this way there I was able to get a really flush fit with no gapping.
The LED tape light has special marked areas where it can be cut every 4″ and has a very strong 3M adhesive backing. Once you cut your tape to length you will need to remove the last 1/4″ of adhesive backing entirely.
Be careful! The tape and the components are delicate so don’t put too much pressure on them. Once the adhesive is removed the end will fit perfectly into the wired connectors. Make sure the + and – signs on the tape and the connectors match before you close up the connector.
Once both ends of the LED tape are correctly inserted into connectors you can snap them into the track. I decided to rough all my connections in before removing the tape backing just to make sure everything looked good before I committed.
When the entire first unit was completed I connected my tape to the power lead and plugged in the power supply to make sure I was happy with how everything is looking.
Now I just need to wire up the remaining 2/3 of the unit, hide all the wires and officially stick down the tape – good thing I still have a week before the final reveal!
Thanks for visiting and make sure to check out all the other amazing room transformations taking place as part of this fall’s One Room Challenge!