[tarakoz]

Hi there,

We are renovating our kitchen using White Abstrakt cabinets.

My question relates to under cabinet lighting.

I like the look of under cabinet lighting, but am not crazy about how the valances lookfor the Abstrakt White cabinets.

Has anyone used under cabinet Halogen lighting without valances (the lights are exposed, not covered)? If so, how does it look? We are considering using NITTON lights.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Tara

[kelly]

Welcome tarakoz!

Do you by any chance have the 2007 IKEA Kitchen guide? Page 32 shows the NITTON in close up, but I don't see any photos of that light in particular in any of the installs. That said there are a lot of installs shown with good old TRETTIO exposed- e.g., no valances installed in front of them.

Note that NITTON is a plug-end, so you will need to be able to plug it in, and figure out how to manage the look of the cords and plugs, or rewire yourself if you are so inclined to hardwired. TRETTIO is hardwired, and will give you a clean look. But I currently have plug-in corded undercounter lights in my pre-demolished kitchen (this is how I am thinking about it now- pre-demo) and its not very noticable at all. And the light is a good thing.

You're using a pretty modern cabinet- so you could make the exposed lighting work for you- just center 'em and be sure to design with them in mind!

Kelly

[Shouva]

If you don't like having the valance straight down you can turn it on it's side. This will give you 3/4" (approx.) of a finished edge on the bottom which will hide some of the light's depth. You can also find flourescent fixtures now using T4 bulbs (1/2" diameter) that are very slender and would actually be completely hidden behind a 3/4" hi valance. LED light strips are also available, but not very bright, as well as Xenonthat are thin as well.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Hi tarakoz! Welcome to the forums!

You might also consider going outside the box and putting up angle iron as a light valance if you're not inspired by the IKEA ones. Somebody help me....who has the gorgeous kitchen with blue/turquoise walls and angle irons for light valances?

It looks really good.

Susan

[nyc_home]

I think you should also consider how you want the light itself to look. Using the valance will give you a more diffused effect; going without will give you more concentrated task lighting.

[Shouva]

I'm confused about nyc_home's response.The valance is in front of the under cabinet lights anddoes not interfere with or diffusethe light to the counterbelow. The concentration of light rays going downto the counter top below is not increased by not having a valance. In fact the oppositemay betrue.A white valance 2 3/4" high will reflect down to the task arealight raysthat would otherwise come forward and hit the chest of person standing at the counter or down to the floor of the kitchen.

[DesignDiva]

Susan, I think it was splatgirl who had that with the angle iron?

[stacylu]

I found this on the Flickr group.. it's PowerJen's


And I have no idea what Angle Irons are...

[DesignDiva]

It was splatgirl

Here's the thread about it, she used 1.5" aluminum L-stock.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Yes! Thank you! I felt so bad that I couldn't come up with it. I knew it was a *girl, but couldn't come up with which one. Doesn't help that our daughter has suddenly become fascinated with superheroes. She's beangirl, ninjagirl, supergirl...you get the idea.

Splatgirl's kitchen is gorgeous!

Susan