If you're as obsessed with LED accent lighting as I am, you're going to love this! I recently came across a company that’s taken kitchen cabinet lighting to the next level. Illuminate your kitchen shelves without dealing with messy wires, and still being able to adjust your shelves whenever you want. Häfele’s wireless lighting system for kitchen shelving is doing exactly that:
How It Works
Häfele has created a lighting system that works with the same metal pins you use to adjust your shelves up and down. The system uses two bus bars—basically metal strips that get recessed into the sides of your cabinets. Then, there’s a recessed light bar mounted underneath each shelf. Each end of the light bar has spring-loaded contacts that connect with the bus bars when the shelf is in place, making the shelf light up without any wires in the way.
The power supply unit for the system is discreetly placed at the top of your cabinet, completely out of sight, providing low-voltage power to the bus bars. All you have to do is plan ahead and make sure you’ve got an outlet installed for this lighting system, and you’re good to go.
Can You Get Shocked?
I know what you're thinking—messing with electricity inside cabinets sounds risky, right? I had the same concern, so I called Häfele directly. One of their reps assured me that their system is perfectly safe, and they’ve never had any issues. While they couldn’t get into the technical details of why you won’t get shocked, it’s a low-voltage system, so there’s no need to worry about safety. Häfele wouldn’t be offering this if there was any risk involved.
Can You Hide the Bus Bars?
Silver strips on the inside of your cabinets aren’t exactly a seamless look. Unfortunately, you can’t really hide them. The bars are recessed into the cabinet sides, but you’ll still see the metal on each side. You also can’t paint over them because the shelf contacts need to connect with the bus bars to get power, and any coating would block that connection.
Installing the System
It’s not easy but, you can retrofit it into your existing cabinets too. As long as you’re comfortable using a router to carve out space for the bus bars, it’s totally doable. It might be a bit more challenging than working with new cabinets, but it’s not impossible.
If you’re building a new home or remodeling your kitchen, installing this system will be a breeze because you can route the cabinets before they’re even installed. But if you’re tackling a retrofit, just make sure you have the right tools, like a router and bit, to get the job done.
Want shelf lighting without the wires?
If you're intrigued and want to try this out, head over to https://www.hafele.com/ and search for "adjustable shelf lighting." You’ll find everything you need to create this system in your own kitchen. And while the system itself isn’t crazy expensive, the priciest part of the whole project might be the router bit you’ll need to properly recess the lights and bus bars.
Want more tips on how to enhance your home’s lighting? Check out my Ultimate Home Building Checklist: https://builderbrigade.com/collections/home-building-checklists
