I thought it was a little dark in my kitchen area so I built some "rock lights" to mount under my kitchen cabinets. Under the cabinets is the kitchen counter that connects with the family room. Removing the cabinets would really open up the room but it would also decrease our kitchen storage by 70% so they're staying.

This is the kitchen with the family room in the background.



The kitchen lights are bright and are only really used when we're in the kitchen. I was looking for something that was a little more subtle and could be on a timer so they were on when we woke up and off after we're asleep.

I bought some LED's, wood, wire and aluminum and got to building. I decided to channel the backside of the wood to hide the wiring and make it as clean as I could since not much of the cabinet is hidden.

Here are the wood pieces.



Heatsinks



LED's



These are the 4 leds strung up. Now you can see why I used the wood to cover everything up.



Here it is mocked up on the garage floor. Should be able to take it in, nail it up and turn it on...



It ended up not being that easy. I could have easily used 4 more sets on hands but honestly they would have been in the way. This portion was a major PITA. It became a bigger pain the second time I had to do it after I mucked up the first go run. Lot's on duct tape and cribbing.



Finally got it up and working. Just awaiting some sanding and painting.



Mood lighting. Our counter pretty much has this much crap on it all the time so it gave a good idea of what to expect with shadows and light output. All the other lights in the house were off so you can see the amount of light they put out. It's plenty without being too much. Perfect enough for food prep or even sitting down watching tv.



Shot from down the hallway. I have it turn on just before I get up so I have some light to work with. All the other lights are too bright and I like to slip out before anyone wakes up. This also gives us some light to make it back to our bedroom with at night.



These LED's are the same as my rocklights, just powered differently. I've had a lot of fun with the LED on the 4runner (dome lights, rock lights, under hood lights, area light)so I thought I'd bring them inside. My next project is eave lighting around the exterior of my house. I'm about 98% complete with that project (11 total), fun stuff.