to the cottage guests now visiting our "Cottage Life" site! My name is Kim and I'd like to invite you to join my husband and me as we, project by project, turn our ordinary little ranch style house into a one-of-a-kind, old-fashioned cottage - and on a very small budget! If you love the charm and simplicity of days gone by, you'll feel right at home here. Please feel free to email me with your questions and comments...and remember to sign my cottage guestbook before you leave!


Sunday, April 16, 2006

Photos of Hardwired Undercabinet Kitchen Lighting and Primed Cabinets

Yeah, I know there isn't anything too exciting about photos of primed cabinets, but...they are my proof that my hands haven't been idle.

What I'm most excited about regarding this series of photos is the new hardwired undercabinet halogen lighting Jeff installed a while back. Thanks, Greg at Petch House, for inspiring us to do this project. I've explained before how we did it but I've never posted the photos of the finished project. I actually took these photos to show our newly double primed cabinets with the crown moulding hubs installed at the top, but I decided to flip the undercabinet light switch to also show you all what the lights look like. It's amazing the difference the halogen lighting makes...sometimes we find ourselves working in the kitchen with only the undercabinet lights on!

But first...I want to show you what our kitchen looked like when I dumped all the cabinet contents out in order to prep and prime the cabinets. We lived like this for about a week until hubs brought in an old armoire from the garage to temporarily keep in the kitchen to hold our stuff. WARNING: The following photo isn't pretty and should serve as a warning to any of you who may be contemplating painting your own kitchen cabinets...Click to enlarge (if you dare).



Ok...AFTER the mess is cleaned up and all the cabinets primed and the lights turned on, the photos are a little easier on the eyes. I apologize in advance for the myriads of nearly identical photos, but I'm just so garsh darn proud of the lights hubs installed. When we get the new countertops and backsplash installed, they'll look even better:)

Here is what the lights under the cabinets look like...see the light in it's recessed goodness? I think I still need another (fourth!) coat of red paint under there. Darn red paint!


Now on to what the lights look like turned on in the middle of the day. Maybe sometime I'll take some evening pictures.













Have a great Monday, everyone!

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posted by Kim at 11:19 PM

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View 11 comments from: Derek C, Christiane, Mom Underground, Shauna, Jordana, Kim, Denise A., Denise A., Anonymous, Jessica, Kim,
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11 Comments:

At 8:33 AM, Derek C said...

They look great. How did you hide the wires?

 
At 9:24 AM, Christiane said...

So... does your microwave vent hood just vent directly back into the kitchen? Or is there going to be another exit point? This has become a major issue with our kitchen, something about code requiring the vent to pipe the air outside...

 
At 10:17 AM, Mom Underground said...

Everything looks wonderful! Pat yourselves on the backs!! :)

 
At 1:03 PM, Shauna said...

Your kitchen looks so huge and spacious -- I love it (and the window above the sink makes me jealous because my kitchen proper is so dark).

Everything's coming along great!

 
At 5:45 PM, Jordana said...

It's looking wonderful in there. You guys are making great progress.

 
At 9:24 AM, Kim said...

Thanks, everyone!

Derek...we built a deadspace out of the recessed area under our cabinets and fed the wire through there. You can see exactly how we did that http://www.onewomanslife.com/home/2006/02/step-by-step-cabinet-makeover-hiding.html .

Hi Christiane! No, there is no other exit point. Our kitchen is actually an an addition the previous owners added several years ago and their old microwave vent hood didn't have a vent that went outside. We just replaced the old microwave with our new one and didn't do anything else. Hubs said our codes don't require it to his knowledge, but they may with new home construction. Then again, I have an aunt that lives in another county who was a newer home with no outside vent either. I found this little tidbit on another site: "Do all hoods vent to the outside?
No. Many vent hoods simply circulate the air within the room. Many building codes accepted this for a long time. Now many municipalities require outdoor venting systems, which are far more desirable than circulating systems." Hehe, I guess we have the less desirable circulating system...

Thanks again for the nice words, everyone! I'll be spending today painting...fun fun fun!

 
At 11:43 AM, Denise A. said...

Kim,

I would love to install undercabinet lighting like that! It is beautiful and very functional. I do not see any wires when you show the puck lighting under the already painted cabinet. How are they wired? Or are they batteries? Please share how you did this!

Thanks, Denise

 
At 11:47 AM, Denise A. said...

Okay, now that I have reviewed other's comments, I see someone else has already asked the question how did you do that, so you don't have to answer again :).

Thanks.

 
At 11:50 AM, Anonymous said...

The lights look wonderful! I have a question and this might have been addressed already so I apolize if you've answered this: how are the lights turned on and off? Is it a seperate switch for the under cabinet lighting? If so, how did you set that up?
Also, where did you get that great island?
Thanks,
maria in Illinois

 
At 5:01 PM, Jessica said...

Hey Kim! Wonderful sweet progress you have made! Your kitchen looks very much like it stepped out of the magazines! ANd its not even complete yet so how cool is that? =)
I know how that before/during project clutter is! Life is rather hectic during that period! Just add tons of putty dust and you will have our house. Looks like we havent dusted in a hundred years lol!
For memorial Kaian brushed up against the wall by the door when we were on our way out and came away with a sleeve full of white powder lol! =)
Anyway just stopping in to check in on you! Looks like all is going well...I have so much to post about...but its just been so busy here on this end.
Well take care & ta ta for now!

 
At 5:38 PM, Kim said...

THanks, Denise...if you have any other questions about the lighting, just let me know!

Hi Maria! Thank you! The lights are controled by a switch by the sink. If you look to the right of our coffee pot, you'll see the switch (we haven't put our faceplates on yet). This was done just by hardwiring the lights through the wall and to the switch. Because we will be adding a brick backsplash, we didn't mind tearing open a few small portions of the wall to run the wires.

ABout the island, I bought it at the Nashville Flea Market. There is a vendor there that makes furniture from old house parts. I think he lives in Atlanta and sells his stuff at various flea markets. I got this island for $450 which I think is a great deal for such a large and functional piece of furniture. The vendors name and address and phone number is one of my earlier entries. Try this link... http://www.onewomanslife.com/home/2005/07/farmhouse-furniture-photos.html

Hope this helps!

Good to hear from you Jessica...I've been wondering about you but I know you've been busy. Lol, I *so* know what you mean about the dust. Back when we were redoing our walls and sanding them, etc., I was always apologizing to people who came here and backed up against our walls! Whew! In a few months, we'll be working on our hallway and bathroom walls and I dread all that sanding dust again! Thanks for dropping in and your encouraging words...sometimes it seems like we'll never get finished, hehe!

 

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