Taking the Kitchen to Task

Earlier this week we mentioned our trip to Ikea’s BYOF event. We picked up a few things for around the apartment.

Though it may be upside down in the photo above, one of the important things we picked up was the Ledberg light kit.

If you recall from our 2013 Goals, one of those is to make our small kitchen more functional. And one HUUUUGE change in a small package is to add task lighting over the sink.

Presently the only light in the kitchen is a boob light on the ceiling. But the switch for it is out in the hall. Yes, your thought is correct, that doesn’t make any sense.

ikea knobo kitchen counter @ bandbbuildalife.com — See that boob light on the ceiling? That’s the only light in the room. Which for a small room isn’t so bad. Trouble is, the angle of the light leaves the sink area kind of dark. And with the switch not in a logical place it drives me crazy!
To see more of our kitchen, check back here to our butcher block addition, or here for our spice rack redo.

So we decided to add an led light under our open shelf to brighten up under the sink and make those middle-of-the-night runs to the sink for a glass of water just a little easier.

Conveniently, the outlet behind the fridge was the perfect spot to plug the kit into. ….just reaching it was tricky.

Next Bill measured and marked where we wanted the led light strip to go on the underside of the shelf. The kit came with clips and shallow screws to secure it to the bottom of a cabinet.

Next you slide the led strip into the clips. I asked Bill to pose for this one as I had stopped taking photos and was helping, and we had to go back and take a few shots before finishing up. So, this was the monkey face I got. He’s freakishly convincing sometimes. 😛

Then it was simply a matter of deciding on the switch location, mounting it with a command strip and neatly securing the cording with some command cord-hooks I had hanging around.

This low-angle view will give you an idea of where we placed it. Centered on the shelf so that the light bounced around well, and so that the mugs didn’t block all the light. Also, by mounting it a few inches back from the front of the shelf, the light bar isn’t visible at a natural eye level.

And there you have it, a little light fill comparison. I’m sort of in love with it and love to go into the kitchen at night now. The chrome and stainless steel of the sink really shines now, and the wine glasses seem to sparkle more now too.