Under-cabinet lighting: the shadow-free setup for UK kitchens
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Mike's quick answer
Fit LED strip in an aluminium profile with a diffuser, or a linear bar, towards the front of the wall units rather than against the wall. Aim for 400–600 lumens per metre in the same colour temperature as your ceiling lights, CRI 90 or more, on a dimmer. Pucks are fine for shelves and accents but leave pools and gaps on a worktop.
Ceiling lights in a kitchen sit behind you when you stand at the worktop. Lean in to chop something and your head and shoulders throw a shadow exactly where you’re looking. Brighter downlights don’t fix it; they just make a darker shadow.
Under-cabinet lighting does, because it sits between you and the worktop, with nothing left to cast a shadow. It’s one of the cheapest upgrades that makes a kitchen nicer to cook in. What decides how well it works is the type of light, where you fix it and how bright it is, roughly in that order.
Strip, puck or linear bar
| LED strip | Pucks | Linear bar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light on the worktop | Even, continuous | Pools with darker gaps | Even, continuous |
| Looks | Hidden in a profile | Visible round fittings | Slim but visible |
| Fitting | Cut to length, needs a driver | Easiest | Set lengths that link together |
| Rough cost | About £10–£30 a metre with profile, plus a driver | About £10–£25 a puck | About £15–£40 a bar |
| Best for | Long runs, modern kitchens | Shelves, short runs, accents | Quick, tidy task light |
LED strip is what I’d choose for most kitchens. It runs the full length of the units, so the light on the worktop is even from end to end, and it can be cut to fit any run. The catch is the finish. Bare strip shows a row of bright dots, and those dots reflect in a gloss or polished worktop. Put it in an aluminium profile with an opal diffuser and you see a smooth line of light instead. COB strip, where the LEDs sit so close together they read as one line, gets you most of the way without a diffuser, though a profile still helps it last.
Puck lights are small round fittings, usually 60 to 80mm across, each throwing a pool of light. Along a worktop that means bright circles with darker scallops between them, and you’d need them about every 30cm to even it out. Where they shine is under open shelves, in glass-fronted cabinets, over a coffee station, or in a traditional kitchen where a row of brass or nickel pucks looks right. Battery pucks are handy in a rental but dimmer, and they need recharging.
Linear bars are rigid fittings with the LEDs, diffuser and often the driver built in. They give the same even light as a good strip, they’re quicker to fit because there’s nothing to cut, and many link together with short leads. You can see the bar more than a strip in a profile, and you’re limited to the lengths they come in, so a run might end a little short of the cabinet.
Where to fix it: the front edge
This matters as much as the type. The most common mistake is fixing the light at the back, against the wall. It lights the splashback brightly, shows every dot in a gloss tile, and leaves the front of the worktop, where you actually work, in comparatively poor light.
Fix it towards the front of the cabinet instead, about 5 to 7cm back from the front edge, so it’s hidden behind the bottom of the door or a light pelmet. An angled profile that points the light back towards the wall is even better: the worktop is lit evenly and the light never shines into your eyes.
Run the light the full length of each run of wall units, as close to the ends as the fittings allow. A strip that stops 20cm short of the end leaves a dark patch exactly where people put the kettle. If the cabinets have a frame or lip on the underside, fix the light below it or inside the recess, never above it where the frame blocks the light.
How bright: lumens per metre
Wall units usually sit about 45 to 50cm above the worktop, so the light doesn’t have far to travel. That’s why the numbers are lower than people expect.
Alongside ceiling downlights, 400 to 600 lumens per metre is enough for chopping and reading a recipe. If the under-cabinet light is your main worktop light, or you have dark worktops that soak up light, go up to about 800. For a soft glow rather than task light, 200 to 350 is plenty. A 3m run at 500 lumens per metre gives 1,500 lumens, all of it within half a metre of the worktop.
Check the lumens per metre on the spec, not the watts, which vary between strips. And look for CRI 90 or above: it’s what makes food, wood and stone look the right colour. For the whole room, the kitchen lumens guide works through the numbers.
The best setup is a brighter strip on a dimmer: full output for cooking, turned right down for a glow in the evening.
Colour temperature: match the ceiling
Under-cabinet lights should be the same white as your ceiling lights. In most kitchens that’s 3000K, warm enough to feel homely and clear enough to work under. If your downlights are 4000K, match them at 4000K. A 2700K strip under 3000K downlights looks yellow, and a 4000K strip next to warm downlights looks blue-grey.
If you can’t decide, tunable white strip lets you change between warm and cool, though it needs a compatible controller and costs more. There’s more on choosing whites in the kitchen colour temperature guide.
Wiring: hardwired, plug-in or battery
Hardwired is the neatest. The cable runs hidden through the units or the wall, and the lights come on from a wall switch, a sensor or a smart switch. It’s the usual choice in a new kitchen or a renovation, and it’s a job for an electrician, who’ll know whether the work needs notifying under Part P of the Building Regulations. Ask for it before the units go in, because running cable afterwards is fiddly.
Plug-in kits run from a worktop socket. They’re fine for renters or a quick upgrade: choose one with a switch on the lead so you’re not reaching behind the toaster, and route the cable along the back corner of the units. Rechargeable bars with motion sensors need no wiring at all and stick or clip in place. They’re less bright and need charging regularly, but they’re a decent stop-gap.
LED strip runs at 12 V or 24 V from a driver. On runs longer than a few metres, 24 V holds its brightness to the far end better than 12 V. Size the driver at least 20% above the strip’s total wattage: 3m of strip at 10 W a metre is 30 W, so a 40 W driver or bigger. If you want to dim it, the driver must be dimmable and suit your dimmer, otherwise you’ll get flicker; fixing LED flicker and buzz covers the usual causes.
Fitting tips for a clean finish
Power the strip and lay it out before you fix anything. Check the colour is what you expected, the brightness is even, and no section is dead. Cut only on the marked cut points, and use proper connectors or solder at corners rather than sharp folds.
Clips in an aluminium profile hold better than the strip’s own adhesive, which can let go over time with the warmth from the kettle and hob. Fit end caps on the profiles, and plan the cable route through the back of the carcass so nothing hangs down. The matt black kitchen below shows the result you’re after: one even line, no dots, no visible cable.
Galley, dark and open-plan kitchens
In a galley kitchen, light both sides. Ceiling lights in a narrow room put shadows on whichever worktop you face, and strips under both runs of wall units make the room feel wider. The galley kitchen lighting guide has more.
Dark units and dark worktops absorb light, so go towards the higher end of the lumens range, and prefer a matt worktop finish or a well-diffused strip so you don’t get bright reflections. In an open-plan kitchen, put the under-cabinet lights on their own dimmer: bright for cooking, then turned down to a glow when you sit down to eat, so the kitchen doesn’t glare across the room. If you’d like that on a scene button, see smart kitchen lighting scenes. The same strip also works along plinths and on top of wall units, covered in LED strip lighting for kitchens.
What I'd buy
Affiliate linksFAQs
How far from the front should under-cabinet lights go?
About 5 to 7cm back from the front edge of the cabinet, hidden behind the door’s bottom edge or a pelmet. That puts the light on the worktop rather than the splashback.
Can I fit under-cabinet lighting myself?
Plug-in kits and rechargeable bars, yes. Hardwired lighting connected to the mains is a job for an electrician.
Should under-cabinet lights match my downlights?
Yes, use the same colour temperature, usually 3000K. Brightness can differ; the colour shouldn’t.
Are puck lights outdated?
No, they’re just suited to different jobs. Under shelves, in display cabinets and in traditional kitchens they look right. For an even, shadow-free worktop, strip or linear bars do better.
How many lumens do I need under kitchen cabinets?
400 to 600 lumens per metre alongside downlights, up to about 800 if the strip is the main worktop light or the worktops are dark.
Why can I see dots reflected in my worktop?
The strip is bare or the diffuser is too thin. Fit it in a profile with an opal diffuser, or switch to COB strip, and move it towards the front of the cabinet.
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