A Light Trim

I kind of cheated when I took yesterday’s photo of the new under-cabinet lights. After I got them installed I noticed that you could see them. Not the light, of course you want to see that, but the fixtures themselves. It’s not really the end of the world but I just wasn’t expecting it. I expected it be light that appeared as if from no where. You know, like in the magazines. But when I looked at the cabinets I saw two, small metallic boxes protruding down an inch or so from the underside of the cabinets. It bugged me. When I sat at the table I really saw them. So when I took yesterday’s photo I stood on a chair. The vantage point in that photo is seen from the eye’s of someone who is about 8 or 9 feet tall.

To remedy the situation I decided to add a little trim under the cabinets to hide the fixtures. Here’s the really weird part: I bought trim – Gasp! I didn’t go to my wood pile and hunt for the prefect piece of redwood. I didn’t spend the next 45 minutes planing and trimming it to size. And I didn’t router a nice detail to it. I didn’t really want to fool with it too much so I went to the lumberyard and shelled out eight bucks for some pre-primed pine trim. I’m getting so lazy.

The fixtures hang down 1.25-inches so I didn’t need much. I just wanted something that would block the view when I was sitting at the table. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted at the lumberyard so I got something close and cut it down. I got 1X3 trim with a nice profile and cut it down to 1.75-inches. Because it was pre-primed I was able to cut it, nail it, and paint it all in one afternoon. Here’s how it looks.


This is the real view if you were about 5 feet tall.
The one on the left has the trim and the one on the right doesn’t.


Here is a close up after it is painted. I’m sitting at the table when I took this.
Much nicer, isn’t it?