Under Cabinet Lighting Made Easy :) With Tons of Colors!

My wife and I love our kitchen but have hated the lighting since we moved in. You couldn't see what you were preparing for dinner. This is a problem when breakfast lunch and dinner are all made right here at home. We needed light, and a lot of it!

Our Problem:
We decided to get some under cabinet lighting....easier said than done. All of the available options were too bulky for the small lip on the bottom of the cabinet...using them would have made our kitchen look a little more 'Back to the future' than we wanted what with all of the unnecessary stuff hanging in plain sight. The cooler options were MEGA expensive!

Our solution:
Purchase Sylvania "mosaic" decorative led light strips and throw em up there....one more problem, they're not really made to curve, bend, and separate by many feet at a time..Make it glow right?? Time to go to the local Radioshack and get my shopping on.

Here is an Instructable on how to get around and outside of THE BOX on these awesome LED's!

Step 1: Tools and Parts

Parts:
Intercom Wire (24 Gauge Solid 4 Conductors works perfectly with these strips) (Radioshack)
22-18 Gauge Crimping Butt Connectors (Radioshack)
Hot Glue
3M Double Sided Tape
And of course, Sylvania Mosaic LED light strips (Lowes or online)

Tools:
Wire Stripper
Wire Crimpers (for the butt connectors)
Drill with 5/8" Speedbor bit

Step 2: Making the Connectors Work for Us

As we needed to run different lengths of just wire, we needed to make their flexible connectors work in our favor.

The intercom wire works great as the male end and there is no need to salvage it on the connector. The solid wire pushes into the female end of the light strip very securely. (This is where you could add some hot glue just to make sure)

The female end of the connector is very important. When you cut the connector in half, make sure to keep enough length for the female end so the butt connections have enough wire.

Once you cut the wire, carefully strip off the white coating then VERY carefully strip the four conductors (they are delicate)

(Sorry no pic for the next step, had my hands full and was excited to get this project going)
Using the butt connectors, slide one end over a conductor and crimp it nicely as you can cut this wire easily. Make note of each color because you DO NO WANT TO CROSS ANY WIRES.

After you have butt connectors on all of the conductors, pull about 3" of the intercom wire apart and strip them. Then connect wires together.

Measure each length of 'just wire" you'll need and cut to length, adding some extra inches...just in case.

Step 3: Cutting Holes, Taping Cabinets, and Running New Lights!

Measuring the cabinet, we ran a line half the depth and put the double sided tape along the line. Before pulling the tacky protective strip, we cut the holes we needed between each set of cabinets.

After that, pull your light strips and wire through to the end, going up the cabinet to add light above the sink, also going above the exhaust hood to add light to that little cabinet at the end.

Tape the transformer (comes with the Sylvania light kit) up on the end and hopefully close to the receptacle to hide as much drop wire as possible. ...lol we used a plant to hid some of this...