We love Philips Hue lighting in our home and have lots of different Philips Hue lighting around the home, so this post is going to share with you how we used the Philips Hue light strips in our kitchen and how to install Philips Hue light strips under kitchen cabinets.
Video Of How To Install Under Kitchen Cabinet Lighting
We have used the Philips Hue strip lights in our lounge fireplace and built-in desk, and we love the atmosphere it gives off, so being able to add it under the kitchen units was a great idea for our home. It allowed us to have control over the lighting, tieing it in with all the other Philips Hue lighting within the app, creating a warm atmosphere or turning it to practical lighting when using the kitchen.
Philips Hue lighting is bar far the best smart controlled lighting on the market, you have so many options within the app, it’s easy to use, always works well and can be controlled in lots of ways, including voice control. As we had lots of Philips Hue lighting installed in our home already, we are all set up and can easily add it to our app to combine with the other lights. It’s also fantastic because you can match the lighting to suit the different fixtures in the kitchen, from the kitchen tapware to the cabinetry hardware.
We had an extension built and when I was planning the electrical plan I always had in my head we would use as many of the Philips Hue smart light bulbs and Philips Hue light strips as we could, I love the different colours and options you can pick. I also love that I can turn off the lights from my bed if I forget!
So we had a plug socket installed above our kitchen units, you cannot see this normally, so it was a perfect place for the Philips Hue light strip power adapter to be installed for the under kitchen cabinets. So keep this in mind when you are planning you’re under kitchen cabinet lighting, and keeping the power source close enough for the power cable to reach.
What Philips Hue light strip Do I Need To Install Under Kitchen Cabinet Lighting
You need to pay attention to the types of Philips Hue light strips that you purchase, there are two different versions. One with Bluetooth (Philips Hue Light Strip V4) and one without (Philips Hue Light Strip V3) we used the V4 version as we already had a set that we had before, and needed to combine. You cannot mix the two versions together if you want to extend the light strip, so please be aware of this when purchasing.
The V4 version means you don’t need to have a Philips Hue bridge, you can just plug them in and use them. The V3 versions mean using the bridge to connect up to, so once you’ve plugged in the Philips Hue Light Strip you connect via the Philips Hue bridge to use them, both need a power supply, so make sure one is nearby.
What If I Have An Area Where I Don’t Want To Light with the Philips Hue Light Strip?
Typically when you’re going to install Philip Hue Light Strips under your kitchen cabinets, you will have an area where you don’t want to light up, ours was the extractor fan area, so we had to think about how to achieve this by using the Philips Hue system but have areas of darkness.
You need to purchase an extra connecting cable that is a blanker, it connects to the Philips Hue light strip but does not light up, and re-connects to the area you then want to light up. The blanker cable is this thin black one, we hung a nail on the end of it so we could let it drop down the back of the kitchen units and not struggle to squeeze it in between.
We had ours plugged in at the top lefthand corner, a Philips Hue light strip around the corner left under kitchen units, then a blanker cable running up the back left-hand corner, along the top of the units, down the right-hand corner and then joining on to the Philips Hue Light Strip in the right-hand under corner units.
Can You Cut Philips Hue Light Strip?
On each of the light strips you will see sections where you can cut the Philips hue light strips, these are the best led strip lights for under-cabinet lighting as you can move the lights around, and by adding in the blanker cable, you can have lots of different sections of lights. When you cut the Philips hue light strip you can use a cut-end connector to join the light system together, this branches in between the sections to keep the electricity flowing through them all.
This is how you join the extension set of Philips Hue light strips on, using the little connector.
How To Install Philips Hue Light Strips Under Kitchen Cabinets
The Philips Hue light strip comes with an adhesive backing to the LED lights so you don’t need to worry about how to attach them. But the first thing you need to cut the light strip to the length you want. Along the length of the smart light strips are little cut signs and dotted lines to cut along, you must cut on this straight line otherwise the light strip won’t work.
Once you’ve cut the Philips Hue light strip you can peel the included adhesive backing off the hue light strip set and run it along the surface you want to attach it to.
We’ve found the double-sided tape attaches to the surface really well. We’ve installed them on painted surfaces, wood, and kitchen cabinets. The light strips are flexible and have some movement in them, so they are easy to install on multiple surfaces and not always a flat surface.
When installing the Philips Hue light strip under kitchen cabinets you want to make sure you get the positioning correct, we installed ours too close to the front pelmet, so we are left with a shadow on the worktop. If you moved them back towards the wall direction you would light up more of the worktop, play around with the positioning before you stick them to the surface. Be aware you don’t want to see them though, as they aren’t too nice to look at and look nice hidden.
How Do You Control The Philips Hue Light Strips For Under Kitchen Cabinets
If you’re looking at controlling your Philips Hue light strips, then you have many options. Using the Philips Hue app you can have them on a timer, so they come on at set times and turn off at set times, if you don’t want it being a perfect set time each day, you can even set them so it’s slightly random, but around the times you set. It also doesn’t have to be the same on the weekdays as it is at the weekends. You can use your smart home devices like the google assistant, amazon alexa, and Apple homekit to control with your voice, I can walk into our family home and ask Google to ‘Turn on the kitchen and desk lights‘ and they both come on for me!
If you would prefer, you can use a light switch, yes a battery-powered, wireless light switch! You can have this put up on the wall wherever you want, or even keep it loose so it can be moved around. Philips Hue makes a motion sensor that you can place near the kitchen lights if you only want it to come on when you come close to the kitchen cabinets, this can be set for how long you want the lights on and what brightness level too.
What Colours Can I Use For The Under Kitchen Cabinet Lighting?
Any you want! You can use these Philips Hue light strip to show up different colours and pick any colour you want, you can pick from 16 million colours. Which can include a colour temperature, a cool white light or a warm white, the lights can be functional, or even mix it up when it comes to your home and have a shot of colour.
If you connect these to the Philips Hue bridge, you can unlock even more features, adding routines, and timers, when you are at home or away and even sync the music with the music or films!
As you can see there are so many functions from these Philips Hue light strips so they are a fantastic option for your kitchen lighting, and as they are so easy to install you don’t have to get any electricians in to install them for you. Just as long as you have a standard plug socket and the correct products, at your own risk your be up and running in no time! I am very pleased we’ve added another Philips Hue product to our home, it won’t be the last!
I’ve also noticed Philips Hue is now offering a gradient light strip, this looks great as the colours are much better blended and you can’t see the little lights so easily. It also looks like it can be cut and extended easily too.
Note – Please be aware Philips Hue makes two versions of these light strips, and they have different pin connectors, so you need to make sure you’re getting the correction set. V3 is NOT Bluetooth compatible and needs a Philips Hue Bridge, and V4 is Bluetooth and can be run with Bluetooth but can unlock more features when connected to the bridge. You cannot cut and connect two different sets.