Interior Design Help: Installing a valence light for room!

I need some help in selecting the correct 'line', 'array' or 'string' of LEDs for this project. I'm installing a valence under a bookshelf I have and only need the LEDs to shine a warm light on a wall about 4' wide. See the pics below of the front and back of the bookshelf (it's really small, from IKEA).

The beige is existing bookshelf.
The white is the additional wood I will add on (will be same colour/type of wood).

The rear shot shows my original idea of having mini lights angled to the wall so that I can illuminate a wide picture frame. Directly under the frame is a sofa by the way.

What LED suggestions do you guys have? I don't want super powerful LEDs and I don't want ones that are so weak that they won't fully illuminate my pictures below. I also want to install a dimmer switch on the off side of the bookshelf that won't be visible to most people. Can I buy a regular dimmer from Home Depot and use that? I read electrical stating these LEDs must be hooked up to a 12v source, but am unsure how I can hook this up to my exisiting power. The outlet is too far down for me to simply hook up an adapter, and I don't want exposed cables.

Thoughts?


With picture frame


Rear of bookshelf

1 or 2 floodlight leds would work fine. dimmer from home depot might not work since i think those are designed for 110v applications. in which you could probably just a florescent fixture that could fit in there that'd probably work better.

I'd probably use a 4 foot section of these LED strips in warm white: http://www.oznium.com/bright-flexible-led-ribbon-strips

Hooked up to this remote control dimmer switch with 8 levels of brightness: http://www.oznium.com/12v-remote-dimmer-strobe-switch

Powered by a 2 amp AC adapter: http://www.oznium.com/ac-adapter

So the output from the dimmer module to the LEDs needs to be hidden. You'll hide the AC adapter and dimmer module wherever your power outlet is, and then run the low voltage 12v wire up behind the wall and to the bookshelf.

Total cost of parts from Oznium: $136.90

Thanks guys, I actually have a 6' rope lighting kit from home depot that was 5.99, it shows a picture of it on a deck and under a cabinet as a valence light. I wonder if that will do the same trick?

Rope light will work but will not give a CRISP light like I think you want... the ROPE light is meant to GLOW on the ROPE not emit a pattern like you depicted.

You could use a dimmer switch on the wall and install the LEDs. Run the wiring thru the wall and up into the attic then change the 110v to 12v with an adapter ;) viola!

Cheap. Affordable. Efficient.

Use the SMDs Or the Ribbons:
http://www.oznium.com/led-ribbon

Get a 4t section to make it easy ;)

A wall dimmer switch isn't really going to work because it dims the 110v side (the placeholdersecond_0placeholdersecond_). There are some special wall dimmer switches that can do this, but they are not cheap.

Cool idea, and nice pictures . It sounds like your biggest challenge might be keeping the installation free of any visible wiring . There's pretty much no easy way around that, but the 12v power wire needed for an LED fixture doesn't need to be any bigger then the average paired speaker wire, so if you're willing to drill a hole up under the shelf and another near the base of the wall, you can fish the wire through and still remove it later without much evidence . I'm not sure how straight-forward actually fishing the wire is though since I've never done it before .
The next least visible alternative if fishing a wire through the wall isn't an option would be to use a flat white speaker wire . There are a lot of these, some are super-flat, almost like a thick tape, and can be painted over . They're made for running low-profile wires to surround sound speakers but can work for your LEDs just as easily .
The only other option I can think of would be to integrate batteries, which isn't very challenging from an installation perspective, but do you really want to replace batteries all the time, and worry about leaving it on too long and draining the juice ? :(

If you go the wired route you will need a dedicated power adapter that plugs into your wall and outputs 12v DC . They are available here on Oznium (the least expensive model, 2A & 19.99 will be more than enough), at RadioShack, and a ton of other places online .

You cannot use a regular AC dimmer switch from Home Depot (the kind you'd plug a lamp into) . The dimmer switch Phil linked here on Oznium will work great and comes with a remote, strobe function, etc, for $37 . If you don't need the remote and added features, and want something more low-key, check out this single one-channel dimmer slider at EcoLightLED for $13 . Its about as simple and straight-forward a dimmer switch as you can get . No features of note, but the price is right .

When I look at that picture and consider what actual LED source would be best, two things come to mind .
1. When you're sitting on the couch, especially leaning back, will the LEDs be shining in your eyes ? Or at least toward the upper periphery of your vision ? And if so, is that a problem ?
2. An LED source with an especially wide beam pattern might tend to direct the light at the art less and splash the light all down the wall and possibly the top of the couch as well .
To help determine if these are problems, how far out from the wall will the LEDs be ? (Depth of the shelf) . And how tall is the piece of artwork that you want to illuminate ? (Desired height of the beam pattern on the wall) . These concerns aside, the immediate and most obvious solution would be any LED strip in warm white (if you want to emulate the warmth of an incandescent bulb), but consider some strips have a narrower beam focus then others, which might actually be more desirable for you . For instance, these older style LED strips will likely cast a significantly more focused pool of light then a newer style like these, which list a 120 degree spread . (Note to Phil, what's the angle on the flathead strips ? Is it 40ish degrees like the first gen flexi-strips ?)

Lastly, don't use the rope light . By all means, test it out first just to get a first hand impression, but rope lights aren't made to 'cast' light onto things like LEDs are . In general, LEDs are a bit like track lighting in that they're great as spotlights to put light onto things and into interesting places, but its generally distracting to actually see the bare bulbs (or LEDs) themselves and you're usually better off just seeing the light they cast, and hiding the source itself to prevent direct viewing . Rope lights are sort of the opposite . They don't cast a meaningful beam of light in any particular directly, but they make a cool decorative feature for trimming furniture, bars, porches, stairs, etc with . So here direct viewing is a plus . There's exceptions for both of those rules, but I'm guessing when you test out the rope light you might not be satisfied with the brightness of the light it casts on your picture .

Nice job with the mock-up images above.. make sure you update us and let us know what you end up doing and above all -share pictures- !

Thanks guys about the rope light info and dimmer switch ideas! I actually tried out the rope light and as expected like some of you mentioned, it wasn't near as bright. Although the colour temperature was warm (the look that I was achieving), it didn't 'illuminate' the area I'd like my picture frames to go.

Cooper wrote:

Cool idea, and nice pictures .

Thanks!

Cooper wrote:

It sounds like your biggest challenge might be keeping the installation free of any visible wiring . There's pretty much no easy way around that, but the 12v power wire needed for an LED fixture doesn't need to be any bigger then the average paired speaker wire, so if you're willing to drill a hole up under the shelf and another near the base of the wall, you can fish the wire through and still remove it later without much evidence . I'm not sure how straight-forward actually fishing the wire is though since I've never done it before . The next least visible alternative if fishing a wire through the wall isn't an option would be to use a flat white speaker wire . There are a lot of these, some are super-flat, almost like a thick tape, and can be painted over . They're made for running low-profile wires to surround sound speakers but can work for your LEDs just as easily . The only other option I can think of would be to integrate batteries, which isn't very challenging from an installation perspective, but do you really want to replace batteries all the time, and worry about leaving it on too long and draining the juice ?

I think I'll try the fishing option, it was my goal all along to have the wire run through the wall, however I can't 'hide' the A/C adapter in the wall so it will have to be plugged in where there is a jack, just below the shelf (this jack will be hidden by the sofa). Am I missing something here, or is there a better way of wiring the 12V LED string light directly to my house (i.e. internally through the wall jack's wiring)?

Cooper wrote:

If you go the wired route you will need a dedicated power adapter that plugs into your wall and outputs 12v DC . They are available here on Oznium (the least expensive model, 2A & 19.99 will be more than enough), at RadioShack, and a ton of other places online.

If I can't do it internally, and have to use an adapter, I'll probably use an old 12V adapter I have around the house, thanks!

Cooper wrote:

You cannot use a regular AC dimmer switch from Home Depot (the kind you'd plug a lamp into) . The dimmer switch Phil linked here on Oznium will work great and comes with a remote, strobe function, etc, for $37 . If you don't need the remote and added features, and want something more low-key, check out this single one-channel dimmer slider at EcoLightLED for $13 . Its about as simple and straight-forward a dimmer switch as you can get . No features of note, but the price is right.

I probably won't need the remote style dimming as I'll want to hard-wire everything in a console under the shelf. That EcoLight LED dimmer looks sweet! It mentions: 'This is in a raw format, it needs to be placed in a box or enclosure to ensure the safety operation of this dimmer' --where can I get a suitable fit box/enclosure?

Cooper wrote:

When I look at that picture and consider what actual LED source would be best, two things come to mind . 1. When you're sitting on the couch, especially leaning back, will the LEDs be shining in your eyes ? Or at least toward the upper periphery of your vision ? And if so, is that a problem ? 2. An LED source with an especially wide beam pattern might tend to direct the light at the art less and splash the light all down the wall and possibly the top of the couch as well . To help determine if these are problems, how far out from the wall will the LEDs be ? (Depth of the shelf) . And how tall is the piece of artwork that you want to illuminate ? (Desired height of the beam pattern on the wall) . These concerns aside, the immediate and most obvious solution would be any LED strip in warm white (if you want to emulate the warmth of an incandescent bulb), but consider some strips have a narrower beam focus then others, which might actually be more desirable for you . For instance, these older style LED strips will likely cast a significantly more focused pool of light then a newer style like these, which list a 120 degree spread . (Note to Phil, what's the angle on the flathead strips ? Is it 40ish degrees like the first gen flexi-strips ?)

1. See new 'overall' pic below, the back of sofa is about 1 1/2 feet thick incl. cushions, so no light will shine on anyone's head, especially if I angle the LED lights slightly against the wall. Emphasis on 'slightly angled'!

2. Here are some numbers (take a look at pic below for reference):
Height of sofa (bottom to top): 36"
Height from top of sofa to bottom of small bookshelf: 28" (** So I pretty much have 28" of room to play with, minus 2" maybe as my oak strip valence will take some room)
Height of bookshelf (bottom to top): roughly 6"
Dimensions of bookshelf: length 3' 10"; width 6", height 6"
My picture frames are only 4x6's and a few 5x5's. I also might consider installing a small flat shelf just above the sofa and put picture frames + small plants on that and have it illuminated.

So you can see it's not a large bookshelf, and as the mockups above show, I've purchased a 2" wide and 4' long piece of oak (x2) to act as a valence, hiding the LED modules inside.

Ideas?

Overall:

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