- We have hardwired pucks at the top of each glass display cabinet.

- Use glass shelves so the light goes through to bottom of cab.

- Our display cabinets are on separate switches from the under cab lights for a couple reasons
1. We use the under cab lights a lot but don't always have a need to show off stuff in the display cabs.
2. Our lights run hot and I suspect a little pricey to replace so no sense in having them on all the time.

Jodi-

We also have a single, hardwired puck light at the top of each of our (2) glass cabinets. We just put in glass shelves (that I got for Christmas, yay!) and the light now lights up the entire cabinet. Granted, our cabinets are not stuffed, so the light has "room" to shine around the items.

Unlike Jodi, though, our under cabinet & inside cabinet lights are on the same switch...and I wish they weren't (one of the things I missed on our lighting plan...back when I was a newbie!)

So regardless of your final lighting, I recommend a separate switch like Jodi has.

There are other options, especially if you plan to fill the glass doored cabinets completely. I remember someone here talking about lights that ran vertically from the cabinet floor to the top of the cabinet. I think they were mounted on the front face frame of each side of the cabinet and faced inward. Hopefully someone who knows about them will chime in.

My favorite are T5 fluorescent strip lights. Either hard-wired to a switch, or plugged in to a switched outlet. Very bright, very compact (3/4" x 1.5" x desired length). Google "T5," and you'll find a ton of online suppliers. If you prefer a puck, many often install halogen pucks, because they're bright and directional; however, they generate a lot of heat and use quite a bit of energy. LEDs are extremely energy efficient and generate extremely little heat; however, most commonly available LED pucks aren't very bright. There are LED pucks that are as bright as halogens, but they're several hundred dollars each.

Thanks so much for the replies... this forum is so cool! I'm working on an ultra mordern kitchen and currently roughing in in preparation for cabinet install.

The glass shelves... never thought of that. My glass cabinets are 27 inches wide... where do I get these shelves made to fit?

I am liking the hardwired puck light on a separate switch. I have read about other high tech LED options. There's one from a company called Eluma but they are pretty expensive. Spending more than $150 on lighting 2 cabinets is probably outside of my budget for in-cabinet lights.

Thanks again

By the way, on one of our lighted display cabs, the separate switch is not on the wall. Instead, our contractor mounted it under the cabinet itself. It's a small, black, simple twist on/off dimming switch and is hidden from view by the same molding that hides the under-cab lights. Perfect solution for us since we did not want any other wall switches to clutter up the backsplash.

Jodi-