I like what you are planning to do.. Something to think about for now..

Costco sells these little stick on push and click lights.. three AA batteries run the Led’s.. and although they are a bit spotlight ish.. you can get an idea of what it will be like.. and there is absolultly no need for drilling holes or making changes to install them.

** Led Light ** are white lights.. and not the yellowish color common to tungsten lighting..

We don’t use our kitchen very often and when we are.. the sun lights it up so we haven’t had a need to turn on the lights.. Batteries work really well for us..

Good luck!

k before you start you will need to change the outlet to a GFCI by the sink code requires you to have one by where every there is water also you need to check the amp rating on the breaker to see if it can handel it and yes you can do just make a list of thing you r going to need and go to a home improvent store like lowes or home depot and show and then explain to them and they will help you

Yes, you can do this. Go to Home Depot and they sell Xenon under counter lighting there.

You have a beautiful kitchen…

I can tell you this is not something you want to do by yourself in you kitchen. Sometimes you just gotta know when to leave it to someone who knows. The N.E.C. states that lighting cannot be a part of the small appliance circuits. To be code compliant and safe you have to get this done right and a residential electrician is the right choice for the job. The first thing to do is find a journeyman residential electrician. Ask friends, builders or visit places where homes are being built and talk to them. Explain what you have in mind and offer them enough to make it worth their time to do it right. It could turn into a 6 hour job to do this and I would gladly pay $300 to have it done right. This may sound like a lot of money and it is for some, but a good residential electrician can avoid damage to the walls, tiles, countertops, and cabinets and save very expensive and time consuming repairs. It will also get done right so that when it’s time to sell you don’t have to fail a home inspection because of a code violation and the expenses of correcting the violations. This is probably not what you wanted to hear but it truely is the best advice. Good luck.

Absolutely get the wiring in the walls before you do ANYTHING else in the kitchen – at best, further work will interfere with the wiring – at worst, you could end up having to tear stuff out that you just put in, to get into the wall.

If you want puck lights (and by the way, pay the extra $4/bulb for Xenon – they burn much cooler than Halogens do), you’ll have a remote transfomer to step the 120v down the the 12v the lights requires. HomeDepot/Lowes have puck light kits complete with the transformer. If the lead from the pucks to the transformer is long enough, the easiest thing would be to put the transformer up on top of the cabinets. The transformer plugs into a receptacle, so I’d just wire a receptacle at the top of each cabinet. I assume when you say crown, you’re talking about on top of the upper cabinets? If so, everything will be hidden by the molding.

Looking at your picture, I’d put two pucks under each of the single cabinets, and 4 or 5 under the corner cabinet. The light kits come in 1, 3, and 5 light kits (you don’t have to use all the lights). I’d put a receptacle near the corner to cover all the lights in that row of cabinets, and a second above the single cabinet to the right of the sink.

Since you’re going to be putting a backsplash in, I’d open the drywall above the counters to run the wiring. Cut a hole above the cabinets for an “old work box”, and fish down the wall to pull the romex up. For esthetics, I would put the switch for the undercabinet lights in the same junction box as the garbage disposal, making a 2-gang switch, rather than two singles near each other. In your case this is going to mean opening the wall and ripping out the existing single gang box. But you’re going to cover it all with backsplash anyway, so no worries.

On the subject of the kitchen small-appliance circuit and undercabinet lights– this is always a fun one in the electrician forums. Best to play it safe and power these receptacles off a general lighting and receptacles circuit. If you don’t have easy access to a circuit on the other side of the wall, you can tap into the refrigerator outlet (the fridge is supposed to on 15A branch circuit seperate from the small appliance circuits).

Finally, to Myke_Cyndy — Time for new glasses, Myke. The “GFCI protected device” stickers are clearly visible on all of the receptacles in the picture. As for “check(ing) the amp rating on the breaker to see if it can handle it”. What’s to check? It’s a kitchen countertop small appliance circuit — by code, it’s 20A.