Adding lighting strips to your home can be a great way to highlight an area and make it stand out.
Here are 21 Ways to Decorate Your Home with LED Light Strips.
1. Desk:
If you spend a lot of time working at a desk then you might want to spice it up. Not only will this look cool, but also by doing this it also puts less strain on your eyes of working in the dark.
As well as this depending on your system for controlling these LEDs you can get them to sync to your screen, or music that you’re playing!
Rxment has great lights that can be controlled via remote too. Check them out on Amazon for full details.
For adding LEDs to a desk I recommend that you apply the LED Strip to the rear edge of the desk. If you have cable guttering along the back of your desk you can use this to adjust the LEDs to glow up the wall behind your desk.
2. Display Cases:
Most people have a display case of some description in their home which is an extremely useful and easy place to add accent lighting.
Whether it be where you keep your tech devices or ornaments being able to light this independently to the rest of the room allows it to become a focal point within the room.
For adding LEDs to a display case I recommend that you apply the LED Strip to the top-rear of the case. This is so the light spills onto everything within the display, without blinding anyone looking at it.
3. Kitchen Cupboards:
Underlighting your kitchen cupboards is something that I recommend everyone does and is a great first LED lighting project for your home.
Doing this allows you to set a night-mode for your kitchen so that if you need to get a glass of water in the middle of the night, you’re not going to have to turn all the lights on–waking yourself up. But also lets you give your home a party mood at the press of a button.
To add LEDs to kitchen cupboards I recommend using stronger adhesive than the supplied double sided tape that comes on the LED Strips. Philips Hue light strips, for example, are great lights, but their adhesive is lacking. Check out the reviews on them to see other customers comment on this.
This is because there is often a lot of moisture in the kitchen, especially from kettles and stovetop which untacks the cheaper double-sided tape.
4. Bathroom Mirror:
Much like the kitchen cupboard LEDs, backlighting your bathroom mirror is extremely beneficial as a night-light. If you need to get up and use the toilet in the night you can just use these LEDs instead of waking yourself up by turning on your main light.
Additionally to this, it will also make getting ready and doing makeup easier. It gives you a direct light–much like the lights used in dressing rooms and salons.
Adding LEDs to a bathroom mirror will be dependant on the style of mirror. But I again recommend using a stronger adhesive as the bath/shower will produce a lot of condensation which untacks cheaper tape.
The main issue you may face is how to power your LEDs, for me this was not an issue as I extended the LED cable into the bathroom cupboard which has mains power. But you may need to power it from a neighboring room.
DO NOT RUN MAINS DIRECTLY TO WHERE YOU ARE PUTTING THE LEDs, LED TAPE ONLY OPERATES AT 12V SO IS A SAVE VOLTAGE TO TOUCH–IF UNSURE CONSULT AN ELECTRICIAN.
5. Picture Frames:
Adding LEDs around your picture frame is definitely something slightly flashy for the average home. Depending on the artwork LEDs could really compliment it. Especially if the artwork has used UV paints and the LEDs being used are blacklights.
Adding LEDs to a picture frame I recommend attaching it to either:
- The inside edge between the frame and the glass
- The outside of the frame flush with the wall
This will be dependant on the artwork and is more a personal preference.
Lighting a picture frame will present you with one issue which is the cables as these will be visible from the frame down towards you plugs. To do this I recommend that you either use the wall cavity for your cabling or paint the thin LED cables the same color as your wall and run them flush.
6. Shelf:
Using LEDs to light a shelf has multiple purposes, either to under-light the shelf itself which allows you to light the below shelf or the wall beneath. Alternatively, you place the LEDs at the rear of the shelves top, this will allow you to under-light the items on the shelf
When I light my shelves I use the underlighting method, this is the lower shelves items are better lit. Adding LEDs to your shelves will depend on which method you go for:
- If underlighting your shelves you’ll want to use some better adhesive, this is because otherwise, the shelf will slowly fall off–which has happened to me…
- If backlighting your shelves you can just place the LEDs directly on the shelf as gravity is working on your side here.
In both these examples you’ll need to run your LED cables downwards to your plugs, for this I recommend using the corner point of your shelves and painting the wire the same as the wall behind.
7. Bed:
LEDs are a great addition to your bed frame, if you use LEDs on both the headboard and underneath your bed then you can create the illusion of a floating bed.
You can also combine this lighting with a motion sensor, so when you get out of bed the lights will illuminate, and likewise, if the motion sensor hasn’t been set off for a time period then they will automatically turn off.
Adding LEDs to your bed will be dependant on what kind of bed frame you have, but the main requirement is to hide the LEDs as best as possible as otherwise, this ruins the illusion.
8. Computer Lighting:
LEDs in gaming PCs are extremely common and most come with some form of RGB LEDs as standard. Adding these to a smart home lighting system could be an extremely cool addition.
How you add LEDs to your PC will be dependant on your case, but in most cases, you can add LEDs around the frame of your computer, you’ll need a hole for the wires to leave your PC but most backplates do have an available hole.
9. Inside Cupboards:
In my bathroom, we have a cupboard, which if the door is open completely blocks the bathroom light. To combat this I added an LED strip into the cupboard which illuminates the cupboard.
For the control of this, you could either use a motion sensor or add it to the light switch if using a system that supports it.
Putting these LEDs in your cupboard is extremely easy as you can attach these LEDs above the door, illuminating the whole cupboard without blinding you.
10. Inside Closets:
Much like the bathroom cupboard, the wardrobe doors may block the light into the wardrobe, adding LEDs to the interior of the wardrobe will allow you to see everything within.
For both the cupboard and wardrobe I recommend generic white LEDs opposed to full RGB as it’s cheaper and you don’t really need full RGB control for the inside of a cupboard/wardrobe.
11. Fish Tanks:
Fishtanks are awesome, and water carries light extremely well! This fact combined with LED lights leads to a cool looking fish tank!
When adding lights to your fish tank be careful and make sure to use waterproof tape. Whilst the LEDs won’t be submerged in the water it’s still important to avoid short-circuiting and damaging the power-supply.
Don’t worry at 12V the risk to electrocuting your fish is extremely low as they’re not grounded.
12. Plant Lighting:
Plants love light, and if you look after plants then LEDs can help a lot! Some studies have found that providing plants with pink lights will promote growth. Depending what style of LEDs you get you could even entangle them throughout the plants like a miniature Christmas tree!
13. Underneath Sofa:
Depending on the design of your sofa, underlighting may be the perfect accompaniment to it and can give the illusion of a floating coach. As well as making your sofas look perfect for a house party.
Adding lights for your sofas you’ll want to put them pointed towards the floor attached to the underside, for this you’ll want to use additional tape to secure the LEDs as the fabric underneath is not the best for adhesion.
14. TV Backlight:
Much like backlighting your desk, another area that you may want to backlight is your television. Like the desk, it will not only look cool but also put less strain on your eyes when watching.
Depending on what system you use for controlling these LEDs there are many that will sync with the screen creating an edge blend, some TVs even have this built in such as the Philips Ambilight system.
For adding LEDs to the rear of your television I recommend that you tape it around the rear edge, adding extra support tape around the corners as these areas are most likely to come unstuck.
15. Along Skirting Board:
Depending on how often you host parties this one may not be for you. But adding LEDs along your skirting board helps illuminate the whole room creating the perfect part environment.
You can even get systems that will cause the LEDs to pulse with the music playing.
For applying these LEDs gravity will again work in your favor, just stick the LEDs to the top of the skirting board, with extra supports around corners.
This LED decoration works especially well when combined with the next tip!
16. Along Ceiling Line:
If you liked the idea of adding LEDs along your skirting boards then combining this with another strip along the ceiling line would be the perfect addition! Especially if using both these techniques you can then add even more LEDs to connect the two in the corners–creating a box effect throughout the room!
When adding these LEDs along the ceiling line you should use stronger tape, as gravity will be working against you and will come home to find all the tape is on the floor.
Just be careful of what kind of tape you use, as you could inadvertently full some paint off the walls
17. Lampshades:
If you’ve got a lampshade that you want to give the RGB treatment but it’s either an unusual bulb type or is too expensive to buy, then why not add some LEDs to the inside of a lampshade.
If done well then the effect will be perfect and create an awesome glowing lampshade. You could even go one step further and use just the lampshades frame and attach the LEDs to it.
When attaching LEDs to a lampshade it will be important to work out what method will work best for the particular lampshade. For most lampshades, you could add a rim to the top edge pointing downwards which will illuminate the whole shade.
18. Garden Pathway:
If you have a path through your garden then you could add some waterproof LEDs along the sides of the path. If building from scratch could even combine this with old upturned jam jars and fill them with LED lights.
It is important to use waterproof LEDs for this as they will be exposed to the elements and so are likely to shortcircuit and for sections to fail. Additionally, it’s important to think about how you’re going to power these LEDs as standard plugs are not rated for outdoor use.
19. Window Uplighting:
Uplighting your windows is a great way to add some color to your house/flat. Especially during a party, uplighting your windows when it’s dark out will illuminate the whole window.
To install LEDs for this I recommend you angle the LEDs towards the window at a slight angle. This will give you a fairly even illumination across the whole window.
20. Products that already use LEDs:
Lots of products around the house will already be using LEDs, depending on how they’re built you can sometimes upcycle these adding RGB LEDs and a WiFi controller.
For some products, this may be as simple as changing out the strip of LEDs and cutting a hole for the wiring to poke through. But for others, this could involve soldering and re-wiring.
Only attempt to rewire something if you are comfortable doing so, messing with electrics can cause fires.
21. Infinity Mirror:
If you’re a bit more into DIY then creating an Infinity Mirror is an awesome decorative way to use LEDs. There are a fair few bits required in order to set up this includes:
- A suitable frame with glass
- Some window film
- A mirror
- Some LEDs
The assembly for this is fairly straightforward, but there are a few fiddly bits and pieces. There are many tutorials available online for assembling your own Infinity Mirror.
There are some of the various ways that you can use LEDs to decorate your home if you have any other suggestions of ways to use LEDs around drop a comment below. We’d love to see what you’ve come up with!
