LED technology has advanced immensely in recent years across various industries. From Smartphones, Televisions, light bulbs to car headlights, this technology has been getting better and better by the day. Today, this same technology has crossed the borders to modern interior design where architects and interior designers are using creative LED strip lights decoration ideas to give your home an extraordinary and absolutely breath-taking mood and atmosphere.
LED lights have grown into popularity in recent times due to their flexibility, lightweight, and cost-efficiency. Unlike the earlier LED bulbs, today’s LED lights are versatile and easily customizable paving the way to lots of creative options when it comes to illuminating your home.
So, whether it’s illuminating the stairways, the ceiling, the television set, the vanity mirror, kitchen cabinets, or the living room, here are 10 decorative ideas that will inspire you to start your own LED DIY decorative projects with enthusiasm.
Understanding LED Strip Lights
But, before we proceed, let’s first clear the air to some people who’re serious about starting a cool decorative DIY project. Here, we will discuss LED strip lights in terms of how they work and why they’re the best as compared to LED rope lights.
In definition, an LED strip light is a flexible circuit board populated with tiny LED lights. Also known as a ribbon lights or an LED tape, these lights come with an adhesive backing that allows them to fit in all manner of places.
Due to their narrow designs and ample flexibility, LED strip lights can be predominantly used in decorative lighting applications in awkward places around your home.
Three Factors to Consider When Choosing an LED Strip Light
We all know that decorating your home with LED strip lights simply means buying the right size, peeling off the adhesive at the back, securing it on the wall, plugging it in, and switching on the power. But, did you know that decorating larger areas will require you to add an LED transformer to your budget?
Well, that’s absolutely true. You see, if you’re looking to decorate large areas or maybe if you’re looking for a permanent installation, mains wired LED strip lighting will be necessary as it offers more versatility.
You will, therefore, need to look for a compatible transformer that will offer enough wattage depending on the length of the LED strip and the size of the LED chips.
To create different shades of light, LED strip lights are available in a wide range of color temperatures and lumen levels. This allows them to create a variety of ambiances that range from warm to cool tones of colors to suit different moods in the surrounding. For this reason, you need to choose a dimmable LED strip light to assume total control of your indoor lighting requirements.
Finally, look for LED strip lights that offer multicolor options. At least with this, you’ll only have to use a compatible switch to maneuver between millions of colors generated by mixing the three main primary colors (RGB).
Finally, Why Choose LED Strip Lights Over LED Rope Lights?
I will confess that the lighting industry is getting confusing by the day both from the inside and outside perspectives. With so many lighting elements being introduced each day, one question is being asked by almost everyone—what’s the difference between LED strip light and LED rope light?
About LED Rope Lights
Now, an LED rope light is simply a clear cylindrical tube made of plastic, epoxy, or any other material that houses internal LED lights placed a few inches from each other. The light source can either be LED or incandescent but the best thing about them is that the light output is minimal.
The best thing about these lights is that they’re relatively inexpensive and can run long to upwards of 250 feet. Since the light source illuminates while inside a transparent tube, these lights offer a 360° viewing angle that makes them the best for wrapping round objects such as Christmas Trees.
Since we’ve already discussed LED strip lights, I don’t see the reason why we should get back there. However, LED rope lights to have several drawbacks that have prevented them from excelling in the decorative industry thus paving the way for LED strip lights to dominate the market. They include;
- Unlike LED strip lights, rope lights have low brightness levels. Since most decorative projects require high visibility applications, these lights are hence not the best choice to consider.
- Over time, the plastic/epoxy tubes used to house rope light sources get tarnished turning yellow or brown in appearance. As a result, this yellowing decreases the light output, and sometimes, it compromises the color being emitted.
- Rope lights are thick and they don’t have the adhesion backing for mounting. They’re therefore not flexible for mounting in profile areas or tight spaces.
- They only come in specific single colors and are not RGB color changeable.
10 Amazing LED Strip Light Decoration Ideas
So, with that said, let’s now proceed with our main topic on how to decorate your interior space with LED strip lights.
1. Give Your Kitchen Cabinetry Some Life
Have you ever realized that your kitchen is one of the most heavily visited rooms in your home? Well, besides the washroom, the bedroom, and the living room, your kitchen is also at the focal point of your home and it needs to be illuminated tastefully to make it more organized and appealing.
While there are many creative ways you can employ to enhance the beauty of your kitchen, using LED strip lights is the best approach as they’re flexible enough to maneuver in between the cabinets. They’re also compact, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly meaning they won’t cause any contamination to your food.
Since the lights will be required to curve depending on the contours of your kitchen’s cabinetry, a 3528 CCT Adjustable Strip light with 120 LEDs/meter will be the best to pick as it can deliver high luminance. During installation, make sure that you have all the necessary LED accessories such as connectors and extrusions to allow a safe multicolored lighting effect.
Just the way you did it in your kitchen, you can replicate the same technique on other shelves and cabinets such as those in your home office, bathroom, study room, and living room.
2. Ceiling Cove Lighting
Are you looking to highlight the decorative art or architectural details of your modern ceiling by illuminating it with LED lights? Well, by using the right coving and cornice lighting, the results can be seriously jaw-breaking.
Now, depending on your architectural requirements, ceilings come in a variety of different cool designs that range from plasterboard, false, coffered to stretch ceilings. To accentuate these ceiling designs with subtle accent lighting, you can install LED ribbon lights in a variety of ways such as recessed, surface mounted, and pendant lighting.
Unlike rope lights, strip lights have several advantages that make them the best for ceiling lighting. One, they’re dimmable, second, they’re multicolored, and third, they can be controlled wirelessly.
With such dynamics, these lights can easily be installed then controlled wirelessly via the remote. You can easily adjust the color temperature, the lumen level, and the color effects wirelessly to ensure that they meet specific indoor moods.
3. Backlighting in Television Sets
We all have television sets in our homes, right? For those that enjoy watching various TV series and Netflix shows for long hours, you must have witnessed some eye strains where you’re unable to see the television or computer monitor properly.
Now, this problem can easily be solved by adding a gorgeous set of LED strip lights around the border of your TV set and also at the back. By doing this, you will have killed two birds with one stone—by giving your TV an extravagant look and by mitigating eye strain by offsetting your TV’s brightness.
Adding LED lights on your television set or computer monitor is easy and fun especially for teenage boys. The LED strips are flexible and are safe when attached to your electrical accessories as they don’t cause any damage or interference.
When installing LED ribbon lights on your television, it’s highly recommended that you choose 5050 RGB lights as they offer more illumination with a variety of color options.
4. LED Lighting on the Stairways
The stairways are some of the best areas where you can create some dynamic special effects. That’s because most stairways are creatively designed to pave way for endless decorative imaginations.
Whether the stairway is made of decorated wood, glass, metal, or any other fancy materials, illuminating it with some LED ribbon lights is one way of creating a welcoming appeal to your modern or contemporary home.
With strip lights, you won’t have to call a professional to fix them for you as everything is straightforward. These lights are small and flexible meaning they can penetrate between the molds and contours of the stairways to give them a beautiful look.
In fact, most homeowners have come out to confess that LED lighting on the stairways is not only decorative but also makes it easier for you to navigate the stairways. They also provide enough light meaning you won’t have to turn on your overhead chandelier just to use them.
5. In Wardrobes/Drawers/Jewelry Organizer Cabinet Armoires
If you’re a woman or a man with a significant woman around, it’s likely your bedroom has a walk-in closet (if you’re lucky enough), a wardrobe, and, of course, a jewelry cabinet. Now, to give her the biggest surprise of 2020, why not install LED strip lights on the shelves and drawers to help illuminate her precious jewelry and cosmetic accessories?
Most shelves are made of glass. However, there are other models that are made of aluminum, wood, or a combination of all. In any case, installing LED lights on your shelves is quite creative as it helps to illuminate your accessories in a way that they will get highlighted.
Note: one advantage of installing LED lights over their halogen counterparts is their low-temperature range and the fact that they don’t heat up even after being ON for long hours.
Due to their low thermal output, you can rest assured that your jewelry or cosmetic accessories (such as perfumes) won’t heat up and get damaged.
6. On the Furniture
Although this is more fun than functional, installing LED strip lights under your furniture can help to add a unique tone to your living room or bedroom space to make it appear more welcoming. Some of the furniture that you can consider adding some decorative LEDs includes;
- Under the couch or sofa to make it easier for you to access things underneath
- Under the coffee table to give it a modern superior look especially when you have guests around or when getting ready to party.
- Under your bedroom bed or kids’ crib to conveniently illuminate the floor to reflect enough light to brighten up the room when you wish to wake up. At least this way, you won’t have to wake your significant other by turning on the headlights.
7. LED Lights on Picture Frames and Mirrors
Backlighting the mirror is not a new technique but rather an approach that was used traditionally to brighten up the mirror to cater to your grooming needs. Today, this technique has been advanced by installing LED strip lights around the borders of a mirror to create soft glows that reduce shadows when grooming.
This technology can also be used to enhance the beauty of your picture frames by installing LED ribbon lights behind the frames to enhance the beauty of your photos, prints, or artistic works. Just as we discussed earlier, LEDs have a low thermal output that makes them safe as they won’t compromise with the paints or any other artistic products.
8. Sinks and Bathtubs
In addition to adding decorative LED lights to backlight all your home mirrors, you can also decide to add some low-light ambiance to the rest of your bathroom assets such as the sinks and the bathtub rim. At least this will help create a romantic atmosphere especially if you are newlywed.
However, before you proceed to install these lights, make sure the LEDs have an IP rating of at least 65 to prevent short-circuiting in case the lights are splashed with water.
9. Enhance the Mood in Your Indoor Café or Bar
Coffee or rather liquor connoisseurs with large homes can opt to set aside some space to set up coffee or liquor bars. These spaces can be enhanced by installing LED ribbon lights on the ceiling, below the couches, on the floor, or below the shelves to display the wine, coffee beans, wine glasses, or coffee mugs immaculately.
By combining 5050, 3528 and 3014 RGB LED lights (with about 140 LEDs/meter), you will have high luminous LED lights that can be altered to create a variety of ambiances enough to enhance your space. When combined with a remote controller, you will not only change the color but also the color temperature to meet a specific mood.
10. Outdoors
Your garden area, swimming pool area, and pathways are also part of your home right? If so, why not illuminate them with decorative lighting that will create a picturesque appearance? By combining the right light fixtures such as 5050, 3528, and 2835 RGB LED lights, you can easily decorate and enhance the appearance of your outdoor space making it overly beautiful.
However, before you proceed to install these lights on the outdoors, make sure the IP rating is 65 and higher as this will help them to endure mild to severe environmental conditions such as splashes, rain, and snow.
Conclusion
As we mentioned at the beginning of this guide, LED strip light decorating ideas are endless and are only limited by your own imagination. Now that we’ve discussed ten of the most critical and functional ways to decorate your home with LED lights, we believe you’ve taken some notes that will inspire you to brainstorm your own LED lights decorative project.
When you choose to customize your own decorative ideas or simply choose any of the above jaw-breaking ideas, make sure that you accomplish the project with ultimate professionalism so that your family and friends can be amazed by what you’ve accomplished.