Modern interiors cannot be imagined without the use of lighting elements. And if quite recently the purpose of various lamps was only to illuminate an apartment or house, now light acts as the main designer and creator of the unique look and atmosphere of the room.

When creating the system, LED strips, duralight cords, fluorescent lamps are used as a light source. The best choice in this case would be to use an LED strip.

Benefits of using LED strip:

• they are flexible, thin, they can be cut. This allows you to reliably hide the tape from the eyes in almost any design;
• most often tapes are produced on an adhesive basis, which makes their installation extremely simple;
• it is possible to use tapes with special controllers for mixing colors and creating almost any shade;
• light intensity can be adjusted with a dimmer;
• along with conventional tapes, moisture-resistant options are available that can be used for pool or jacuzzi lighting equipment;
• LEDs are inherently low power consumption, so you can leave the backlight on for a long time;
• do not require maintenance due to the long service life.

Why do you need lighting in the interior

Used in the interior of the apartment to achieve a variety of purposes:

• highlighting with the help of light a certain area in the room or a design element, for example, lighting an apron in the kitchen area;
• decoration or embellishment, such as mirrors or pieces of furniture;
• giving the room additional volume, height due to illumination. So, installing an LED strip under the ceiling will visually make the room taller;
• creating the necessary atmosphere in the house: festive, romantic, etc.

Illumination helps to create a unique interior, implement interesting design ideas, hide layout flaws and focus on the merits. Refusing decorative lighting in a room means depriving it of a fair amount of attractiveness and functionality.

ADVICE!When installing the backlight, it is necessary to pay attention to the harmonious combination of the color of the tape and the materials present in the interior. So, blue, white and other cool colors are well suited to metal products, but wooden surfaces look more advantageous in warm backlight colors.

Basic backlight use cases

LED strips have found their application for highlighting various interior elements. These can be cabinets, shelves made of various materials, decorating the pool area in a country house, installing LEDs on the wall behind the TV, interior lighting of drawers, or creating luminous compositions in the nursery. Among the main options for using LED tape, it is worth noting stairs and walls, furniture, kitchen area and curtain decoration.

stairs

Illumination of the stairs with LED strip serves not only as a decoration, but also ensures the safety of movement in the dark. You can install the LED strip in several ways: on the wall, on the side of the steps; under each step or through one; along the entire length of the step or, for example, only in its middle part; embed in the railing. Turning on and off the staircase lighting can be carried out both with a standard switch and with the help of motion sensors. When using the latter option, electricity is significantly saved, since the light turns on only if a person approaches the stairs.

It is very important to correctly direct the flow of light to the stairs. Otherwise, the shape of the steps may be distorted, which is unsafe when moving along them.

Walls

Wall lighting allows you to visually change the dimensions of the room, add “airiness” to the interior, highlight various plasterboard structures, for example, niches, columns, arches. Using the LED strip, you can highlight a picture or photograph, focus on photo wallpapers or panels, emphasize the texture of the material for wall decoration, for example, artificial stone.

In addition to the LED strip to illuminate the walls, you can use LED wallpaper. They are panels with a pattern, between which LEDs are fixed. Such wallpapers do not require gluing, they are attached to the wall with adhesive tape. Similar innovations are produced by OLED and Philips. Products are absolutely safe, easy to care for and allow you to create a unique and cozy interior.

Curtains

A modern design technique is the use of LED strip lighting for curtains. It allows you to achieve the effect of penetration of sunlight through the curtains, emphasize the structure of fabrics and visually "break" the boundaries of the room. The best effect is achieved when placing the tape in a niche for the eaves.

Furniture

You can also find application in any room for LED lighting of furniture with LED strip. With its help, you can highlight the bed in the bedroom, create a romantic or, conversely, passionate atmosphere. A sofa or armchair illuminated in the living room will seem to “float” in the air, which will add lightness and mystery to the interior. Glass shelves, both open and in cabinets, in combination with LED strip will create a radiant play of color and add appeal to the objects placed on them.

Kitchen

In the kitchen for LEDs, the following lighting scenarios are applicable:

• illumination of the working area with the help of an LED strip installed under the upper cabinets of the kitchen set;
• highlighting the kitchen apron from the inside. If the apron is made of glass or other transparent material, it turns into an independent lighting fixture. It looks very impressive;
• lighting inside cabinets with glass doors;
• creating the effect of a hovering kitchen set by installing an LED strip under the cabinets;
• highlighting individual elements with light, for example, holders for glasses.

When planning decorative lighting in a room, you should definitely take into account the type of interior being created. The use of colors in apartments decorated in the style of classics, ethnics or country is unlikely to be appropriate. The most advantageous here will look lamps that emit a warm yellow light.

On the contrary, in minimalist interiors, with elements of futurism and hi-tech, you can give free rein to your imagination and experiment with different color combinations. Although, it should be noted that the coldness and beauty of the metal are most successfully emphasized by white LEDs.

The most important rule when creating a lighting scheme is a sense of proportion. You should not make a Christmas tree out of the apartment and highlight everything that is possible. At the planning stage, you need to analyze all possible lighting scenarios, understand what is really necessary, what you can refuse without compromising the appearance of the room, and what will generally interfere with rest and relaxation.

ADVICE!To optimize the operation of the lighting circuit, you can use special devices - time relays. With their help, the backlight will turn on and off at a predetermined time.

The use of LED strips in the apartment allows you to create an exclusive look of the room, expand its boundaries, create the necessary atmosphere and mood. The possibilities of its use in decorative interior lighting are virtually endless. And ease of installation, variety of colors and durability leave all competitors far behind.

Most of all, the LED strip is suitable for stretch and plasterboard ceilings.

What is LED strip

An LED strip, or, as it is also called, duralight, has the form of a flexible conductive board with LEDs and resistors placed on it, which are responsible for the resistance.

Such a tape has a width of 8 to 10 mm and a thickness of 2 to 3 mm. If we are talking about a multi-color tape (RGB), then a controller is also attached to it, which will allow you to adjust the intensity of the glow and switch the lights, creating an atmosphere in the room that suits the mood.

How to make LED lighting with your own hands

When installing an LED strip, in addition to the strip itself, you will also need a power supply and connectors to connect the strip.

When choosing a power supply, you need to focus on its power. To do this, you need to make the appropriate calculations using the data given in this table:

To calculate the required power, it is necessary to multiply the power of one meter of the LED strip by its total length:

W/m x L tape = W

After the calculation, it is necessary to add another 20% to the result, because the “end-to-end” power supply will not be enough for the power supply and some margin is needed for its full and safe operation.

And now a little about connectors. As mentioned above, they will be needed to connect the tape to the power supply, as well as to other tapes, since many users are not limited to the standard tape size of 5 meters and add the same or even several tapes to it.

To connect with the connector, you do not need to resort to any tricks, you just need to move the clip, putting the connector on the edge of the tape and returning the clip to the opposite position. After that, you just need to correctly connect the wire from the connector to the power supply.

In some cases, a soldering connection method can be used, which, by the way, is much cheaper than buying connectors. The connection is very reliable and durable.

Important! When soldering contacts, it is very important to heat the soldering iron to a maximum of 250 degrees and solder no more than 10 seconds.

Connecting the LED strip

There are two types of LED strips:

Single color ribbon

Multicolor (RGB)

The principle of their connection is somewhat different, so it makes sense to consider their installation separately.

How to connect a single color LED strip

To connect a regular tape 5 meters long, you need to connect the wires of the power supply to the wires of the tape. There is a standard wire marking, indicating “+” in red and “-” in black. If there is no marking, you can measure the polarity with a multimeter, however, even if the polarity is not observed, nothing will happen to the tape, it simply will not glow.

If you need to connect more than one tape, then you need to place them not in series, but in parallel, because when connected in series, the tape can overheat and burn out.

This is how the connection diagram of one LED strip looks like:

This view has a parallel connection of two tapes:

You can also use two power supplies and connect two tapes:

In some cases, when there is a need to connect a small piece of tape, it can also be connected in series. But it is necessary to check whether the voltage drops or not, if the readings remain unchanged, then such a connection will be safe.

The cutting of the tape is carried out in places specially designated for this, where scissors or something else is drawn.

Info! The tape is cut every 3 LEDs; if it is cut incorrectly, not one LED is disabled, but the whole section of the tape at once.

Attaching a piece of tape is done using connectors or soldering.

How to connect LED multicolor RGB strip

A multi-color LED strip differs from a single-color one in that it needs a controller, which becomes another link in connecting the RGB strip - controller - power supply.

Connecting the controller to the power supply is similar to connecting a single-color tape: the wires are connected in accordance with the polarity. But connecting the tape to the controller is somewhat more complicated, since not 2, but as many as 4 wires are involved in the connection, 3 of which control the color intensity, and the 4th is responsible for supplying power:

B - blue

R - red

G - green

V+ - common

The general picture of the connection looks like this:

As with the connection of a single color ribbon, when using several ribbons, a parallel connection is necessary. However, since RGB tapes consume more current, you need to use an RGB signal amplifier in addition to the controller and power supply. This device allows you to regulate the intensity and uniformity of the glow of the LEDs.

A second tape is connected to the RGB amplifier, and the amplifier, in turn, is connected to the power supply. It is advisable to use a separate power supply unit for the amplifier, because if there is one, then its power supplying both the amplifier and the controller should be higher.

The ideal connection diagram for 2 RGB strips looks like this:

And this is what it looks like in practice:

Advice! Having dealt with the diagrams and the principle of connection, it is necessary to assemble the tape on the floor and plug it into the network to check its performance. If everything is in order, then you can proceed with its installation on the ceiling.

Do-it-yourself LED lighting installation

Most often, for a duralight device, a special drywall niche is erected on the ceiling, which will hide the LED strip itself, and then the light from it will not enter the room directly, but will be reflected from the ceiling. It is because of this soft glow that LED strips are so successful.

Plasterboard niche installation

The plasterboard niche looks like a cornice that runs around the entire perimeter of the room or along the edge of a multi-level ceiling. This cornice, consisting of plasterboard sheets, is attached to a crate of metal profiles.

Before installing the crate, you need to make the correct markup: first you need to step back from the ceiling along the wall down 70-100 mm and draw a flat horizontal line. To do this, you need to use the level. Then you need to attach the profile along the drawn line.

To mount the second profile, you need to step back from the wall about 20 cm and also draw a line on the ceiling parallel to the first. A profile is attached along it and, thus, an internal perimeter is formed.

Then, retreating from the starting profile by 40 or 50 cm, you need to start installing profile segments that form the crate. The length of such segments must correspond to the distance between the base profile and the profile lying at the base of the ceiling.

It looks like this:

The main profile is connected to the starting one with the help of small segments (up to 300 mm), and the bearing cornice will lie on the ledges that are visible in the photo.

Plasterboard sheathing

After the profile is ready, it is sheathed with drywall sheets: first, its vertical part, which allows you to hide the wiring. After that, the lower part is also closed, and the following construction is obtained:

Installing a cornice is a rather laborious process, so you can choose an easier way and install a plinth (fillet) on the ceiling for LED lighting.

It looks like this:

Here you can see that it does not completely cover the space between the wall and the ceiling, this is necessary so that the light from the backlight is visible.

And here is the layout of it:

The plinth is fastened very simply, sometimes even with putty or glue. It all depends on the surface to which it will be attached.

Attaching the Tape

When absolutely everything is ready, you can begin to attach the tape. To do this, be sure to clean the surface with alcohol and stick the tape. Usually for this it is enough to peel off a special strip on the back of the duralight and carefully press it against the wall.

Important! If the tape will cover the entire perimeter of the room, then it should not be strongly bent (no more than 2 cm).

To mount the controller, amplifier and power supply, special niches must be provided in advance.

Do-it-yourself LED backlight installation requires responsibility and some knowledge, which can be easily gained by watching a few videos and carefully reading all the instructions regarding the duralight installation process. It does not take much effort to decorate your home with one of the best design ideas.

Video description of the LED strip device and the principles of its control:

Installing a drywall niche to illuminate the ceiling with LED strip:

Correct connection of the LED strip:

A rare modern interior is not complete without elements of additional lighting.

LED wall lighting is used as a light source to resize spaces to prioritize visuals.

Directional lighting sources can be LED strips, duralight cords and fluorescent lamps.

Benefits of using ribbons

Flexible bands are easy to cut

Tapes are produced thin, flexible, they are easy to cut and fasten even in hard-to-reach places. The structure of the LED strip has a number of absolute advantages:

• adhesive base allows you to easily and quickly mount the tape anywhere;
• mixing colors to create any color shade;
• installing a dimmer will allow you to control the intensity of the light flux;
• in places with a high level of humidity, moisture-resistant tapes can be used;
• low power consumption;
• long service life.

Purpose of backlight installation

Illumination puts emphasis on the right places

In the interior of an apartment, lighting can be used to create various effects, implement decorative solutions and achieve practical goals:

• with the help of directional light, you can highlight a certain zone, focus on a specific subject and separate zones;
• as a decoration;
• visual change in the volume, height or dimensions of the room;
• to create a certain mood.

With the help of skillfully mounted lighting, you can change the style of the interior, hide flaws in the design of the room. At the same time, the accent in the wrong areas or the wrong color scheme of lighting can spoil even the most successful repair.

You can also illuminate the walls with special lamps.

Pay attention to the combination of color and tone of the lamp. Do not use cool colors in interiors with warm tones.

For example, yellow highlights on blue curtains will not give the effect of increasing space, but will give the curtains the look of dirty fabric. Ribbons of cold tones are perfect for metal products, warm shades are best used in natural wooden interiors.

How and where to highlight?

The purpose of lighting will help determine the color and tone of the LED strip. Where and how to use the ribbon for its intended purpose, while determining its functionality, is described in the table below.

The main places to use lighting are stairs, kitchens and curtains.

Place	Functional	Place of installation	Breaker type
stairs	Illumination of flights of stairs and marches not only creates a certain atmosphere, but also serves to ensure the safety of movement. In order not to distort the shape and size of the steps with light, it is important to direct the lighting horizontally or vertically.	On the side of the steps on the adjoining wall. Horizontal stripes under each step or through one. From the underside of the railing.	Standard manual or motion sensor
Kitchens	As an additional lighting of the working area and creating an atmosphere of comfort.	the lower border of the upper cabinets of the kitchen set; illumination of the apron of the working area from the inside; inside a shelf or cabinet near the back wall; highlighting individual elements with light, for example, holders for glasses.	Manual
Walls	Helps to visually change the dimensions of the room. Add volume to the interior; place light accents; separate zones.	specific object and texture of the finishing material.	With adjustable light level
Curtains	The effect of sunlight penetrating through the curtains; enhances the beauty of the fabric, breaks the boundaries.	It is best to place the tape in a niche for the eaves.	Manual with light level adjustment

Installing LED strips is a simple process, anyone with a minimum set of building skills can do it on their own.

Stick the tape at a height of 2 m from the floor

There are a few simple rules to help avoid unpleasant surprises:

1. The light will spread most evenly if the tape is glued at a level of 2 m from the floor surface.
2. If you want to get a quiet subdued light, place the lamps as low as possible.
3. By placing the tapes vertically along one wall of the room, you can visually stretch the room. For more information about installing lighting, see this video:

Hue also influences the visual perception of distance and volume: warm colors bring objects closer, while cool lighting enlarges space.

And, perhaps, the most important rule when installing light elements is a sense of proportion. Use a relay with a timer, with its help, the backlight of a wall or stairs will turn on and off at a certain time.

Wall lighting is often used to make a room brighter and brighter, and the interior looks more elegant. When using such lighting, the apartments become lively, because the more light, the more beautiful and comfortable.

Many designers recommend just such a backlight, as it will help enrich the design of the room and will not force you to waste a lot of money.

Why has lighting become so popular? The dim light in the rooms suppresses vision, after which the eyes hurt or water, and the main light, whether it is a chandelier in the middle of the room or lamps in different corners, you don’t always want to use, sometimes you want to create a special atmosphere in the room.

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LED strip lighting

Wall lighting with LED strip is incredibly popular, because the light from this source is very soft and does not “cut” the eyes at all, as happens from a conventional lamp. LED strips have a lot of shades, it will not be difficult to choose a color for a specific room interior.

The LED strip has a lot of advantages that only attract the attention of consumers:

• LED strip is quite economical. If you lay this tape around the entire perimeter of the room, then the design will look much more interesting, and this will not hit the wallet in any way;
• The LED strip does not heat up at all. If there is a small child in the house, there will be no fear that he will take up a hot light bulb;
• LED strip has the advantage of color choice. The tape can harmoniously fit into the interior of any shade;
• The LED strip is long lasting. While an ordinary light bulb lasts a year, this tape will last another 10 years.

This tape is good because the distribution of light is even throughout the room. The spectrum of the tape is similar to sunlight, which will allow you to look at it directly, and it will not cause fatigue or sharp cutting sensations. LED lighting looks especially impressive in a wall niche.

Designer Tip: thinking about decorating your interior with LED strip, you should not exclude the main lighting from the room, since it is not known whether the unaccustomed can immediately perceive such a spectrum of light.

Panel and stained glass on the wall with backlight

Many designers focus on panels and illuminated stained-glass windows in the interior. They can add lightness or, conversely, richness to any room. Panels and stained-glass windows are used in a variety of places, ranging from apartments, kindergartens, to jewelry stores or registry offices. With backlighting, this element of the interior will be able to do anything.

With the help of backlighting, you can completely focus on the panel, or hide it and bring light lighting to the room. The panel can be made of various materials:

• glass panel with backlight;
• onyx panel with backlight;
• decorative stone panel with backlight.

A glass panel with backlight is perfect for the living room or bedroom, where there is nothing superfluous in the interior. Such a panel will give peace and tranquility. The backlight on such a panel in blue can imitate, for example, water, and in yellow - the sun.

Backlit onyx wall panels are best done in an office or important offices. For a room, it will be too catchy and less elegant. But if you want to give a luxurious antique look to the interior (which is very fashionable now), then we advise you to choose an illuminated onyx panel. An illuminated onyx wall will perfectly replace any picture, and the look of an office or a room will be excellent.

The wall panel made of decorative stone with illumination was created for lovers of ancient interiors. It creates a colder atmosphere that makes you wrap yourself in a blanket by the fireplace.

A backlit decorative stone wall is a fairly economical option, and almost everyone can afford it. It is thanks to the backlight that the panel on the wall can be voluminous, which will give a more lively look to the room.

backlit wallpaper

Also a good modern option for the room is backlit wallpaper. This decor option is easy to apply, but is in no way inferior in beauty, and even wins.

Illuminated wallpapers with a 3D effect are also used in the hallway, because coming from the street, a person cannot tune in to the room light, and the backlight allows you to gently move the drop.

Any of these options are good in their own way. The durability and reliability of the options proposed above is maximally secured. It is only necessary to decide in which room or office this or that option will look better.

What LED wall lighting looks like, and what effects can be done with it, see the following video:

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In the end it will look like this:

So given: a cantilever steel shelf, a pedestal is installed under it, a cable for powering the LED strip (swvp 2x0.5mm sq.) is laid to the place of installation of the shelf, from the place of installation of the transformer, which will be located in one of the compartments of the pedestal.

Also, in advance, even at the stage of repair, a 220V power cable was laid to the place where the transformer was installed, going through the switch.

If you have not planned in advance the wiring for the backlight of the shelf - it does not matter. A small switch can be installed directly on the wire going to the LED strip, and the transformer can be powered from the outlet.

Here's the lighting wiring diagram:

The shelf itself is steel, with a slight bend in front, installed between decorative wall panels. But in its place there can be a console or a shelf of any type, the installation order does not change. The shelf looks like this:

For lighting were purchased:

- LED strip arlight 24v, the power of which is 19.2 watts / meter

- power supply arlight 24v, maximum power 50 watts

- profile for arlight LED strip with diffuser and plugs black

Let's start installing the LED strip

First of all, we measure the length of the shelf and cut off the profile and LED strip corresponding to the length. It is very convenient to cut the profile with an ordinary hacksaw, it is necessary to take into account the margin for plastic end caps - a few millimeters on each side.

LED strip, as you know, is segmented, all possible cutting lines on it are marked and arranged at regular intervals. We cut the LED strip as close as possible to our size.

Next, solder the pre-laid wires to the LED strip. Remember that direct current is suitable for the LED strip (in our example 24v), so it is very important to observe the polarity of the connection, you can not confuse the plus and minus. Therefore, we remember what color the wire is, to which pole it is soldered.

In our case: brown is a plus, blue is a minus. The polarity is indicated on the tape at each possible connection point, in the form of a small plus or minus.

We must isolate the connection point, I usually use a piece of heat shrink tubing for this, but you can also use electrical tape.

At this stage, it is better to immediately check the performance of the tape before continuing with the installation. To do this, you need to connect a transformer.

At the power source of the LED strip, 220 V AC power is connected on one side, and 24 V DC is already coming out on the other.

The power input of the adapter is a three-core cable:

Phase - brown wire

Zero - blue wire

Grounding - yellow-green wire

The output to the LED strip is a two-core cable:

Plus - red wire

Minus - black wire

The connection diagram and color marking at the voltage source are indicated on the case, it is rather difficult to confuse.

For ease of connection, we use terminals. It is better to install them on the transformer conductors in advance:

Further connection must be carried out only on a completely de-energized network! To do this, be sure to turn off the circuit breaker of this power supply group, and then additionally check that there is no current before continuing with installation.

We connect the transformer for the LED strip. On the one hand, we connect the 220v power cable according to the colors, on the other hand, we connect the cable going to the LED strip, plus to plus, minus to minus, in our case brown to red, blue to black, that's how we connected the LED strip.

Now you can turn on the power - the LED strip should light up. If everything is fine, and it glows, then we continue the installation, if not, we check all the components and connection points.
The next step is to attach the LED strip to the profile, for this we use the method I described earlier, which helps to securely fix the tape, because the adhesive layer that each led strip has, unfortunately, does not always cope with its task.

After that, we install a white matte screen on the profile, which will make the glow uniform and completely hide the tape. You need to handle this screen, which scatters light, very carefully, it is fragile, you can shorten it along the length with the same hacksaw.

Now it remains to fix the profile with the LED strip on the bottom of our shelf. If it was wooden, then there would be no problem, it would be possible to simply fix it with self-tapping screws. But fortunately, modern building technologies allow you to brilliantly get out of such situations - we will simply glue the LED strip profile in the console shelf.

To do this, there are various adhesive compositions on sale, in particular, this one has proven itself very well - FixAll, holds very securely, while remaining plastic, does not crack over time.

We apply glue on the back of our profile with a neat thin layer. Do not use too much glue, it will still come out and have to be rubbed off.

After the glue is applied to the profile, we press it to the bottom edge of the shelf and fix it with supports. The drying time for the complete drying of the adhesive composition is about a day, at this time it is better not to touch anything, not move, etc. just leave it like that and wait.

Then we shoot the selections and admire the result. You don't have to worry that the tape with the profile will fall off, the glue holds very securely.

Such shelf lighting is very effective, especially in the general interior of the room. In addition, in our case, a rather powerful LED strip was used, which often has diodes and when using a screen, the glow turned out to be completely uniform. The aluminum profile significantly increases heat dissipation, you don’t have to worry that the tape will overheat and fail.

If you decide to highlight the shelves and you have any questions, be sure to ask them in the comments to the article.

In addition, it is very interesting to look at the results of your installations, how shelves with lighting of a different configuration look in a different interior. To find out what difficulties you encountered during installation and how you got out of the situation - write, attach a photo.