Office Lighting Upgrade

About a week ago I started working on a project to improve the lighting in our office. Neither of us are particularly fond of ceiling lights and our office didn’t have appropriate corner for a floor lamp so something else had to be done. We had been using a shop light mounted to the inside of the office closet for some ambient light, but it couldn’t light the room evenly and could draw up to 100 watts at max brightness.

After looking into our options we settled on a light bar that would run along the back wall and I got to work. I spent some time looking into premade options, but most existing aluminum channels meant for this type of installation either weren’t long enough or were too expensive. I reasoned I could probably make something acceptable out of wood so I bought a 12′ 2×4 and set up shop in the garage.

My first step was to cut the entire 12′ board in half at a 45 degree angle. I was able to cut the whole length of the board using a circular saw and clamping everything to my workbench. I used a length of 4×4 from another project as a straightedge for the saw to follow. An actual saw guide would probably have made this process much quicker, but it turned out alright just working slowly and carefully. This cut about an inch off the total height of the board which is what I was looking for. The final height of the board was 2.5″. This angled cut would also allow light to spread outward more easily once installed.

I then used a 1/2″ straight bit to route a channel along the back of the board to create a space for the LED strip to sit into later. I then filled in any gaps or cracks in the wood with some spackling before sanding and painting the entire thing.

After the paint dried, I did an initial test fit to make sure everything looked decent. I hadn’t run any electrical at the time and only attached the board on the ends so that it would be easier to take down and make changes. It was at this point I realized the LED strip I had originally purchased wasn’t going to be nearly bright enough.

I originally tried using 5050 RGBCCT LEDs with 60 LEDs per meter as I had good luck with this style of strip in an earlier project to add above-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. While they look nice and it’s great to have separate warm and cool white channels in addition to RGB, they just weren’t bright enough to evenly light the room when facing the ceiling like this.

I instead switched to a single-color 2835 LED strip, with an insane 240 LEDs per meter. While 2835 chips aren’t quite as bright as 5050’s on their own, the sheer number of them greatly makes up for their lower light output. Additionally, 2835’s draw less current than 5050’s for the same brightness.

With the new strip installed, I felt confident enough in the end result to permanently wire up the light bar. I ended up using some 14 gauge speaker wire to run power from the power supply plugged into the UPS hidden under my workbench to the LEDs. I used some chart online to check on the required wire gauge to avoid significant voltage drop over the ~15′ needed to reach the light bar and decided the speaker wire was adequate.

The difference in light quality is amazing! The lighting in much more even now and covers the whole room. I’ve got it connected to a smart plug right now, but I’ve ordered an LED controller so that it can be dimmed in the evening. The new light bar also only pulls 45 watts!

If you’re looking to do something like this yourself, I’d highly recommend it. It’s not a particularly difficult project and I was able to complete it with some basic tools from Harbor Freight. If you’ve already got a circular saw and a drill, you’ve shouldn’t need much else. Even a router isn’t absolutely necessary–the LEDs can just sit at an angle if you haven’t got a way to carve out a channel for them.

That said, the final materials list is as follows:

2x4x12 pine board – $7.50 (Lowe’s)
2835 LED strip, 5 meters – $11.50 (Aliexpress)
12v 5A Power supply – $12 (Amazon)
50′ 14ga speaker wire – $15 (Wal-Mart)

Total $46

Things I had on-hand:

Smart plug
Screws
Paint
Spackling
Sandpaper
Cordless drill
Circular saw
Router
Wood clamps

I had a great time building this in my spare time and I am very pleased with the outcome. I’ve got a few other projects planned that I’m looking forward to sharing soon!