How to hide LED strip wires behind trim and inside cabinetry
Trim does the work for you. Crown molding, a shadow gap, a stair nosing, and a shelf edge each create a void running in the same direction as the light, so a cable tucked along that line is not visible from the room. Clip it at intervals instead of letting it hang, and keep it clear of any hinge or drawer runner.
Inside casework, take the lead through the back panel rather than over the front edge. A drilled hole with a grommet, a notch in the rail, or the gap left for shelf pins gets the cable into the void behind the units, out of sight for the length of the run. Line the holes up before the cabinets are fixed. Drilling them afterward with a flexible bit is miserable.
Let the channel carry the cable as well as the strip
Aluminum profile is thought of as a light fixture, but the cavity beside or behind the tape is also a cable way. Feed the lead down the channel to the exit point and the cover hides both. A housing such as the EnoLED Low Profile Surface Mount channel also helps dissipate the heat the strip produces, though a channel is never a requirement (verify the internal dimensions before planning to route cable through one).
A long factory lead saves a joint. A solderless strip to wire connector with a 72 inch lead often reaches from the tape to a driver in the next bay with no splice between, and a splice you never make never needs hiding.
Choosing where the driver lives
Three things decide the spot: air, access, and distance. Drivers give off heat, and so does the strip, so neither belongs buried in insulation or packed into a sealed box. Give the case room to breathe and keep it off anything that traps warmth.
Distance pulls the other way. Long low voltage runs cost you voltage at the far end, which is why a driver close to the strip is easier to live with; our guide to how far a driver can sit from the strip works through that trade. Size the unit from the run, not from the space you happen to have: watts per foot times installed length, with at least 20 percent current headroom on top (verify that headroom guidance and the capacity of any unit in the driver and power supply range first). Match voltage exactly, 24V strip to 24V supply, and wire constant voltage runs in parallel, never in series.
Anything on the line voltage side belongs to a licensed electrician: hardwired drivers, junction boxes, wall switches, and permanent connections, worked to the manufacturer instructions, your local code, and NEC requirements where they apply. Isolate the circuit before anyone opens a box.
Leave yourself a way back in
Drivers get replaced. If reaching one means unscrewing a fixed panel or pulling tape off a shelf, the install has a problem it has not shown yet. Put it behind a removable plinth, above an access panel, in a cabinet with a hinged door, or in a ceiling void with an existing hatch.
Then record it. The move that saves most time on a return visit is a small label inside the nearest cabinet door giving the driver location, the voltage, and the date. Photograph the void before it closes; two years on, nobody remembers which of five panels the unit sits behind.
