Eluma lighted shelves
1 April 2008
“Light Up the Night”
There are a lot of ways to light the insides of cabinets these days, but the slickest thing about it is that someone is always thinking of a better way to do the job.
Frankly, I can’t help wishing I’d seen this product before I purchased the lighting I will be using in my current project. It’s a home theater with a number of display shelves which my wife wants lighted. The best I could do when I looked for lighting (I made the purchase several years ago, thinking I would start it then) was small lights to be installed at the top of the cabinets, but the one thing that bugged me about it bugs me still. There is very much a chance that, at certain angles, the lights will be visible.
Sitting in a living room, or even a dining room for that matter, people tend to slump into chairs. And we’re not all an even six feet tall, so what is fine for me may well be a light that shines into someone else’s eyes. Under cabinet lighting tends to work better in kitchens because people normally stand in this room, and adding a wooden batten in front of the lights takes care of any other problems with “yow, now I know how a deer in the headlights feels!”
Lighted display shelves, though, are problematic.
The solution is simple enough—light the cabinet from inside the shelf—but, like so many things, it does take more than simply stating the answer. Someone has to come up with a concept that actually works. Element Designs is a North Carolina company that has done just that.
Their new product is called °eluma, aluminum frame LED panels with a wonderful flexibility. The panels are custom manufactured with tempered etched glass and they have LED lights inside them that are powered with a low voltage 12 V DC, so it’s something that is extremely safe. Because, much as one wants one’s cabinets lit up, we certainly don’t want them lit up with a fire!
Seriously, though, it is a product that lends itself to any number of applications. It can be used for cabinetry shelving, displays, custom logo signage, backsplashes, modesty panels—just about anything and everything that calls for a shelf or panel that is lit from within. Nothing says elegant quite as well as something that is elegant.
Joseph
What Joseph didn’t mention here is the price. These shelves are all made to order. They are priced at around $80 per foot according to E.B.Bradley rep Chris Karl, my local rep in the San Diego area. So, for a typical kitchen you would be adding a few thousand dollars to the cost, but it’s yet another way to get the “wow factor”. I must admit, I do think they look like a great idea.
Joe
No comments yet
Leave a Reply