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KitchensPollsDesign Dilemma
laura7488

would you be happy with this?

last month

My builder fitted a recessed channel under our kitchen cabinets for a lighting strip. He said to get the driver through, he had to notch a small chunk out of one of the end panels. He says he will cover it in a 2mm bead of black silicone but I can’t help but think this will look terrible!???

I am really upset cause the strip is eye-level. It’s going to be so noticeable seeing a black blob of silicone to hide it? I’m so upset.
The other end is fine.

Am I being unreasonable?

yes you are being too fussy
no, I would be upset too

Comments (15)

  • 29 days ago

    Its not a great detail. If you post a pic further back we can really see what you mean. I am beginning to wish silicone did not exist as it's a lifesaver for careless work used to cover up clumsy fixes and bodges. I think you will have to do something more deliberate like covering it with some sort of neat minimal cover strip, maybe in a light wood and stained to match. You can buy very thin wooden mouldings from all the big DIY stores. A neat frame of it stained to match your units will cover his sloppy workmanship.


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  • 29 days ago

    Where is this light? Is it under the wall unit? You say it’s at eye level, but my wall units are much lower and at 5’5” I cannot see under them unless I bend right down and practically lay my head on the worktop. Would you mind showing a photo a bit further back?

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  • 29 days ago

    It depends on the exact light type and configuration, but you may find that you want a baffle in front of a light source at eye level, so you don’t get glare. And a baffle would also help to hide what appears to be less-than-perfect workmanship.

  • 29 days ago

    We have quite a high backsplash. So the light is my eye level. In my old kitchen it was much lower and I wasn’t able to see underneath the units but we wanted the big splashback this time.

    What is a baffle @Jen I’ve not heard of that but it sounds perfect for what I’d need.
    He did mention something about the glare where the light is poking out the end of the channel and he said he always planned to put a tiny 2mm bead of silicone over it to stop this glare. But the chunk that’s been taken out looks a lot bigger than just covering the end of the light, it will have to go a few mm over it to cover it

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  • PRO
    29 days ago

    Hi Laura, in construction a lot of things come to trade-offs. The fitter didn't do the whole just for a bit of fun, my guess the LED channel needed to be connected to power on that side and if it was a millimeter or two too big, it would have bowed being wedged in to a tighter space. In real world nothing is ever perfect, so prioritising is the way out. I worked as a site manager and finishing manager for many years in London for major house builders and by now I can smell BS from miles away as well being able to trace steps back and foreseeing the outcome.

    What you don't want to do is make a feature out of it - placing any kind of trim will cause more harm than good. I have to agree with your builder - once you put a little silicone on the gap, you will never know it was there. All I would say is go for anthracite colour and cut it flush with the board instead of making a small bead. It will look more neat and you will never ever notice it in a million years.

  • 29 days ago

    Thank you. @smart design hub.
    I appreciate your message because I don’t think my builder would intentionally do something that would look naff. He’s been excellent so far and is quite fussy himself.
    What happened was we have black / dark oak handless doors and the handle channel on the carcass is silver, which is really noticeable as for some reason you can see it poking through slightly. Maybe because it’s just about eyelevel (620mm ish) but you can see the silver trim underneath. Which of course stands out like a sore thumb against the black.

    I mentioned it to the builder, and he said what we could do was crank the wall units up, and drop the doors as much as we could to try and minimise the look of these silver channels.
    Which worked well, however now you can see the tiny chunk that’s been notched out to connect to power.
    Can I ask what u mean by cutting the silicone flush? I will mention this to him and hopefully it just takes my eye off it!

  • PRO
    29 days ago

    @Laura, that makes sense. I appreciate your honesty, and well done to your builder. Don’t get too bogged down about it; I’m sure he will do well. He seems to know what he is doing anyway.

    Besides, silicone is quite a forgiving material. If it doesn’t look right, you can remove it and redo it.

    But I will answer the question anyway. When applying the silicone, you will naturally squirt out more than needed. To create a smooth shape, you can spray a little soapy water (Fairy 1:20 water) and then use different chamfered silicone "trowels" to remove excess and make it look neat. In your case, all you need is a simple filler knife to flatten the silicone to the surface of the panel. The dent and the gap around the LED fitting will accommodate the silicone, making it blend with the rest of the panel.

    My advice is to leave him to it and then assess the work once he’s done. If you try to explain what I’ve just written, it may undermine his experience, or he may overthink it to accommodate you and mess it all up. Honestly, Laura, I’m sure he has his own technique. Good luck, and let us know how you get on!

  • 29 days ago

    @smart design hub
    Thank you so much! I feel much better about it after what you said so I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. Maybe I just needed a bit of reassurance I was in good hands ! I will take your advice and leave him to it.

    Thank you again!

  • PRO
    29 days ago

    @Laura, you're most welcome.

  • PRO
    28 days ago

    Hi Laura, I would recommend putting an under belly panel and fixing the light track to this. This is what we do as standard and it just makes it much easier to hide the tail of the LEDs and doens't have to be done in situ either.


    I'll attach a couple of pics.

    The Broughton Astley Project - Gaddesby Wynwood · More Info




    The Broughton Astley Project - Gaddesby Wynwood · More Info


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  • PRO
    28 days ago

    ...This also means if the underside is eye level then you are not looking at the bottom of the wall carcasses and you have a nice clean panel to look at from underneath. Hope this helps and doesn't make things trickier!

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  • 27 days ago

    The under panel won’t work if your upper doors are handleless.

    I agree with earlier advice that when any hole is cut this is what it looks like it’s not bad work and silicone will hide this well especially if it’s a dark colour and applied well.

  • PRO
    27 days ago




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  • 27 days ago

    Yeah we did discuss having a panel underneath but it meant all the wall units would need to be modified so you could open them. We got prices and it was ridiculous, so we just decided not to do it that way

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  • PRO
    27 days ago

    Sure that is fair enough, in that case I would also opt for a colour matched silicone to blend it in :)

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