A $15 Closet Lighting Solution

Closet space is at a premium in our home; they’re all tiny, and they’re all really dark.

We’re making strides to change ours slowly (i.e. every morning I think that a hardwired light installed in our master bedroom mini-closet with its own light switch would make a world of a difference), but we started with Julia’s closet because came across this simple IKEA light on a recent trip.

See, on any given day, even in the daytime with the sunlight shining through the window and into the room, it’s a pretty dark closet. Without a door, but that’s beyond the point. At night, visibility is even worse because the angle of the light emitted from the ceiling fan light only dramatizes shadows in there. Without a direct light source, we began to explore our options, and IKEA’s LEDBERG seemed like a perfect fit. The product could be used in any number of ways, and we suspected that the three lengths of LED lighting that snap together would provide more than sufficient shine on the inside of the closet when mounted on the inside frame.

Installation hardware was included with the kit we bought for $15, and even though the light isn’t hardwired, its switch is conveniently located on the wire at the base of the light strip.

The three strips of LED lighting span 30″, and because the whole things emits low heat, it’s perfect as concealed lighting in a small space like this one. It would also do wonderful things to a dark bookshelf or beneath kitchen cabinets.

When it’s dark outside, it makes a huge difference in this little space. The before + after photos were taken with the fan light on at night, but I didn’t do any photo editing to change the lighting of the space. The LEDs make a big difference.