We have had a large bookcase/set of cabinets designed for us that doubles up as a home office, as one of the cabinets opens up to make a desk that houses our computer. We were about to press the button and pay a deposit, when we realised that it might be a good idea to have the shelves illuminated by LEDs. The designer has pointed out that to conceal the LED strips so that only light is seen, not the actual LEDs, is quite tricky and requires a C lot of the bookcase design to be re-thought. He isn’t trying to create more design fees; I think he has a good point as we don’t want to see the LEDs, we just want the contents of the shelves to be illuminated.

Has anybody achieved this, and if so, how?

Best Option I’ve seen so far is to build a pelmet onto the uprights of each bookcase, have the LEDs each side of that, with a strip of wood that acts as a diffuser, sending the light backwards and into the bookcase, whilst preventing the light from shining directly into the room. But this doesn’t work with other aspects of our bookcase, so looking for alternatives.

Just to clarify, something I’m trying to achieve is this:

 

Good lighting draws attention to what it is lighting, not the lighting itself.