Currently, the emergence of new building and finishing materials has led to the fact that ceilings often turn into real works of art.
And such masterpieces, like paintings by great masters, become even more advantageous when they are surrounded by a worthy frame.
This ceiling frame is the ceiling plinth, sometimes called a baguette, frieze or fillet.
Being an additional element of the interior of any room, it plays a significant role in the successful completion of its design solution.
The convenience of ceiling plinth is that it can be installed with any type of ceiling, including the now very popular stretch fabrics and long-proven plasterboard structures.
One of the recent fashion trends is ceiling plinth with built-in lighting.
The popularity of such skirting boards is explained by the emergence of new technologies for ceiling design, materials more suitable for this, and the supply on the market of light sources that are fundamentally different from previously existing ones.
Whatever the ceiling plinth is called - baguette, fillet or frieze - it is a very convenient and inexpensive finishing material.
Among its main advantages are the following:
The materials for making skirting boards are polystyrene foam and polyurethane.
Most often, this finishing material is sold in lengths of 2 m, 1.5 m and 1.3 m.
The width of these segments can range from 2 cm to 8.5 cm.
The originality of the profiles and shapes of the fillets is a great way to give the ceiling a certain style.
Their decorative effect can be enhanced by being painted in different colors.
Skirting boards can be installed in any room.
They can be installed even in rooms where the walls and ceiling have a non-standard configuration.
This is possible because these decorative products are both rigid and flexible.
If you want to radically change the interior of your home and make it more modern, you can install a backlit ceiling plinth.
Such a non-trivial detail will add a touch of sophistication to any room and will become a real decoration of the whole house.
Since the ceiling plinth is a rather specific place for placing lighting devices in it, the requirements for these devices are quite specific.
In particular, these devices must be extremely compact and produce a minimum amount of heat during operation.
It is clear, for example, that the usual incandescent lamp will not fit here in any way.
What light sources are used for placement in the ceiling fillet?
LED elements became very popular after high-brightness LEDs came into use.
The most compelling arguments in their favor are a high degree of efficiency in terms of energy consumption, which is unusual for other lighting devices, and a huge service life.
The great advantage of LEDs when installed in ceiling-mounted moldings is their low heat transfer, small size and high strength.
The most convenient method, widely used when illuminating ceiling cornices, is the use of LED strips, which can also be supplemented with lamps.
An LED strip is a flexible board on which LEDs are installed at equal distances.
Such tapes, 5 m long, are sold in the form of small coils.
In addition to LEDs, the electrical circuit of the strips also contains resistors that limit the strength of the incoming current.
All elements of the electrical circuit are powered by direct current voltage of 12 or 24 V.
The tape is connected to the electrical network via a power supply.
The color and brightness of the backlight using strips is regulated by controllers installed on the strip and controlled using a control panel.
These lighting devices are produced in the form of tubes, inside of which there are small light bulbs.
Previously, they housed simple incandescent lamps, which looked quite original, but their service life left much to be desired.
If a single light bulb burned out, a whole piece of tube had to be replaced.
The situation changed radically after the advent of LEDs.
They began to place them in the tubes, as a result of which the service life of the tubes increased significantly, their brightness increased, and energy consumption decreased significantly.
Spotlights with backlit ceiling plinths are effective as auxiliary lighting devices that correct the luminous flux produced by the LED strip.
The use of an additional type of lamps gives the outline of the room an unusual softness and effectiveness.
However, even with spot lighting in the room, the need for main light sources remains.
Gas-light tubes are characterized by the presence of fairly large color possibilities.
Like an LED strip, the tube can be placed in the ceiling plinth around the perimeter of the ceiling.
However, since its installation requires special calculations, it is best to entrust the installation to a specialist.
This now popular interior decor item is offered by dozens of manufacturers in a wide variety of options.
When choosing a material for backlit skirting boards for your home, you need to consider the following nuances:
Before installing the baseboard, you must make sure that you have all the necessary tools and materials.
To work you will need:
It is best to install fillets before wallpapering the walls, since otherwise there is a risk of staining them with sealant or putty.
Since the baseboard will have lighting, when starting work, you should remember that the fillet must be attached only to the wall, leaving a sufficient gap between it and the ceiling.
To correctly join the baguettes in the corners of the room, you can use special corner elements.
If there are none, then the correctness of the corner joints can be ensured by using a miter box.
In the most visible places of the room, the number of joints on the wall should be minimal.
When joining baguettes, you need to pay attention to the correct relative position of the shelves, since the top and bottom, as a rule, differ in thickness.
The adhesive material along the length of the baguette can be distributed in dots, dotted lines or over its entire surface.
Having completed the gluing, the joints between the individual sections of the baguette must be sealed using a mounting gun or a rubber spatula.
As mentioned above, light sources in ceiling fillets can be LED garlands or strips, as well as duralight or neon tubes, that is, the structure of all these lighting devices is similar.
Spotlights are used only as a supplement.
The LED strip is glued with the sticky side to the wall behind the ceiling plinth.
The individual pieces of tape are connected to each other using soldering or special connectors.
With tubes everything is even simpler: they just need to be placed in the internal cavity of the baguette.
Connecting any of the mentioned lighting devices to the electrical network is done using power supplies.
Thus, the work of installing the ceiling plinth and laying lighting elements into it does not pose any difficulty.
Video about backlit ceiling plinth:
The baguette and the lighting fixtures placed in it are quite affordable.
However, these inexpensive elements can radically change the interior of any apartment, giving it additional charm and comfort.
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A plinth or fillet (as its correct name sounds) for the ceiling allows you to complete the finishing of the suspended structure, giving the ceiling an elegant and complete look. It is installed at the final stage of repair work, when the walls and floor surface are completely repaired. Wanting to transform the interior of a room, its owners prefer to install a ceiling plinth with lighting, as in the photo.
After installing hanging or tension systems, gaps and cracks remain between the walls and the ceiling surface that need to be hidden or decorated, as well as the unevenness of the upper edge of the wallpaper pasted. Installing a ceiling plinth with lighting is not a complex type of finishing work, so it can be done with your own hands, without the help of specialists. When installing, you just need to follow the recommendations.
Fillers are slats with a shaped profile or fittings made from different materials. Due to the fact that ceiling skirting boards are presented in a wide range and varied color palette on the domestic market, they are in great demand among consumers. Fillets come in different widths and patterns. It will not be difficult to choose such an element of room decor.
Using a ceiling plinth of a certain thickness and texture, you can visually change the space. Thus, installing a smooth and narrow plank in a small room visually makes it more spacious, and using a patterned wide fillet gives a large room coziness and seems to reduce its size. If you plan to install lighting, then in this case the plinth is not mounted close to the ceiling, but retreated from it, creating conditions for the passage of light flux by 7 - 10 centimeters. , polystyrene foam, and expanded polystyrene.
Experts recommend using polyurethane ceiling plinths for lighting. should have low sides that will not block the light, and minimal relief in order to clean them from dust less often. The parameters of the plinth depend on the height of the room - the higher the room, the wider it should be.
You can purchase fillets at a building materials store, having previously calculated the required quantity - 2-meter-long strips are sold individually. When making a purchase, you need to purchase a plinth with a reserve, since when cutting corners you cannot do without waste, and it is inexpensive.
An example of the implementation of LED lighting for the baseboard on a suspended ceiling, watch the video:
At the initial stage, in order to combine the ceiling plinth for hidden lighting in the corners of the room, it needs to be trimmed correctly. To perform this work, you will need a tool specifically designed for this - a miter box, which looks like a U-shaped block with grooves created in it at certain angles.
The plinth must be glued from the corners: the cut strips are smeared with glue and applied one to the other, pressing well to the surface. Excess adhesive is removed using a spatula. When the work in the corners of the room is completed, they begin to install the flat areas. The joints are coated with glue and wiped with a damp cloth. After the installation of the baseboard is completed, the lighting is installed.
The choice of lighting type depends entirely on personal preference. Recently, consumers have preferred to install low-power or small-diameter fluorescent lamps. But the latter option has a significant drawback - at the junction of the light bulbs, a so-called “break of light” occurs.
LED backlighting can be implemented in several color options, the most commonly used are:
After the plinth is attached and the necessary equipment for arranging the lighting has been purchased, the connection of LEDs begins. The process of attaching the tape is simple. To do this, remove the protective film from the self-adhesive layer, wipe the inside of the fillet from any dust or trapped debris, and soon the ceiling plinth with LED lighting is almost ready, as it looks, you can see in the photo.
Sometimes during installation it becomes necessary to trim the tape; for this you will need ordinary scissors, but cutting is allowed only in places specially marked on it. For docking, you can solder them together with wires, while maintaining polarity, or use connectors. The soldering time in this case cannot exceed 10 seconds, and the soldering iron temperature cannot exceed 250 degrees.
To complete the work and connect with backlighting, you will need to buy connectors or connect the wires to the terminals. It is difficult to make a mistake in this case, since each of the contacts has the necessary markings. For a ceiling plinth with RGB lighting, as noted above, the installation of a controller is required, which, together with the power supply, should be hidden behind the plinth.
It will take a maximum of one day to install a polyurethane fillet with LED lighting, provided that the room is not undergoing renovation work - it has already been completed or there is no need for repairs at all.
When choosing a suspended ceiling covering, you need to pay attention not only to the finishing material and decorative elements. Lighting of the suspended structure plays an important role. In addition to the main lighting, you can install lighting in the ceiling structure. To do this work you will need a ceiling plinth for the LED strip. Let's take a closer look at how lighting is installed and what interesting lighting options you can choose from.
The LED strip in the ceiling plinth is a lightweight, solid structure that provides enough light for the room in which it is installed. The backlight has the following advantages:
Using the settings, you can not only turn the backlight on and off, but also change the light saturation.
The backlight in the form of a strip with LEDs is available in two versions:
Using LED lights, you can illuminate individual elements: niches, workspace, mirrors. But most often such lighting is used for lighting walls and ceiling surfaces. And in order to install the LED strip efficiently and competently, you need to use a ceiling plinth.
The LED strip is attached using a plinth, which protects it from damage and prevents it from coming off. Another name for plinth is baguette or fillet. Cornices are made from the following materials:
When choosing an LED plinth for the ceiling, you need to pay attention to its strength and resistance to elevated temperatures.
If you plan to lay LEDs along the entire perimeter, then you need to choose a flexible edging option, because usually the walls are not always perfectly smooth.
Polystyrene foam is suitable if there are no semicircular areas.
Edgings with low sides are suitable for emphasizing the overhead lighting in the room.
High-density polyurethane plinths are suitable for tension structures. The polyurethane product can be repainted to match the color of the walls and the entire ceiling covering.
You can purchase an already built-in polyurethane ceiling plinth with LED strip.
There are skirting boards on sale that look like a metal profile. It is convenient to install LED lighting in such a product.
Skirting boards are sold in two-meter lengths. Their length must coincide with the perimeter of the room where the LED strip will be installed. Do not forget that you need to leave a reserve, because there is waste when cutting corners. See what the ceiling plinth for the LED strip looks like in the photo.
The method of installing LED lighting with a cornice depends on the type of ceiling structure and the baseboard itself.
For example, light curtain rods can be mounted using liquid nails. For wooden coverings, self-tapping screws are suitable for fastening. For plasterboard and concrete surfaces, special adhesives and putty are used.
Polyurethane curtain rods for LED lighting are mounted only on the wall.
Now let’s learn more about how to make LED ceiling lighting under the baseboard:
The LED strip itself is easy to attach. On one side, the tape is treated with a special adhesive, which is covered with a protective strip. Before attaching the backlight, the protective strip is removed. To ensure that the LED strip holds tightly and does not come off during operation, before attaching it, clean the cornice from accumulated dust.
The LED strip can be cut to match the size of the baguette. See what the LED strip lighting looks like under the baseboard in the photo.
Why are ceiling cornices used to install LED lighting? It's simple. It is the ceiling cornices, thanks to their design and its varieties, that are able to hide LEDs. And to emphasize the curved shape of the ceiling surface, flexible versions of skirting boards are used.
The advantages of ceiling cornices include the following:
When installing a multi-color LED strip, you must install a controller. The controller connects to the backlight itself and to the power supply.
Look at the photo of the ceiling plinth for the LED strip. This type of lighting is not difficult to install. To make the LED strip last longer, do not forget to clean the surface of dust before attaching it to the baseboard. The backlight is glued to a perfectly clean surface.
Installing an LED strip on a ceiling cornice has the following nuances:
When the installation work is completed, leave the curtain rods for several hours. Finally, you need to seal the seams between the elements of the ceiling plinth with sealant.
Interior finishing work currently represents a set of original technologies, each of which is designed to create a specific type of design. Technical progress has not spared ceilings either. Thanks to the emergence of new finishing materials, it has become possible not only to improve the quality of finishing of ceiling surfaces, but also to create additional opportunities to create original structures and systems. An example of such a technical innovation in the field of ceiling design is illuminated ceiling skirting boards.
The idea of illuminating ceiling surfaces using additional lighting sources is not new. Today, technology makes it possible not to have to deal with the installation of complex structures in the ceiling. Everything is much simpler and cheaper. Using LEDs, other lighting sources and specially designed ceiling fillets, you can get excellent results, giving an ordinary room additional aesthetics and artistic meaning.
In the last 20-30 years, we have seen a pattern in which in the field of apartment design there has been a shift away from traditional methods of finishing ceilings. The usual central location of artificial lighting sources is gradually being replaced by another lighting principle - decorative. An excellent solution to this idea is plinths for lighting, which are installed on ceilings in any configuration. This type of ceiling design significantly expands the field of activity during interior finishing work.
Illuminated ceiling plinth is a real find in this regard. In this case, consumables mounted in the upper part of the room, in addition to the main technological load and decor, become a source of additional lighting. Do not forget that lighting carried out in this way radically changes the appearance of the room. Moreover, the costs of implementing such a technical solution are not high, and the labor intensity of the process is quite comparable with the installation of conventional ceiling cornices.
The idea of installing lighting sources around the perimeter of the room is not new. With the advent of suspended ceiling systems, very original options for solving problems with interior lighting appeared. The presence of a durable frame allows you to install any number of lamps in the upper part, playing the role of main or decorative lighting. Simple, painted ceilings and tension systems were deprived of this possibility. The problem was partially solved by multi-level ceilings, where suspended structures were built around the perimeter of the room. This approach was associated with a large additional amount of work and new costs.
As it turns out, a similar problem can be solved in a completely different way. Simple, cheap and most importantly, original. Ceiling plinth, polyurethane or foam plastic under the LED strip do an excellent job with the assigned tasks. The first type of baguettes is a fairly expensive consumable, while the second type of cornices can be called the most affordable. The combination of an LED strip with these consumables is recognized as the most optimal, both from the point of view of manufacturability and from the point of view of fire safety.
When starting to implement your plan to equip ceilings with contour lighting, you need to carefully select consumables. Not every type of ceiling cornices, baguettes and profiles is suitable for solving the task. In the usual understanding, plinths for ceilings are fillets, which, in fact, are a corner overlay that covers the junction of the walls and the ceiling surface. In this regard, cornices play a technological role, acting as an element of finishing.
The ceiling plinth for lighting is a product with a different configuration. The main difference from conventional cornices is that these elements do not have a high front side. This shape of the baguette ensures unhindered passage of light.
On a note: Most of the consumable finishing materials offered on the market are suitable for LED strip. The main thing is to use non-flammable materials.
The choice here is quite simple. If you have a limited budget, focus on polystyrene foam. Baguettes made from this material are distinguished by a wide choice of shapes and sizes. In addition, such a baguette is absolutely not difficult to install yourself. This option is suitable when working with conventional ceilings or in combination with plasterboard suspension systems. An LED strip laid on the ceiling under a foam baseboard will look great, especially if the baseboards are painted in the appropriate tone.
To illuminate the ceiling in a different design, it is better to use polyurethane cornices. Such consumables are perfectly combined with tension systems. Polyurethane has a high density, is environmentally friendly and allows you to give the ceiling surface additional rigidity. Polyurethane consumables are available in pure white. You can use it to install contour lighting yourself or purchase ready-made products with lamps built into them.
There is one caveat here. Fluorescent lamps, despite their efficiency, do not always give the desired effect. Unlike LED or neon strips, which provide even light around the entire perimeter of the room, lamps provide spot lighting. In addition, the use of LEDs as the main light source allows you to adjust the lighting intensity, reducing or increasing the brightness.
For reference: polyurethane skirting boards have excellent flexibility, a quality that is very useful when equipping the upper part of rooms with complex layouts and when working with multi-tiered ceilings.
The idea of combining the cornice with lighting elements led to the fact that the ceiling plinths have undergone some modifications in their design. To make electrical work more convenient, the standard fillet shape has been supplemented with a channel for laying neon tubes or LED strips. Thus, the illuminated ceiling plinth becomes a full-fledged technological product with a wider range of functions.
In other words, lighting fillets are shaped specifically to accommodate lighting sources. In some cases, ceiling cornices that resemble a metal profile are used. Such consumables are usually equipped with lighting lamps of various types.
To work with ceilings, in this case, two-meter fillets available for sale are used. As with conventional curtain rods, before installation you need to calculate the amount of consumables. This is done using a simple formula: the perimeter of the room is divided by the length of one cornice. The resulting number will be the amount of material required for installing products under the ceilings. Add 1-2 pcs to this value. skirting boards used for working with corners and used as a backup option.
Foam or polyurethane plinth, specially used for illuminated ceilings, can be equipped with LED strip. This option is the most common; besides, installing consumables and connecting them to the network will not take much time. What is an LED strip? It is a flexible stamped strip 8-20 mm wide and 2-3 mm thick. On it there are located, at an equidistant distance, LEDs, between which resistors (resistance) are installed. Typically, such lighting fixtures are 5 m long and are sold in rolls.
To reduce the voltage supplied to the tape from the network, resistors are used in its design. Therefore, when connecting from a 220V network, you will need an additional rectifier - a power supply (12 or 24V). To adjust the brightness of the light, the device has controllers. If desired, today you can purchase an LED strip with a control panel.
Important! To equip skirting boards with lighting around the entire perimeter of the room, you will need an average of 5-6 pieces. In order for them all to work normally, the power supply is selected based on the total power. The more strips installed in the ceiling moldings, the larger the power supply will be, which is difficult to disguise. It is better to use several blocks, one or two for 2-4 tapes.
Having decided on the choice of what kind of ceiling plinth you need for the LED strip, proceed to installing the lighting source. The tape is attached quite simply. For this purpose, there is adhesive tape on the back side of it, which ensures uniform adhesion to a flat and smooth surface.
For reference: When purchasing an LED strip for ceiling cornices, decide for yourself whether you need a warm or cold tone of light. For basic lighting, such a light source is not suitable due to its low light output.
Knowing how to choose a suitable tape and how it is laid, you know how to make your own LED lighting for your ceiling under the baseboard. Obviously, this task should not pose any particular difficulties. The only point you need to pay attention to in this situation is the connection location. It is best to equip the power supply connection in the upper part of the room, using technological channels for electrical wiring.
A gas-light neon flexible tube has a similar effect. Here it is appropriate to talk about a wider range of colors to create contour lighting.
Less commonly, duralight lamps or spot lighting are used to equip skirting boards with contour lighting. These are tubes containing small light bulbs. However, this option is not economical. Incandescent light bulbs burn out quite often, and when replacing a lamp you have to change a whole piece of tube. The advent of LEDs greatly simplified the situation with duralight lamps, making them practical to use and economical.
Spot lighting is aimed at installing individual lighting sources. The lamps are evenly distributed along the entire length of the cornice. Unlike LED strip, this lighting option can be used as the main light source. Often this lighting option is combined with LED backlighting.
Creating contour lighting under ceilings in a room is a fairly simple and understandable task for a person who has an understanding of ceiling design and the operation of electric lighting devices. Illuminating the ceiling using an LED strip placed under the baseboard is by far the simplest and most affordable way to solve the problem. To do everything correctly and competently, you should remember certain aspects.
