I can see the light - kitchen cupboard pelmets

[Painters10]

I'm just finishing off fitting a kitchen (Wickes Montreal) and I have come to put the pelmets on the wall cupboards. I've already mounted the under cupboard lighting so we need the pelmets to cover these (and diffuse the light etc).

The pelmets are a standard MDF with laminate and are curved rectangle shape. Nothing fancy.

The problem I have is that the wall cupboards have not given a properly flat surface on the bottom. Basically there are small (about

1mm) steps from the sides to the base of the cabinet.

A picture speaks a thousand so...

6 wall cabinets are the same, as are my el-cheapo screwfix ones in the utility room.

When the pelmets are mounted onto the cupboard using plastic blocks the light behind shines through the gap. This looks crap.

The question is how would a pro kitchen fitter make this look better? I can see a few options: - Don't use plastic blocks, instead use long wood sections behind the pelmet so that the gap will not let light through - Use a router to take off 1mm from the end of the pelmets so that it pushes up and fills the 1mm gap - Add some of the self adhesive laminate tape to the top of the pelmet to fill the gap

Any other ideas?

Painters10

[Trevor Smith]

All I did with mine was to stick some duct tape on the inside of the pelmet to the bottom of the cupboard, you don't notice it unless you look underneath but if that bothers you another thing you could do is get some right angle plastic strip (they do it in B&Q) and use that instead. Trevor Smith

[Nige Danton]

When I've done this job I've put a bead of suitably coloured mastic on the pelmet before fitting. Remove the excess afterwards and it looks excellent.

-- Nige Danton

[dennis]

Put some draught excluder foam in the gaps.

[OG]

Seconded

[TMC]

Run a bead of coloured silicone along the inside

Tony

[Painters10]

Thanks for all the ideas. I am going to try the coloured sealant/mastic first.

Thanks Painters10

[Andrew Gabriel]

The IKEA pelmets come with a strip of foam tape (thin version of draught proofing tape) to stick along the top edge of the pelmet for exactly this purpose.

Incidentally, I fix the lights to the back of the pelmet rather than the underside of the cupboard, but these are just a bare T5 fluorescent tube held by terry clips with remote electronic gear. You want the lights as near the front of the cupboards as you can position them to minimise reflections from the work surface and shiney items on it into your eyes when working on the worktop.