Introduction: DIY: Stair Wall Lighting From Oak and LED Strips

By Well Done Tips

This time I'll make stair wall lighting from oak board and LED strips.

How I did it - you can check by looking DIY video or you can follow up instructions bellow.

For this project you will need:

Materials:

Oak board (or any other wood piece)

L shape aluminum profile

LED strip ~1,8meters

LED drivers (12W @ 1.25A)

Clear varnish for finish

Tools:

Screwdriver

Soldering iron Knife

Brush

Table saw or hand saw

Drill and bits

Metal saw

Router with bits

Step 1: Preparing Oak Boards

I had left this glued oak board from previous project. It is 37 by 30 centimeters.
The idea is to make three equal, 9 by 35 centimeters, pieces. I cut them with my home made table saw to 9 centimeter width and later on shortened by cutting to 35 centimeter length.

Sanded edges with 120 grit sandpaper to remove any saw marks.

Step 2: Router in Work

With palm router made a groove to sink aluminum profile with LED strip.
Marked and routed a hole to sink LED driver. I made a few passes by increasing dept at each pass.

Step 3: Aluminum Profile

Cut 6 pieces of L shape aluminum profile. Drilled two holes for screws. Because I don’t have countersink bit for metal I countersink them by using regular bigger bit.
This aluminum profile will make two functions. First - will work as LED heat sink, and second - will rise oak board from a wall. That’s allow me to fully hide LED driver inside.

Step 4: Step by Step

Marked, predrilled and screwed aluminum in place.
I want to hide all wires, so I made a groove with palm router.

Step 5: LED Strip

I choose 12 volts and 18W per meter LED strip. Those are really powerful and gives good amount of light. In one lamp I’ll need two of 30 centimeters length LED strips. So that will be around 11W in total.
Cut 6 pieces in 30cm length and glued in place.

All LEDs are almost flush with board surface. That’s exactly what I want.

Step 6: LED Driver

Each lamp will be powered by separate LED driver which gives 12V and up to 1.25A. Regarding my LED setup I’ll need around 11W. That means I have to give around 1A of current to fully power it up. At this point I’ll recommend to choose a little bit more powerful LED driver than you’ll need. That’s will give a small power reserve. It will be great to have 20% higher amperage rating than you'll need.

Striped, pretined and soldered wires to LED strips.

Step 7: Final Assemble

Used hot glue, to fix LED driver in place.
All wires nicely hided in routed groove as an LED driver too. Made a hanging point from a piece of wire and two holes in aluminum profile.

Shorted power wires and connected connector block.

Step 8: Finishing Wood

For finish applied two coats of clear mat look varnish. Plus give a light sanding with fine grit sandpaper between coats to remove ant roughness which pops out after first coat of varnish.

Step 9: Result

I really love that different boards color combination, especially at end grain. Time to hang them on stair wall and take a full view.

Step 10: Installed on a Wall

The best thing is, that oak boards color contrast is very close to stairs. I’m very pleased with that.
Plus they’ll give exact amount of light, that I need in this place.

I hope this article was helpful:)