I Made My Hallway GLOW! | LED Wall Panels

I'm still in love with our custom house that we built a couple of years ago but my least favorite part was this dark windowless hallway so I decided to put in a little feature that will let in the light let's go see how I did [Music] it this video is sponsored by dap products we have a pretty simple color palette throughout the house so I didn't want to add too much extra color down here but I knew I needed something to add a little bit of visual interest and obviously we needed to introduce some more light before I can get started laying out my design on the wall I need to tackle this smoke detector it's kind of an eyesore and it's going to be in the way of my panels so I'm going to try to just move it straight above where it is but put it up on the ceiling make sure you consult with a licensed electrician before you touch any of the wiring in anywhere in your home I need to start laying out my design for the panels on the wall as well as for the spacer frame that's going to go behind it the best way to do that is to use a laser level and a pencil I went ahead and found the center of the width of the wall and an interesting fact about mvf panels is that they actually come in 48x 97 in panels instead of a standard 4x8 I want to recess my LED strips I think 3 in from the edge that way you won't see the strips when you're walking by at an angle so that means the outer dimensions of my spacer frame needs to be 43 in wide and 91 in tall for the spacer frame I decided to use half in/ quarter round PVC molding because it was the cheapest material by the foot that I could find the rounded side wasn't going to be an issue because I could just turn that towards the inside of the frame this is is one of those projects that a good laser level is worth its white and gold this segment of the video is not sponsored but I really really like this Bosch green laser I think it works better in low light situations like down a dark hallway to attach the molding pieces of the spacer frame to the drywall I decided to use dap HD Max construction adhesive it's incredibly strong creating a permanent Bond but it also has a high initial tack which means after I applied a bead of the HD Max to the trim I could easily press it up against the wall and not worry about the piece sliding while the adhesive dried to give myself just a little bit more security I also added 23 gauge pin Nails liking what you see tag that like button down below and if you haven't yet make sure you subscribe as well next it was time to tackle the MDF panels themselves even at only half an inch thick these panels are ridiculously heavy I totally lucked out and the dimensions of my hallway allowed me to use three full-size sheets without having to make any Cuts I'm getting ready to sand these MDF sheets to get them ready for paint just a little reminder whenever you're working with a manufactured product like MDF and particle board it's a good idea to remember your respirator you don't want all that stuff getting into your lungs [Music] after sanding the real adventure of trying to move all three sheets by myself began as I mentioned these things are so stinking heavy each sheet weighs over 65 lbs and spread over 8 ft in length they can become pretty unwieldy if you're in a situation like this by yourself and you're not Superman couple of tips I have are first to wear safety seal shoes so you can set the material on top of your foot and secondly I consider getting a sheet carrier I have one from Craig that I really like I'll link both my boots from Timberland PRO and the sheet carrier from Craig in the description box paint time well more accurately primer time MDF uh really really needs primer it's one of those materials that it's super important to Prime it's very very thirsty and if I was to go ahead and start spraying paint it would absorb it unevenly and I would get a bunch of blotchiness I'd also wait waste a lot of expensive product so we are going to start with probably two coats of primer and I want to make sure to concentrate on these edges because they are the thirstiest spot of the entire sheet and I want to make sure I get a nice good coverage after primer I applied three coats of the same trim paint that we used on our baseboards and doors I was just getting ready to start cutting into the wall to run my wiring when Bryce reminded me of two things first of all that's a sheer wall so it's not just drywall with Hollow wall behind it uh it's full OSB behind the drywall so running wiring behind that's not going to be very fun he also reminded me that the wall behind the fireplace on the opposite side is empty so I can access the wall through the backside we just have to pull the fireplace out of the way time to start wiring up my driver and getting my whole LED system set up I'll be honest this is my first time setting up an LED system so I am going to recommend that you go and get some expert information from people who know a little bit more in this specific area than I do um before you start your own project a video that was very helpful to me was actually created by my buddy Brad from fix this build that he has an entire intro primer to LED systems he talks about the different types um gives his recommendations for ones to purchase depending on your application he also talks a little bit about controllers and drivers and Power Systems and things like that so I will leave a link in the description box so you can check out his whole video once you're done watching this one meanwhile I have done tons of research for my specific application and I feel pretty confident in my plan so I'm going to show you what I'm doing I live in the United States and so that means that the power that runs through my walls is 110 volt and an AC current LEDs work on a DC current the same kind that comes from a battery and the specific type of LEDs that I used run on 12 VTS so that means I'm going to have to convert the power that I am getting from the outlet in my wall to work with the LEDs so I bought 150 W magnetic LED driver this will convert the 110 AC power into the 12vt DC that I need to power the LEDs this one is large and it was kind of expensive but I needed that to be able to power the amount of LED strip that I'm running luckily we already have power in the fireplace we installed a two gang Outlet while we were building it to power the electric fireplace so I have power for my DC Transformer but it is a three prong 110 plug so that means I'm going to need to wire a three-prong plug onto my Transformer so I can easily plug it into this Outlet so I need a Demmer and because the outlet is going to be behind our installed fireplace I also need a way to turn the power on and off without having to take the fireplace out every time Bryce had a great idea to use one of these this is a dimmer control module for an old ceiling fan if I wire this in after our driver I will be able to control the LED using a [Music] remote each panel is going to have its own independent strip of LEDs that will come back to the driver that means I need to hook up three different whips or three different lengths of wire that will come outbound from the driver and then I can run through the wall poke out the other side and connect to the end of the LED strips the term for this technique is wiring in parallel which allows consistent ampage to be provided for each LED strip this becomes especially important when you're running long lengths of LED lights LEDs come in a huge array of configurations generally the closer together each individual LED is to the next one or the more LEDs per inch the strip has the more smooth and consistent the beam of light will appear you can find links to all the products that I used in my particular setup in the description box the strips are about 7/16 of an inch wide so just under half an inch which works perfectly with the halfin quarter round trim I used for the inner frame I chose LED strips that project a warm white 300K color to match the rest of the lighting down the hallway they also come with a pre-applied adhesive backing to light up all four sides each panel required about 23 ft of LEDs but the standard length for most LED strips is 16.4 ft luckily you can easily connect strips together by cutting across the copper dots which indicate the ending and the beginning of the circuits you then slide the ends of both strips into a connector which gets compressed connecting the circuit and holding the strips together just keep in mind that you will lose a little bit of amperage over long lengths so depending on the particular LED strips you use and your power source you might be limited in length this would result in lights that were very very bright in the beginning of the LED strip and dimmed towards the end at this point I was ready to attach my power transformer to the wall inside the [Music] fireplace on the opposite side of the wall I used a halfin spade bit to drill through the corner just inside of the frame I then ran the three Supply wires or whips from the Transformer through the wall to each panel and connected them to the individual LED strips I used crimp tubes to make my connection but you have a few different options [Music] to make extra sure that the ends of my LEDs wouldn't come loose over time I added a bead of hot glue with this last panel I actually had two studs I had to get through was a little complicated so I ended up cutting a little viewing window which I just screwed back in place but now I have this you know ugly drywall so I am going to clean it up with some fast dry spackling from dap this is my go-to spackle because it dries really really quickly and it also allows you to fill wider Gap than you can normally fill with typical spackle the LEDs are pretty much done so I am ready to begin attaching my prepainted panels to the wall as you can imagine full sheets of mbf are very heavy and although we are lucky enough to have OSB behind the drywall on this wall I still want to make sure that I can distribute all that weight and have an easy way to get the the panels up and mounted onto the wall I decided the easiest way is going to be using French cleats you can make French cleats yourself they're pretty simple but because I'm working with a really shallow margin you know less than half an inch I figured my best option would be to go with um the manufactured aluminum type of French cleats so once I got her 12 in long and I think they are rated for 70 lb each each panel is going to get two one towards the top and one towards the bottom so that should more than accommodate you know the weight of each panel before I could start mounting my French cleats to the wall I actually needed to make a little step off block that would go between the cleat and the drywall this would allow the cleat and ultimately the MDF panels to sit out half an inch away from the wall accommodating that halfin inner frame I used my handy dandy laser level and 2-in screws to attach the blocks and the cleats to the wall if your wall doesn't happen to have OSB backing like mine does you would need to use some heavy duty drywall anchors it's time to get the panels up on the wall and I have an experiment I want to try to make sure that they are aligned perfectly it's very very important that those two sides of the French cleat um are lined up perfectly so the weight is distributed evenly between the top and the bottom one also because my panels are 49 in wide and I'm mounting them in the middle if my French cleats are not perfectly level you know flat with the Horizon if they're tilted a little bit my entire panel is going to be cocked what I plan on doing is sticking both sides of the cleat together the panel side inserting it next to the wall side that's already installed I then will add a piece of thin double-sided tape to the front of the panel cleat we then will lift the panel in place help align the bottom horizontal line by sitting it on a block and then we can press the panel up against those cleats and hopefully the double-sided tape will stick to the back of the panel so all we have to do is then carefully lift the panel off and the cleats will be stuck in place where they need to be attached it worked it worked okay we're good with half of the French cleats stuck to the back of the MDF panels all that was needed to make a tight connection was to pre-drill and attach the cleats using the screws that came included with the kit next the two of us but mostly Bryce lifted the panels into place and set them inside the French cleats we just got all three panels up on the wall and we almost forgot there is an outlet behind this middle panel so we need to extend it bring it outward I purchased one of these guys this is an outlet box extension it protects the sides of the outlet as you pull it away from the wall shut off the power obviously we're going to take out this Outlet we're going to disconnect it we are going to install the extension box on the face of the uh MDF panel and then we can reinstall the outlet and add our face plate all that fun stuff to the face and we will be safe and protected from any accidental contact all around our Outlet the French cleats allow for a little bit of side to side movement so I was able to get a consistent 3-in spacing between the panels by giving each one a little tap ready to see the final [Music] result just for a reminder here's the before and here is my hallway now I love that the brightness of the LED lights is adjustable if I was going to help somebody do this project in their house I might recommend setting back the LEDs just a little bit more I don't think 3 in was quite deep enough it's hard to see on camera but if you walk by at just the right angle you can see the LED strips for just a split second not a big deal but you know the perfectionist in me would probably do it differently the next time we'll probably do something to Jazz up these boring flat panel doors in the future but in the meantime I think the hallway has received a major upgrade if you want to learn more about the DIY modern house that we built check out our full building modern NAA budget series and if you like other types of DIY content check out this video as well have you ever worked with LEDs before if so give me your tips down in the comments and as always thanks for watching guys

Channel: Pneumatic Addict

Views: 63,287

Keywords: framing, house, building, carpentery, carpenter, remodel, remodeling, renovation, hgtv, mid-century, modern, modern house, home, fixer upper, contemporary, wood, woodworking, tiny house, arizona, diy network, concrete, concrete floors, polished concrete, floating shelves, walnut, makeover, poplar, paneling, LED, LEDs, LED lighting

Id: bzGCrHVHsZ8

Length: 16min 52sec (1012 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 26 2024