I like to have barbeques every so often on my patio, and I have this awesome white enamel, metal table top that I bring out and put onto a couple of saw horses. The table top is great because it serves two purposes: one as an inside table, and two as an event table of sorts.

The one problem I have with it is that the saw horse legs stick out a bit from the perimeter of the table. This has caused some comical, yet hazard trips during a few of our little shindigs. I thought to myself, there has to be a solution, and there is: LED strip lighting lining the perimeter of the underside of the table. This will illuminate the ground surrounding the table, acting as a sort of caution light. Not to mention, it will also be a pretty great accent light once the sun sets.

So it was time to brainstorm: What will I need to put this all together? Elemental LED has a ton of great products that could do the job. LED strip lighting, RGB strips, puck lights, and the list goes on. I decided to go with the non-waterproof flexible LED strip lighting for a few reasons, the main being ease of use. These strips come with 3M adhesive on the underside and make for a super clean, and easy install. Not needing adhesive or mounting hardware was the motivation. I definitely didn’t want to drill into the metal top for the mounting hardware. I could have used adhesives to mount a waterproof strip, but I always bring this table inside after an event anyway, so I went with ease of use.

Next, I chose the LED Strip Light L Sections to wrap the light around the corners of the table. I decided to go with these because I like having consistent light throughout the length of the strip and perimeter. I could have used strip to strip bending extensions but I like being able to flip the table top and see consistent light around the perimeter.

As you can see from the image, the L connectors form a seamless connection at the corner of the table. The aesthetic of the strip and the light it emits is consistent around the entire perimeter.

Here is a full list of materials I needed. I will go into more detail on many of these materials in my next posts:

• 10 feet of the Flexible LED Strip Light
• 4 Strip Light L Sections
• 1 Portable Lithium IonBatteryPack
• 1 Locking Clip Strip Light DC Connector
• Tape measure
• Marker
• Sponge and steel wool
• Velcro for mounting the battery back
• Soldering iron w/solder
• Desoldering tool

*Note – Wire and wire strippers are in the picture, but were not needed or used for this project

In the next post, we will be talking about measuring out the table, picking the correct length of LED strip lights, mounting the strips, and soldering the connections.