How to Diffuse LED Light Strips?

Light strips are a great way to bring a strong line of light along edges of units and cupboards, and are perfect for kitchens.

However, with the way Hue light strips work, you usually find spots of lights from the LED’s themselves instead of a nice glow which is certainly what you want when running them along kitchen units.

On the internal use light strips the individual LED’s are spaced out, therefore the light from them creates spots, if they were closer then the spots would be reduced and be less like to be seen.

How to diffuse LED lighting?

There are 3 main ways to help diffuse light from your LED light strips, they are:

1. Placing a semi-transparent diffuser in front of the light.
2. Placing a thick opaque buffer over the light.
3. Increasing the distance the light has to travel.

LED Strip Diffuser

To avoid the spotting effect you need to diffuse the light, and there are many options to do this. To diffuse the light you need to cover the LED’s frosting them so that the light is then diffused reducing the spotting being seen.

Philips Hue Aluminium Diffuser Profiles

There are many options on the market where you can buy a diffuser tube, a plastic or aluminium tube that is usually solid on one side, you then have a cover for this which is the diffuser, a slightly opac white section that allows light through while stopping the strong spots of light to shine through diffusing the light so you get a glow.

StarlandLed 4-Pack 2m/6.6FT LED Aluminum Channel Wide for LED Strip Double Row 5050,Fit for Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus 2nd Generation,Perfect for Task Under Cabinet Lighting ¡­

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These all work well and you get fixture and fittings included with them, and for the money you also get quite a lot of trunking making it ideal for even the longest of runs.

Light Strip Diffusers

• LightingWill LED Aluminum Profile 5-Pack

These are good diffuser options, however they are too slim for the width and thickness of the Hue Lightstrip.

• StarlandLed 10-Pack Aluminum LED Channel for LED Strip Lights Installation
• Muzata 6-Pack 3.3ft/1Meter 9x17mm U Shape LED Aluminum Channel System
• Angled LED light strip diffuser

DIY LED Strip Diffuser Options

While you can easily buy a light strip diffuser they are also quite easy to make and don’t require much other than something to diffuse the light.

Using some diffusion fabric you can cover the light strip to remove the spots and help diffuse the light.

Another way is to make your own diffusion LED profile using some cable trunking to attach the light strip too, and then cover it with some fabric to diffuse the light.

If you have a LED Light strip then the quickest and easiest way is to buy a differuser profile, they are not too expensive and come in large packs so you have plenty for the future, they are also the best looking solution and can be easily fixed in place.

Best diffused Light strip

If you are looking for a Philips Hue light strip, the outdoor light strip is better diffused than the indoor version, the LED’s are closer together making the overall light effect better. If you can make it work depending on your indoor use, the outdoor strip is better, however it cannot be cut and is a bit more bulkier as it is designed for outdoor use and is therefore weather proof.

Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance Outdoor LightStrip 2m/7ft (Requires Hue Hub, Works with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant)

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Using the indoor light strip you can use some of the methods mentioned above to help diffuse the light.

Mike Ford

Founder & Editor

Mike is the founder of Hue Home Lighting, a huge Hue fan with far too many lights, covering home and garden. A smart home gadget addict and also enjoys the odd bit of DIY