LED tape. But your cabinets will always look naked without a light rail.

Agreeing with above, LED tape. However, without a diffuser, the LEDs may reflect onto your counter as dots if your counter surface is polished because that is reflective. If your counters are honed or matte, it shoukd not be an issue. Your other idea of of a light bar strip will be quite visible without a light rail. And the other mentions of puck lights - puck lights are very 2003.

Whatever you choose, make sure you install the lights toward the front of the upper cabinets, not the back. If you install toward the back, the light will be shining on mostly the backsplash. When you install the lights toward the front of the upper cabinets they will shed light onto the center of the counter beneath them like they are supposed to.

Recessed 4" cans in the ceiling placed 6" in from the edge of the counter with at least 450 lumens at the counter is the alternative. Offset two for each work zone to reduce shadowing.

As said, LED tape lights. With a simple 3/4” straight stock light rail. You need space for the voltage driver somewhere too. All undercabinet requires a voltage step down unit. It is built into the larger bulkier choices. With the LED tape, it is a small unit, easily hidden on top, or underneath.

LED tape lights are your answer!

LED tape is invisible. If you have light rails, then you want them 2-3 inches back from the front lip, or they'll only light your backsplash and not your working counter spaces. Without a light rail, most cabinets have a shalow lip that will hide them plenty, as long as all the cables are hidden up in somewhere, which is usual anyway -- then the tape should be close to the front, as there is less shadowing.

If you have some kind of European cabinets with flat bottoms, then you will probably need a solution that looks decent. (LED tape looks a bit like electronics when exposed.) We have cabinets over a peninsula and put nice-looking pucks, but even then you might need a thin end-piece to cover the cables unless you want your dishes or whatever sitting on wires.

Thanks everyone!

Does anyone have experience with corner mounted LED tape track like this? It is mounted at the back of the underside (at wall) and shines back downwards at a 45 degree angle to light up the work area.

Don't use a corner channel. Use a flat, surface-mount channel like these which is only 0.23" high and even available in white. Get the frosted lens to reduce reflections in the countertop and mount it near the front of the cabinet, not the back.

MICRO-ALU Aluminum Channel - Surface - For Strips Up To 11mm

@wdccruise How would you handle the wires in this application? Could you run thrm inside the cabinet in a wire / cable channel like this?

Just curious…what are your objections to a light rail…especially as they do their job, and give a finished look to the cabs?

@darbuka: "what are your objections to a light rail..."

What is a "light rail"? Please provide a link to one.

The OP will be installing a white aluminum channel with diffuser, attached to the underside of the cabinet with clips; channel end caps; an LED strip light (example); and low-voltage transformer.

@wdccruise, you’ve been on this forum for many years. Do you really not know what a light rail is?

I don’t know why you had to butt in. I asked the OP the (simple) question.

@darbuka: "Do you really not know what a light rail is?"

Yup. Are you talking about that piece of wood hanging below the cabinet?, The OP wrote, " ...under-cabinet lighting for cabinets that do NOT have a valance (and I do not want to add one)".

@wdccruise, and all I did was ask, out of curiosity, what her objection to ”that piece of wood” is. FYI, the light rail does not ”hang down.” It is a thin piece of wood that is attached to the upper cabinet. It has just enough depth to hide the under cab lights.

Did you notice the first comment in this thread, by DeWayne? He also used the terminology, ”light rail”. Interesting you didn’t think to challenge the usage then.

I just went through this scenario and may have some ideas. Is the photo your kitchen with the tile? If so, I’m not sure how you will connect one cabinet lighting to another cabinet that may be a few feet away on the other side of the window?? We ran the wires behind drywall as we didn’t have tile yet so that was our solution. As for the lights, we used the tape lights and the diffuser channel was very thin. Home Depot has a set of 5 for $25ish. The channels were cut to size. The driver was placed on top of the cabinet as we had finished wood trim there. It could also be placed in a lower cabinet but again that requires going behind the drywall. Good luck!

@lmmcnitt Yes that is my kitchen... We will have 2 switches for the lights, one on either side of the window.

I'd love to know which product you used from HD.

What did you do with the wires?

@wdccruise Thanks for the drawing! That's what I had in mind!

@darbuka I think light rails look clunky when viewed from below, and I just prefer the streamlined look of a minimal light without the rail... as long as wires can be neatly hidden.

You can see the individual diodes, and/or the aluminum channel, even when using very thin LED tape lighting. That looks far worse than a minimalistic light rail.

The channel will have a diffuser, you don't know how reflective the countertop is or the density of the LEDs.

@sarracenia the diffuser is important. As I mentioned above, without one you will have dots reflected in your countertop. I will link an article about the choices in diffusers for LED strip undercabinet lighting. Also some photos to illustrate what I mean.

https://www.myledy.com/how-to-choose-led-profile-diffuser/

@sarracenia facing a similar scenario so curious: How did this turn out for you?