Other than your parenthetical comment you are describing led tape.

What is your reason for ruling out LED tape?

• I know you didn't want them but a high-CRI tape light (example: 5mm, 90+CRI) in a low-profile channel (example: 0.2" high) might be the best choice.
• IKEA MITTLED LED kitchen cntrtp lighting strip, dimmable white available in four lengths

Hafele LED tape is the bomb dot com.

LED lighting is the bomb it is just better than any other source and thin too .

To answer above questions - our electrician recommended them over the LED tape. Not against it as it seems like it’s the default now, but thought I would research options.

Any thoughts on kichler? Between maxim and kichler right now.

Should edit - LED light fixtures preferred over LED tape.

• I looked at Kichler cabinet lights. They're not "low profile".
• Maxim CounterMax Slimstick.

But why? I suspect that led tapes are fussy to install and led fixtures are more what he is used to...

This is what was installed in our now 9yo kitchen. Is this what your’re describing?

They’re thin LED fixtures, not tapes, which were in their infancy back then. As you can see, the light rail prevents the fixtures from being seen, but not the light.

These have been great for us. Often, they’re the only lights we turn on at night. However, were I renovating the kitchen in 2025, I would not be averse to newer, proven technology. Nor would my contractor.

Your electrician is stuck in 1990.

@darbuka yes this is what I’m trying to research thank you.

darbuka's cabinets have an underside to which the light is attached and hidden by the piece of wood visible beneath the cabinet doors. If you have a cabinet like that, then you just need a light whose height if less than the thickness of that piece of wood. If you have flat-bottom cabinets such as an IKEA cabinet, then the front edge of whatever light you attach to the cabinet will be visible, hence the desirability of a low-profile LED channel such as the 0.2"-high channel linked above. The Maxim CounterMax Slimstick is 3/4" thick.

Yes our cabinet maker provided about an 1.5 overhang for the lighting. I went to a lighting store yesterday and found some that I like better than the tape lights by American lighting. High CRI and a wider profile and option to switch between 2700 and 3000k.

What do you know about placement? I was going to have him place the lights at the front of the cabinet

Yes. All under cabinet lighting should be placed at the front of the cabinet…per my pic above.

"Yes our cabinet maker provided about an 1.5 overhang for the lighting."

You wrote that you required lights with a thin profile. The LED 5 Complete are 1" thick.

I have this saved as an option for an upcoming kitchen remodel:

Ultra Thin LED Built-in Under Cabinet Invisible Light Bar

Mary Elizabeth: "I have this saved as an option for an upcoming kitchen remodel..."

Hmm. That company's 0.27"-thick Oblique Beam Bar Lights which could be surface-mounted at the front of the underside of the cabinet is also interesting. It might be a good choice if you wanted a light that was nearly invisible but didn't want to -- or couldn't -- cut a groove in the cabinet bottom.