Illuminated drywall niche: installation and installation of lighting

Drywall is indispensable in the design approach to repair. With its help, you can not only easily and quickly align walls with ceilings, but also make the room non-standard and stylish. One of the most spectacular and interesting solutions is a niche made of drywall with backlight. Let's find out how to make it yourself without much effort.

Benefits of Using Niches

Deepening in the wall from the gypsum wall solves several problems at once:

• Partially compensates for the space spent while leveling the walls.
• Provides convenient and reliable placement of household appliances. On the surface of the GCR, it is problematic to fix the shelves or hang the TV. A specially equipped niche will save the situation.

• Replaces stationary furniture: shelves for storing things can be equipped in a niche.
• Allows you to split the room into separate zones. Using backlight greatly enhances this effect.
• Introduces a certain "zest" into the interior of the room, so that it becomes one and only.

It’s easy to build a niche from drywall yourself. Work does not require specific skills or expensive fixtures, and the necessary materials can be found in the nearest large hardware store.

Materials and Tools

Procurement of material is started after the dimensions of the recess are determined and a detailed drawing of the future design is made. Calculations are done with some margin. To create a niche with backlight you will need:

• Drywall. In most cases, the usual wall modification with a thickness of 12 mm is suitable. For rooms with high humidity, moisture-resistant GCR is used. Refractory is used if the niche is combined with a powerful electric fireplace.

• Guide and rack profile. The frame of galvanized metal profile is more durable and durable than wood.
• Fasteners: dowel-nails, small metal screws, or “fleas”, for connecting profiles and longer, 25-30 mm in size, for the installation of drywall.
• LED strip and controls or spotlights.

From the tools you need to prepare:

• Hammer drill. With its help, drill holes in the wall under the dowels, through which guide profiles are fixed.
• Screwdriver. Screwing a large number of screws into the metal with a screwdriver is very problematic. Nice to get special drywall bit, limiting the depth of screwing.
• Scissors for metal. It is better to cut off the necessary fragments of the profile by them, and not by a grinder.
• A spatula, brush and roller are useful for machining a mounted structure before finishing.
• Measuring and marking tool: tape measure, level, square, pencil, plumb.

Frame assembly

According to the drawing, you need to make markup. On the walls, ceiling and floor, the fastenings of the guide profiles are indicated. They begin to mark from the ceiling, transferring the lines to the floor using a plumb line. This will allow you to withstand the entire niche in a single plane. On the wall are the dimensions of the future recess.

Profiles are mounted:

• Guide dowels with a pitch of 35–40 cm are mounted. Previously, on their backs adjacent to the overlap, a damper tape is glued.
• By installing guides on the floor, ceiling and walls, mount vertical racks. Profiles are cut so that they are slightly smaller than the nominal size, inserted into the guides and fixed with "bugs". The correct installation of each rack is checked using the level.
• Installation of horizontal jumpers is in progress. They form the inner space of the future niche and give rigidity to the entire structure. Also on the jumpers will be docked fragments of drywall.

If you plan to equip a niche with shelves, then jumpers should be located according to the distance between them. The lower plane of the recess, on which household appliances will be installed, should be further strengthened by the profile.

A niche may have curved planes. Then for the installation of the frame will require a special arched profile.

You can also notch on the guide rail at certain intervals, as shown in the photo. The smaller the bending radius, the more often slits are made. The profile thus processed can be easily bent at the required angle.

Drywall cladding

Before installing the gypsum plasterboard, they lay electrical wiring, removing it into the cable channels or fireproof corrugations.

The GCR sheet is cut into suitable fragments.

Mr. Build recommends: remove the necessary dimensions from the frame, not from the drawing. During the installation, changes in the dimensions of the structure are possible, and with incorrect measurements, the GKL pieces do not fit together.

Cutting is carried out as follows:

• Marking lines are applied to the GCR.
• A cardboard knife cuts a layer of cardboard on one side of the sheet, after which it is gently cracked and turned over.
• The upper coating is cut from the second side (as in the figure).

• The slice is processed with fine sandpaper. If a junction of fragments is planned at this place, then using special planer a chamfer is made at an angle of 45 °.
• Sheathing begins with the inside of the niche. Fragments lying in perpendicular planes are mounted so that one element covers the end of the second.
• Drywall is fixed with self-tapping screws with a step of 25-30 cm, slightly recessing their hats inside the material. When using special bits, the risk of damage to drywall sheets is minimized.
• Special corners are attached to the external corners of the structure to protect the fragile drywall from damage.

After facing, the surface is prepared for finishing:

• The seams are glued with a fiberglass reinforcing mesh and coated with putty. Seam processing rules are described in detail. here.
• After the putty is dried, they are wiped with fine sandpaper.
• The entire surface of the niche is twice treated with a universal primer. After applying the first layer, wait for it to completely dry, and only then apply the second.
• The last stage is the filling of the entire structure according to standard technology. If the niche will be tiled, putty is not needed.

Lighting installation

The best choice for highlighting a niche is LED strip. The installation of spotlights is more complicated and more expensive.

The recessed wall in the backlight can be performed in two ways: fasten the tape directly on the surface of the niche or remove it from a special ledge. For the second case, the edge is pre-mounted on the edge of the niche. You can run it from a guide profile masked by a strip of drywall.

When installing lighting, follow the instructions below:

• Measure and cut the tape to the required length. Do it carefully, in the places marked for such cases. If necessary, grow the tape by soldering the contacts or using special connectors.
• Connect the LEDs to the control unit. It is important to observe the polarity of the connection. It is recommended to choose the power of the transformer with a margin of 20–25%.

If the total length of the tape is more than 5 meters, connect individual pieces in parallel: so the glow of all the LEDs will be uniform.

• Apply voltage and check the backlight for functionality.
• After checking, clean the power supply inside the structure. Glue the tape to the desired location. Make sure that it does not come into contact with the metal of the frame or other elements.

As you can see, a niche device with a backlight is not such a difficult task. To get more detailed explanations for each stage of the work, watch the video and ask questions to our expert in the comments. Mr. Build is always happy to help!