Came out ok but not entirely happy with the first attempt at installing led light strip in the back of a frame.
First I installed the light strip in the rabbet itself as it was 5/8" deep and the glass is only 1/8".
Just too bright around the edges so I built a 1/2" deep plywood frame and attached it to the back even with the inside of the rabbet extending it another 1/2".
I then installed the strip light away from the glass on the outer edge of the ply frame. Cut a channel for the wire to the outside of the back frame.
Looked a lot better but still a little too bright on the edges. Decided to let it go for the first attempt.
I next laid a white gatorboard over the back with the lights on but it was bit flat so I cut a sheet of metallic paper and put it over the back and what a difference that made.
The light reflected off the paper and really popped the colors.
I took a 3/8" piece of gator and mounted the metallic paper to it with print mount ultra from Seal.
Then attached the gator to the back of the opening, stained all the edges of back frame and gatorboard the same brown color as the Larson-Juhl frame.
Hanging in the studio it looks pretty good despite the edges still being a bit too bright for me.
I trained 2 of my Solux lights onto the center of the panel and that helps a lot.
It needs a pattern of lights installed across the back to light the glass evenly.
Thought of laminating a piece of metallic paper onto the glass itself then making up a panel that covers the entire back with LED lights.
I think the backer on the metallic paper will be opaque enough to still shine through.
Any other suggestions?
As a side note I pulled all the pins holding the glass in and replaced them with beads of clear epoxy.
The tips of the pins could be seen from the front when the lights were on. That fixed that.
