I have replace them in three different houses! Because I hate them... and they are hideous! Like the others have said, they leave suprisingly small holes in the ceiling! I really only had to use touch up paint where I had to patch the ceiling holes, the rest was painted to match already, BONUS! As far as the light "box"(or whatever its really called) already being in place, once yes, two times no. The first time there was just a wire hanging out of the ceiling, I called an electrician who just used toggle bolts to secure the little silver-hanging-bar-bracket-thing directly into the drywall of the ceiling and wired it all together. The next time that happened I did it myself and chose to spend the $150.00 I had paid him on something pretty for me! My most useful tip is just to have help getting the light box itself down from the ceiling, they are crazy heavy and very awkward! Good luck! It's a great and easy project! Here are some pics of one of the ones I did. Before After

It's hard for me to visualize this as an inconspicuous solution and I'd like to understand this for the future. You don't think that stuff in the cabinets (how many cabs, btw?) will bother you? For example, if my guy told me he wants to put a couple j boxes under some cabinets for my clients, I envision big, ugly, metal boxes and I know they would go nuts. Alternatively, if he were installing some boxes "flush with the back of the cabinets", then I envision extra work, cost, holes (including recess in the wall behind cab), and at the very least, a little elbow in the cabinet that bumps into the dishes or whatever. Do you see what I mean? What am I missing?....or are these j boxes going behind the cabinets before they are hung? That's why I would think using wire mould under the cabinet would be the simplest, cleanest way to achieve the protection you need. But that's me. Not to cause you trouble or doubt, but I just don't understand this as a good solution for line voltage (as opposed to thinner , low voltage wire.) and I would like to understand it. (Sorry!) Thanks for the post. Please post pics and let us know how it works out. Good luck with everything. This post was edited by homebound on Tue, Jan 8, 13 at 8:50

The wire nut connections have to be within an approved enclosure, and accessible for maintenance. Many lights have housings that meet these requirements (for example, flush mount fluorescent lights), so you can route the Romex right into the housing behind the light, and then wire nut the connections before you put the housing on. However, without seeing your actual light, or its directions, its hard to know if you can do it that way. If you can make all the connections within the existing box, you may be able to use the light housing as a "cover" for the box. Did the original fixture just sit on top of the box and serve as its cover/enclosure? Bruce

I had a similar issue, a sconce that was 4 inches wide that when mounted would have a 1/4 inch of the box exposed on each side. It was impossible to use a switch box. I ended up using a 3 1/2 inch old work black ceiling box. This box that I got at Lowes has a thin flange and 3 ears to grab behind the sheetrock.. I marked the round hole I needed to cut with a compass and then marked another circle about 3/16 inch outside of that one. I then carefully cut the hole for the box . Then I used a utility knife to score the outside line I had drawn and peeled away the thin strip of paper on the sheetrock surface. In the next step I pared away the sheetrock 1/16 to 1/8 inch deep so the box flange would be below the surface of the surrounding sheetrock. I then installed the box making sure the screw holes were in the correct orientation for my sconce and used compound to fill in over the box flange so it was even with the existing wall.