I am in the process of trying to come up with a nice looking mounting for rope lighting on some existing stairs we have coming down to the basement (theater room).

I set the rope lighting on top of the stringer and next to the cove and my wife vetoed that. She didn't like the look and I don't either. I have read about some people will sandwich the rope light so that it doesn't illuminate the light up into your eyes. Does anyone have a suggestion on how do make this look nice? Someone suggested I pull off the coving, and then put the rope light on top of the stringer and then put the coving back on top of the rope lighting. I don't think this would let the coving be very parallel with the stairs stringer.

I was trying to come up with an idea of perhaps pulling off the cove, and then putting some type of wood perhaps another 2 inches taller, and routing out a 3/8 grove and putting the rope light in that. And then at the top of that board perhaps using the router to make it look like a cove.

Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone have any pictures of your setup?

Sorry for the poor quality pictures I took them with my phone.

Run it under the nosing of every stair tread (on a dimmer).

With the stairs already being carpeted. There isn't really any room to put any light up under the nosing. It appears only the sides are the only option I have.

couple of items.

They make clear plastic 4 ft track channels that keeps the rope nice and straight. If that helps.

There is a company that makes a handrail with a grove in the bottom for a rope light. Maybe it is something you can DIY.

I came up with my own design for this. Using my router and a round over bit, I routed the edges of a couple of 1 x 2"'s and nailed them together offset by about an inch. This leaves a channel big enough for the rope light. There are a couple of pics in my gallery although it isn't easy to see detail because they are painted black. The effect is nice though. I used the same molding to go around the ceiling with red rope light. The result is almost that of a neon light.
http://gallery.avsforum.com/showphoto.php/photo/10525/ppuser/69029

couple of items.

They make clear plastic 4 ft track channels that keeps the rope nice and straight. If that helps.

There is a company that makes a handrail with a grove in the bottom for a rope light. Maybe it is something you can DIY.
That was my original thought was the clear plastic track sitting on top of the stringer and next to the cove. However, I do agree with my wife, for the most part we want to hide the rope lighting. I think I am going to play around with a router to see what I can come up with. I looked at "No Clue" pictures and that looks like a clean look. After my next business trip, I will have to experiment a bit with the router....

I did a rope lighting in my previous theater/house. Sorry, I don’t have very good close up pictures and I can’t take make more (since I don’t own the house anymore).

I remember using 2 types of molding; I glued them together to get a "V" shape.

There is a company that makes a handrail with a grove in the bottom for a rope light. Maybe it is something you can DIY.
Does anyone know the name of the manufacture who makes the handrail with the groove in the bottom of it for rope light? I would like to see what they have to offer. I googled it, but couldn't find a manufacture that makes this.