* You don’t realize just how simple some upgrades can be until you do. The discovery of outlet and switch plate covers made an otherwise tedious task a breeze.
I’ve always heard that there’s always something that needs to be done when it comes to your home. And when you take on a fixer upper those words could not ring more true. We had and still have major things to tackle like unfinished stairs, and small things like exposed outlets and switch plates. We’ve made great progress over the many years, but everything was handled bit by bit as we had the time and money. It would have cost a pretty penny to bring in professionals for all that we needed to do. So with my handy husband and my love for HGTV, we knocked things out at our own pace. Our home is completely livable but there’s still quite a ways to go.
When deciding on what needed to happen, the larger needs stood out entirely so the smaller items just get pushed to the end of the line. The problem with the little things taking the back-burner is that they begin to look like flaws. They look like a bunch of flawed little things that stand out in mass. The little things that bothered me lately were the outlet covers and switch plates. One thing that I knew I wanted to do for certain was something that I saw when touring the parade of homes. Several of the homes would paint the outlet covers and switch plates to match the paint in the room.
Disguising The Outlets
I thought this was the most clever idea. Of course at this point we had not yet purchased our home, but the thought of stark white outlets on a wall suddenly seemed ludicrous, even though that is what I’ve been looking at all my life. I knew that when we bought our home I was going to copy this idea. And we did! We loved the way it looked. It truly gave such a seamless look which made perfect sense. The colors are a bit off in the photo below but you get the idea. Back when we did this, we simply painted over the white plates that were already in the wall. These were not paintable switch plates. I honestly don’t know if they even existed then. Naturally however, they began to chip a bit over time, and that doesn’t look good.
After all, outlets and switches aren’t meant to stand out ‘unless they are’! By that I mean, there are some truly decorative covers out there, like these outlet and switch covers from Touch of Class that are obviously meant to be seen.
Or even these beautiful golden covers:
Outlet and Switch Challenges
When we first bought our home, we painted the interior and said the next time we’d hire professionals, mainly because our ceiling goes up to 20ft. It was kind of a challenge painting it. When our lives changed and we no longer had Chris, I soon realized that I needed to do something new. I was on my own and felt like I was suffocating. I needed to change something and brighten things up. Therefore, I decided to repaint the entire first floor. Busying myself was a good thing. Maybe I’ll write about that later. All of this is to say that now the outlets looked like this:
So because I’m me and I have a ton to do, these little areas stayed this way for way too long. Thank goodness my kiddos had zero interest in sticking forks in them, they look rather dangerous.
After too many months I figured, maybe I should cover them up. I went out and purchased some switch plate covers to cover up the open outlets and look at how much of a win this was!!
Yay!! Right? What a win 😐 Sigh…So now, I was going to have to figure this out. Though this might be such a next to nothing task for those who have done it before, for me it was yet another thing that I had to learn. So I went out and bought some of these:
There were some differences, the load and line areas have some relevance. And apparently you have to make sure you have the correct amperage, 15 vs 20. Oh! And I had to get those wire cutter things (fortunately we already owned them) because according to you tube they can come in handy depending on the outlet. That’s when I learned there was more than one kind. GREAT!!
And then it was time to start. Since my sister is convinced that I’m going to electrocute myself or blow up the house, she says to turn off all power. I did exactly that, which made this process a ton longer because I had to keep turning it on and off to make sure I did it right each time. But it’s better to be safe than sorry!
This whole thing takes far too long and as you may have seen (or probably not, because it took 18 MINUTES!!!! Well I condensed it down to 8), its entirely tedious. I would have time lapsed this video but I wanted you to see how annoying and time consuming it was. So stupid. I hate that I have to do these things now. Or do I?
Outlet and Switch Solution
I absolutely do not! While slowly navigating this process throughout my house I made this discovery. Masks!!! Masks to cover up switches and outlets.
Having to be the one in charge of the things that my husband used to do has truly been a learning process, and a growth process. I don’t like most of it and of course I think it’s entirely unfair that it all falls on me but as I said on my about me page, I think God just wants to challenge me. But I have to say, during those challenges, on occasion a gem falls in my lap to give me a break.
This was perfect, all we do is cover them up. No matching wires, no challenging too tight screws, no wasted time.
Here’s a video that I did when I discovered the cover ups, before I knew how to handle the wiring with savvy. Such a great discovery.
Challenge averted!!
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