Move Those Outlets and Switches! [You’ll be happier in the long run.]

Call the electrician and move those awkwardly placed outlets and switches!

That’s what I’m sharing today for your consideration for your next home update or remodeling project. You’ll be happier in the long run with your home and so glad you went that extra mile.

I’ve seen images of people in the midst of expensive and laborious remodels and DIY’s (on Instagram and other platforms) that will go to extra lengths to work around badly placed outlets and switches.

Sometimes they can’t be moved for various reasons……most times they can.

Please don’t panel around an outlet or switch like these if you can at all help it.

With this switch, below, we deliberately placed the wainscot above the switch to clear it and then blended it into the paneling, using a switch from LeGrand Adorne, with a cover painted to match the paneling.

It certainly is worth a call to the electrican if you’re investing in your interiors, whether it affects wall finishes, artwork and furnishings placements that will be against a wall, or a kitchen backsplash or island.

Here’s a built-in that was in the game room of a project of mine. The home had a separate bar area elsewhere, and they didn’t have anything they particularly needed stored in here. They didn’t want this to be a dry bar.

We decided to make this into more of an accent area and deleted the overhead cabinets to put up floating shelves. The lower cabinet remained as is.

This room was painted a lovely green-gray and the shelves installed, but not before we minimized the look of those outlets on the wall. We had to patch the wall anyway and texture, so why not make them as inobtrusive as possible?

Here’s another job where the extra switch and doorbell speaker were located right where we wanted to hang some art. I wanted to minimize the number of white rectangles on this wall so that the wall decor could be featured properly.

The homeowner had this series of four art pieces and we needed blank wall space here. Without it being too costly (there was already some considerable painting and sheetrock patching going on with this project) they were moved to allow for the wall decor.

 

Here were some other locations around the house where the switches were shifted or ganged together.

 

 

 

You won’t regret spending this extra money to take care of details like this. It will make your project look very finished and thoughtfully detailed.

Check out these posts, below, for more info on locating outlets and switches!