Kitchen

Reply to: You just need to show your husband the outlet covers/wallplates made in your own stone or tile - then the Lutron ones will look like quite a bargain. We had a lot of outlets plus a bank of 6 wall switches for our outdoor and indoor lights in our granite back splash so we went for the granite plates made from our sink cutouts by Columbia Gorge Stoneworks with Lutron Satin Midnight outlets and switches. Columbia Gorge Stoneworks was a pleasure to work with and they did a great job so we are quite happy with having splurged there. Under the edge of our counter overhang, you can see a little of our island outlet with a cherry wallplate to match the cabinets and a Lutron satin midnight outlet. Arnev.com has wallplates in a variety of wood species that you can get finished or unfinished plus choices such as various types of metal finishes. For comparison, here is what our backsplash looked like with the Lutron wallplates before the stone ones were made. I think that would have been fine if we didn't have so many. I wouldn't do plugmold - I'm short so plugging into outlets mounted at the back of our cabinet bottoms would be an uncomfortable reach for me - they are bad enough where they are. Anyway we would still have to deal with the switches. Here is a link that might be useful: Columbia Gorge Stoneworks

Q

Reply to: I love the plugmold we installed. It's placed hard up under the counter overhang in three locations around our (huge) island. The overhang hides it completely from sight if you are seated or standing at the counter: you can only see it if you bend down below the level of the countertop. I much prefer the look to a standard outlet mounted mid-panel--to me, no matter what color the outlet cover is, it still looks like an outlet. I love the flexibility of having 4 to 6 outlets right where I need them. I can keep my mixer, an immersion blender, and an iPad charger all plugged in right where I'm working. I think it's the ideal solution.

Q