Discuss I found the coolest solution for ugly outlets on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. I found the coolest solution for ugly outlets - Sinks, Faucets, Knobs and Pulls - also coordinating kitchen elements. See also: Appliance Discussions and The Fabulous Backsploooziesplat.
I was so excited to find this. A hidden outlet in the countertop. I think in the long run, you'll find the price of this outlet the same investment you'd make by putting outlets in the wall, drywalling, painting, etc. I'm getting a few of them for my countertops. If anyone has used something like this, please let me know.
I've seen these. Best to check with your local town code people to see if they are acceptable on a potentially wet surface, though. Some codies are picky about that!
i'm in love with them.... have they passed u/l testing yet? last yr they were pulled (but still on the mocket website) and not available for sale.... but they're definitely a forward thinking idea.
They are UL listed now. I have two of them, although not the kitchen variety, and not in my kitchen.
They are not hardwired. They have a few foot long cord/grounded plug on the bottom end, so you still need to have an outlet to plug them into from below (inside your cabinet). You're not really saving any wiring, just the need to have visible outlets in your backsplash.
We could never get our state electrical inspector to give the yay or nay on them despite the UL listing, so I ended up putting outlets in my splash just to get everyone to quit flying off the handle about them. I did leave an extra loop of romex in the wall so I could relocate the receptacles down below at a later date if I wanted to. I ended up deciding I didn't mind the look of the backsplash receptacles, so I put the pop-up thingies in my studio.
Last edited by splatgirl; Jan 10th, 07 at 6:33 pm.
I thought that the best part of this was that you didn't have to hardwire it. You can use 1 GFCI outlet lower down the wall near the floor. And then you can plug this in. You can probably plug 2 of them and put them side by side. I learned that you can never have too many outlets in your kitchen. Keeping the wall free from outlets and using a very cool backsplash that you don't have to cut is optimum to me. That way I don't have to position the appliances to cover the outlets. Having the outlet near the floor, you can change it out if there's a problem instead of ripping open the countertop.
I did see once on an HGTV show a kitchen where an undercabinet outlet strip was used. I haven't been able to find one that looks good or that you can easily plug into without putting your head underneath to look for the holes. Ahhhhh...I have such problems.
It is a cool idea. I just read a post on GW that someone had the hole in their soapstone cut and because of the flanges they cut the hole too big! So I think a template would be important.
The outlet you're talking about is called plugmold. It's hardwired, basically a long power strip. I've seen it mounted at a 45 degree angle rather than facing the countertop so that the plugs are easier to see.
We have plugmold and I love it. You get used to plugging things in without looking too, it's weird at first though. Ours is a stainless look but you don't see it at all without bending down to see. Especially withthe light rail in place
__________________ Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. ~ Plato Craig and Stacy - Slowly making progress since 2005
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Stacylu, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Stainless would work for me. It's such a great look in your kitchen. Thank you for sharing.
BTW, Bellevue is the nicest place I've ever lived...heading back there within 5 years.
Be glad you're not here today! We got 5" of snow last night and it's a mess. I love this city though and all it offers Nice to know you'll be back soon!
__________________ Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. ~ Plato Craig and Stacy - Slowly making progress since 2005
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Coming in on this late, but... I recently came across another option for the ugly outlets stuck in the middle of the backsplash. It's a recessed outlet with a flip-up cover from Taymac. One of the coolest things about it IMO is that you can leave stuff plugged in when the cover is closed, there's a little notch at the bottom of the cover for the cord to feed through and a latch to keep people from inadvertently pulling out the plug. It may not work quite so well for the folks with tiled backsplashes, although I s'pose you could paint the cover to match/blend in with the tile, but I know there are still people out there with painted or papered backsplashes even though it's not quite as "cool". There is one model that can be retrofitted into existing outlets, too, it's not just for when you have the walls all opened up.
That angled plugmold is pretty spiffy... I wonder if it could be painted, with the actual receptacles carefully masked off, since I'm not enthusiastic about any of the colors available. But I didn't mind ducking down to see where the outlets were on regular plugmold when we had it in a rented condo (I'm not that tall anyway!), so we might just use the regular kind. Now what someone needs to do is to combine plugmold and undercabinet lighting in one unit.. maybe alternating light-outlet-light-outlet. :-) It would be especially nifty if it used LEDs instead of the heat-generating halogen or xenon bulbs.
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