we went closest to the wall color -- we have a chocolate colored media room, so that room and the office got brown. The rest are cream color.

Biscuit and Eggshell have been popular. Satin colors hold up very well and don't show their age when compared with typical gloss plates with screws. The plastic is a much stronger type also.

Here is a link that might be useful: switch, outlet & wall plate colors

We wanted white. For some reason, ivory(I think) got put in by accident...in the whole house. It was one of the "I can't live with it" things. The electrician changed them all - to the tune of $1400 to the GC. I felt badly - and am hoping they negotiated a lower price. But I couldn't live with ivory.

Emily

Emily, why didn't you like ivory? I'm just curious because I'm trying to incorporate modern furniture with cool wall colors. Our wood is light etc. However, I feel like the white will stand out more than the off white even on cool colored walls (light grey blues and pale pale greens). The crown will be white. Someone told me to match the wall plates with the trim?? I don't know, the off white just seems like it would blend into the walls more? I'm rambling now.
Bridget

We're going with white. We had ivory in our last home and white looks so much "cleaner" to me, although it's probably just being tired of the same ol' thing. I'll probably tire of the white after living in this house, too! We will have dark outlets on our dark island, though. I really don't like seeing light outlets on dark cabinetry or vice versa.

The white is just much crisper to my eye. Our trim is BM White Dove, which isn't a true white, but relatively close. Our paint colors are all over the map - many deep ones, but some light too. Our house is very transitional/eclectic - if it were more traditional, I might prefer the ivory.

As one of my friends said (who likely would have ivory in HER house, but has very different taste than I do) there is no way I would have, at any point, said I wanted ivory by accident. :)

Not sure that helps, but at least will give you some things to think about.

Emily

I can't live with white--ours are going to by ivory/bisquit/eggshell (whatever they're calling it these days). We both like the softer of the colors, so if there are two 'cream-type' colors, we both prefer the softer color to the deeper darker color.

In our current house, they are all ivory, except one bedroom, which has black. (The room is painted lime green and black so black went much better than anything else.)

So, just a vote for the non-white :-)

--Beth

Here is a link that might be useful: Jordan's lime green and black room

I did white everywhere except on the back of the island where I did brown, because the brown blends in better with the cherry. We have white trim. Ivory wouldn't have matched anything.

Where we got our outlets, there was a color between white and ivory. The ivory was pretty dark and the white was too white for me, but the middle color was just right. It may have just been a different manufacturer's version of ivory, but check out all the variations available. Unfortunately, our central vac outlets are white (DH says that's the only color, but I never checked it our for myself) and don't match the electrical outlets. switches.

I chose ivory over white, because I have a lot of light wood and natural color fabrics. White would have stood out too much - I didn't want the outlets to be a visual accent.

I do have one black outlet, in the middle of a soapstone backsplash where it visually recedes (my electrician was very proud of this - his suggestion).

Also at the electrician's suggestion, I exchanged the manufacturer's white switchplate for the ceiling fan to ivory.

Claire

I don't like white unless the trim or paint in the room is white. I don't like ivory because it is too yellow-ish and has a dated look. I don't like brown unless it is used outdoors or on old dark 1970's paneling. I prefer light almond most everywhere as it doesn't stand out like the white and doesn't look like sun-stained yellowing plastic like the ivory.

Pass and Seymor has a light almond color I prefer the best. Leviton also has one, but it is more glossy than I like.

I will look into Pass and Seymor. I'm glad I'm not the only one obsessing over things such as switchplates!
thanks everyone,
bridget

I have found Pass and Seymour at both Menards and True Value...

Here is a link that might be useful: Pass and Seymour

I couldn't live with white - - mainly because there's no white trim and only a few white walls in this house (which will get painted when DS grows up and moves out!).
Ivory goes much better in our house.

We're going with white. We have all 8' white doors with white 3.5" door trim, 5.25" white base trim, and white crown molding. Ivory electric would not look good with all the other white.

Kevin

I am having the same problem right now...trying to decide what color outlet covers to use. Our contractor wants to buy them today and thinks we should go with bisc (the next color closest to white), but I am worried that if we decide to use white trim (which we probably will do), that it won't look right.

What do most people use...white or some sort of off-white?

Thanks!

We went with bisque (I think that's what it was called, it's off white anyway and I know that there were darker off whites than what we chose). One thing to consider is the color of the other things on your wall like central vac outlets. Our central vac outlets only come in white and our set back thermostats are white so on those walls I'm going to be changing the outlets and light switches to white so that everything on the wall is the same color as it doesn't look very good to have bisque outlets next to a white central vac outlet. In my kitchen, once we get the backsplash finished, I'll switch out the outlets/switches on the backsplash to a color that matches the backsplash.

It is very easy to paint electric outlets to match the wall color. Just lay on some paper and use a roller. They will blend in very nicely this way.

I am surprised no one else mentioned this. Try it and see for yourself.

What do you mean by "just lay on some paper and use a roller"? Maybe I'm dense, but I don't get it.

You can easily paint outlet plates, but I think it adds a real cheap look to the place. Painting outlets is like painting hinges - you don't generally see it done in nice places. Apologies for the harshness, but thats the reality in the homes I've seen.

I took the covers off and laid them on some newspaper or waxed paper. I took a roller and rolled some paint on them. I let them dried and put them on the walls. I painted the screw tops, too.

You can paint them on the walls if you want the outlet plugs painted, also. If you want the plugs left white or off white then remove them from the walls before painting.

anthem, I don't think it looks cheap if the outlet plugs aren't painted and it is done well. If you don't like the look then don't paint yours. I was merely adding an idea that no one else mentioned.

Plates are cheap, if someone wants to see how they would look painted it would be easy to do one and see for herself if she likes it.

Outlets are another one of those things that I'm curious as to why we worry about them so much. I just realized when reading this that the only outlets that are visible in my home are the ones in the kitchen and bath. So why do we care what color is behind all the furniture? Just a thought because I'll have to decide when I'm ready for outlets in my home being built and I just realized I really won't care if they can't be seen. Of course I don't want purple. LOL But what's the big deal between the different shades of white if they can't be seen anyway?

brutuses-because in some houses they can be seen. We don't have our furniture against the wall in our living room so the outlets can be seen. It's cheap to change outlet/switch colors and a white vacuum cleaner outlet right next to a bisque electrical outlet on a wall that can be seen really does draw your eye to the outlets more than if they were the same color. I bet you end up caring about the color of the outlets in your kitchen.

Oh absolutely, I think we all want our outlets to match and look presentable. It's just one of those things that when I saw the thread I thought about it for a while and realized my outlets couldn't be seen except in the kitchen and bath. That's all I meant.

There is another alternative to painting the plates.

Buy the clear plastic plates that are designed to be inserted with wallpaper. Paint a higher quality piece of paper or thin posterboard, then trim to size per the instructions that come with the plate. The last time I did this, I used the same deep red paint as the walls along with a white large rocker switch. It was stunning and did NOT look cheap.