Thank you Debbi Branka. I think the black outlet looks great in your island-- obviously I can see it, but I don't *notice* it.

I definitely think black would be better than white against my walnut, but I'm also wondering about brushed stainless or nickel. We have stainless pulls and appliances, but I worry a metal switchplate might call more attention to itself than black.

Why not just buy a brown outlet cover that's close in color?

search for Legrand Adorne - available at Lowe's or online in various colors. I did my entire extension with them. Make sure you don't go for the square outlet - looks nice but not functional as there isn't enough room for two things to be plugged in next to each other. Get the rectangular one. They also have USB ports etc. available which are very handy, I love ours!

You can get an unfinished walnut switch plate from Arnev.com (beveled it flat edges), and have your cabinet manufacturer finish it to match your island. That's what we did for ours (cherry). We were able to specify grain type/direction/orientation (horizontal/vertical) as well. We even got to choose screw color to blend in with the finished plates.

We used black outlets with ours (we have black granite counters), but could have used brown instead.

*edited to correct the name of the company; Arnev

bad link cat_mom.

We used brown outlets on our walnut island. They are placed on the island facing "into" the kitchen so they aren't seen by company, if that makes sense.

Our cabinets are a grey-washed over brown stained maple, and we found the perfect outlet plates at Lowes. We don't have the packaging any more, but I'm almost positive it was these:

IRL on our island (because appliance cords are so short these days, we installed it as high as possible):

Perfect match w/ our polished nickel drawer pulls.

In our last two kitchens, we've opted for stainless steel with black plugs.

cpartist, thanks for the heads-up re bad link--it was a typo, corrected now! :)

Here's a pic showing a few of our switch plates from Arnev.com:

You can see one on the end of the island (there's another along the side), and the ones in the message center between the two pantry cabs.

Mine are very much like javiwa's. The lower cabinets are called "stone", but they're like a striated laminate. We originally had white plates and they looked horrible. The brushed stainless and black replacements look much better, and fit with the modern style of the kitchen.

Legrand Adorne this is a link to the catalogs. You can get paintable switch plates or just about any color to match. They are "modern" in style so depends on the look of your kitchen. I love ours and so does everyone who sees them.

We used sillites and painted the covers to match. Sillites. They blend perfectly.

Thanks, everyone -- the information and pics are super helpful.

So many options… Sometimes these little details are the hardest decisions to make!

I like cat_mom's suggestion of how to make the outlet plates match your wood. I had saved an old thread about outlets, which I thought of while reading through this one: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2699132/why-do-people-put-outlets-in-the-backsplash . See beaglesdoitbetter1 11/16/12 post and photo of plugmold strips under the island

Excuse the temporary board for a countertop and the horribly dark, splotchy image . Our island countertop will be installed in a couple weeks.

We went with Sillites for outlets. We only wanted a single outlet on each end. I'd only need more during Christmas or if we have a bunch of people over, so I'll plug a power strip into it.

The coverplate is paintable, but I just haven't done it yet to match the end panel .

The Sillites are flush with the panel .

We used the same custom stone switch plate makers that cloud_swift used (for two of our bathrooms); a husband and wife, who were super nice and helpful. The switch plates were pricey, but they were a special indulgence that added a little something extra to the rooms.

http://www.stonewallplates.com

Agree with Kelleg69... Make sure you confirm with electrician and whomever is putting in countertop on location. My electrician told me that I can put an outlet on the end of my island, but the overhang cannot be more than 11" (code). Mine is exactly 11", so it is no problem, but probably good to confirm!

My electrician told me that I can put an outlet on the end of my island, but the overhang cannot be more than 11" (code). Mine is exactly 11", so it is no problem

Yup, local issue. My overhang is 11" and it violated code (I think code is 6" here).

Thanks everyone for the pictures and thoughts! So helpful for me in thinking it through. In the end, I think I may be *overthinking* this issue. There are certain aesthetic things in the kitchen that I care a lot about, but I don't think this is one of them. Looking at other people's kitchens in real life rather than scrutinizing every detail in photographs of backsplashes, etc., I realize I don't really notice people's outlets and outlet covers.

The electrician came and installed white receptacles before I had a chance to talk to him about any other colors (I had been considering grey), but I don't think it's a big deal. I think I'll go with brushed stainless switch plate covers with the white receptacles, and if I hate them later, once my peninsula end panels are in and my backsplash is tiled and I live with/in the kitchen for a while, I can always change them out later!