White or Lt Almond Electrical with Dover White Trim

10 years ago

All our base trim, doors, crown moulding, some bead board, and ceilings will be SW Dover White. Kitchen cabinets are almost an exact match to Dover White as well. Only stark white will be the cheapo basic Home Depot subway tiles for kitchen backsplash and master shower walls.

Main wall color will be SW Contented (grayish green).

Our electrician spec'ed out Lutron paddle switches and plates and we have the choice of white or light almond.

Does anyone have regular white electrical "stuff" alongside off-white trim like Dover White? Would the standard white be too harsh/stark against the soft creaminess of Dover White trim? Would light almond be too dark?

With SW Dover White trim, would you choose white or light almond for your primary light switch/outlet color?

Here is a Houzz pic of the wall color and similar flooring:

Contemporary Living Room by Nashville Architects & Designers William Johnson Architect

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bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz

10 years ago

We too went with the white electrical plates. But our main wall color downstairs is SW frangipane (a soft peach) and our trim is all stained a mahogany color. I'm all about "warm tones" as opposed to cool so I thought I would like light almond better than stark white. But when I actually looked at one of the light almond switch plates our electrical subcontractor had available up against our frangipane paint, I knew immediately that we had to go with white. The light almond switch-plates looked like a failed attempt to match our frangipane wall color.

The best thing to do when choosing colors is always to get samples and look at them up against whatever colors they will be installed next to. So ask for sample of both white and light almond from your electrical sub and LOOK at them up against your wall and trim colors.

Every manufacturer of electrical switches has slightly different shades that they call light almond (or sometimes "ivory" or just "almond.") and the light almond from one company might go perfectly with your paint colors while the light almond from another company looks just awful. See the link below for a picture of how much difference there can be.

Note that shades of white can also vary from one manufacturer of switch-plates to another but the differences usually aren't quite so noticeable.

Once you look at the choices available to you up against your wall and trim, you'll probably know instantly which is better for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: various shades of switch plates

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Comments (7)

worthy
10 years ago
Light almond all the way!

Unless you are doing a stark modern, the almond blends nicely.

Here's one of our baths.

This post was edited by worthy on Thu, Aug 22, 13 at 20:27
dekeoboe
10 years ago
Light Almond would probably work well. If you are buying other things to match, remember, light almond and almond are not the same. LA = Light Almond and AL = almond, it can be confusing.
worthy
10 years ago
Yes, a lot of creative naming.

You might want to consider some other variations too.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're building a custom house, it shouldn't have the same things as every tract home you've ever seen. And that especially includes details like electrical plates.
Beth Parsons
10 years ago
I vote light almond. We used SW Divine White for our trim and SW Serenity Hue (bluish/greenish/grey) on most of the walls and have a natural (no stain) oak floor. Actually looks strikingly similar to the pic you posted. We used light almond switch plates/outlet covers and although it's just a tad darker than the trim, it blends much better than white.
Spottythecat
10 years ago
I vote light almond. We are using it - our cabinetry and trim will be SW Alabaster. We are putting our outlets in our baseboards to "hide" them better.
ILoveRed
10 years ago
Lots of other things that have to be installed on your walls are only available in white. Or could only be matched in white. ie: speaker volume knobs. At least that was the case when we built this house. So if I wanted everything to be the same color I had to choose white.