I would get a matching outlet cover and stain it.

Of course I bought mirrored outlet covers stripped the paint off the back, stripped the silver off with muriatic acid and made clear glass outlet covers and then back painted them to match what I wanted to match, so I am a little obsessed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wood outlet covers.

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble with the Forbes & Lomax ones palimpsest. Although I have no idea how much they cost!
{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Fobres & Lomax

Clear glass ones are available in the US now, too although they still have the greenish cast. The ones you posted appear not to.

I've been looking palimpsest :) I don't like the greenish cast on the glass on most of them. For the kitchen, we're just hiding all of ours either using plugmolds under cabs or putting wood in front of them that pulls down or putting them in cabs or drawers.

I'd love to do the forbes & lomax ones for every light switch in the house but I fear terribly that will not be in the budget.

I just sent for the pricelist and catalogue.

I filled that out too. I'm still waiting for it (requested via email and post a few days ago) :) Here's hoping they aren't too unreasonable. It's just plain glass... right?

I found a bronze metal outlet cover at Lowe's. It matches my auburn stained lyptus peninsula almost perfectly. I like it better than the wood ones since it is not as "chunky". All the other outlet covers in the kitchen will be white since they will be on the yellow painted walls above the white backspash.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lowe's bronze outlet cover

We are having the cabinet mfg provide a cover made out of the same wood as the cabinets and stained to match. Should blend into the cabinet face.

I think the glass is the simple part. I think the switches and the mechanism that holds it all in place is the thing in this option.

As for the wooden ones, there are some pretty low profile ones on the site I listed, not like the country-looking routered ones that one tends to think of.

hi nyyankeesfan- any progress on your kitchen? you guys sign the contract yet? dutch wood has been great about helping us hide our outlet covers in the kitchen too :)

hungryheart have you thought about the plugmold or mockets?

I've been stressing about this island plug issue too. The island cabs are stained dark and I am worried about the white plugs. Thanks for bringing this up so I know that I am not alone!

Our island has a dark stain and the plugs/covers are brown. You don't notice them at all (which is the point, of course) :-)

Keep in mind that for the outlet/plugs themselves (the innards), there is another choice besides white and brown...called "almond" or "light almond" (blends well with a light travertine backsplash, BTW). Readily available. I had no idea, but so glad I discovered them!

There's a lot of interesting ideas here. I hadn't thought of doing almond. Ironically, I have almond plugs/plates all over the rest of the house but switched to white for the kitchen to match the moldings.
I think I'm leaning toward a black plug (pendants overhead are black) with either a black or stainless plate. Will that look odd if the other plugs/plates/switches are white?
The glass look is nice but too contemporary for my kitchen.

We have painted/glazed cabinets so I found a wooden cover that more or less matched the style of our cabinet doors, got color matched paint, glazed it to match and sealed with satin poly.

It was a lot of effort and my wife thought it demonstrated my OCD perfectly.

If one were sufficiently obsessive, something like this would be possible: recess the electrical box by 1/8'', install a panel of 1/8'' thick wood sheet in the recess, to completely cover and conceal the outlet. Cut two thin slots and one small round hole in the panel that line up with the outlet receptacles. The effect would be sort of like plugging the appliance directly into the wood. Make a few extra panels, in case someone is hamfisted with the plug and damages the panel.

I was able to order one with my cabinets (Decora) so that it's stained to match.

If you use the clear electrical plate covers, a carpenter will have to make a cutout that is perfect since there is no margin for error. (you can't cover up any flaws in the cutout)

If you use a cover plate that you can stain to match, you will till need the plug itself that will most likely be black or brown.

The plugmold is an interesting idea and worth a little more research. I wonder if those are allowed according to your local code? Usually a GFI at both ends of the island is what is required.

I think that if your cabinets are dark, you would be very happy with either black or brown. Brown would be my vote as they will match the wood tone the best.

It's one of those things that you can obsess about but once it is all said and done, you won't even give it a second thought.

Here is a link that might be useful: Premier-Kitchen-Design.com

We have almond throughout the house (which looks good on our light back splash), but had the same dilemma as you with the island, which is cherry. We used brown outlets there--I don't notice them, which is what I wanted.

Here's what we ended up with:

If I could have found a 20 amp ground fault outlet in the right shade of green, I would have gone for it.

I hate to tell you, but back in the day we used to just paint the damn outlets. Few perished. Well, some; but few.

Boring. Practical. Simple. That would only be interesting if it were gold leaf paint applied with the eyelashes of an endangered white tiger.

So - you could use one of those pop-up concealed outlets meant to live in a counter top. Or a decorative brass floor outlet with flip-up brass doors. If brass is not your color, you could paint it, with the eyelashes of an endangered white tiger.