It’s time for a beautiful switch. Their words, not mine, but one might say that they basically took the words right out of my mouth. Over the next few months, I’m partnering with Legrand to showcase its adorne line of outlets and switches as part of a big–and very necessary–electrical system overhaul in our new home.
In my last house, the electrical outlets and wall plates were among the first things that I swapped out when I moved in. They had been painted carelessly or discolored with age, and in many cases the wall plates were dented, cracked, or mismatched, so updating and unifying them made a big difference.
Our new home’s electrical system presents in the same way, with 2-prong outlets that are original to the 1950’s house and wall plates that tell an elaborate story about how the previous owners changed the paint colors over the years (lots of cranberry, lots of Pepto pink). Knowing the impact of new outlets and switches, I’ve been eager to update each room in this house, because new outlets installed over a fresh coat of paint is like icing on the cake. Much like how we replaced old switches for modern push button phenoms and added custom switch plates, these upgrades go a long way in making this home look refreshed and modern; adorne products by Legrand are so slick. (Side note: Two months in and I really, really still like those push button switches and wall plates. They look great, operate really nicely, and I really love the locator status lights that illuminate the switches at night.)
Backstory: The fact that the house is only fit with 2-prong units was concerning at first when we were looking to buy–we thought we would have to have the entire home rewired in order to have 3-prong outlets anywhere, even went as far to have the whole job priced out ($$$)–but after meeting with an electrician, we learned that we could actually get by with swapping select 2-prongs for GFCI outlets (stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor and, in essence, monitors how the current flows, but that’s not everyday knowledge, I had to look it up). Tamper-resistant GFCIs cost a bit more than your everyday 3-prong switch, but cost much less than having to rewire the entire house. You might know GFCIs from your own kitchens and bathrooms where moisture and heavier appliances benefit from the added current moderation, but in our case, because the whole house isn’t grounded, the added protection in swapping in a GFCI instead of a traditional 3-prong outlet means that each outlet would be quick to trip itself if something were to go haywire.
The upgrades to the outlets so far extend through our dining room, living room, and hallway, which helps to unify the look consistently in the main living area. The mirror white switch plates are really slick in person, very high-gloss and substantial. And they look great with the new maple wood floors.
The review of the products featured is my own, and I’m not being compensated other than for accepting free product. If you’re in the market for new electrical features in your home–whether it be contemporary, cottagey, or traditional in design–check out the Legrand website for a full inspiration suite.
5 Comments
Very spiffy. It’s not really clear, but did you do GFCI for every outlet? You only need the first outlet in a circuit to be GFCI to protect the entire circuit. There is no need for each outlet to have the individual GFCI, if the first in the circuit is protected, the entire circuit is protected. You can also use GFCI circuit breakers in certain applications, which while not quite so beautiful, will do the protection job for you. Making all outlets GFCI is not a great idea because then you have know which tripped to reset the rest, if only the first is GFCI or the circuit is GFCI then you know where to reset if the outlets loose power.
I have a follow up question. We also have only 2 prong, un-grounded outlets, also had a bid to ground them ($$$). Did you ground your GFCIs first? If not, will this pass code? We sell these Adorne products and I love them!
We didn’t need to in order to meet code (per our electrician!) but check into your local rules to be sure!
man have I been there. These are great and pretty dang slick. I assume that those buttons on this outlet are the reset for the GFI or do they preform some other purpose? Shout to you mama E. Hope you guys are well. ~jb
What type of wiring does your house have? Does it use metalic armored cable? This type may establish a ground or bond back to the main panel. Then you could use the orange adapters that screw into the cover plate?