Decorating around decorative light switches?

April 14, 2008 6:11 PM

I need some creative ideas for decorating the thin border of unpainted wall space surrounding some new decorative light switch covers.

I've always fancied decorative light switch covers, and now that I have my own house, I decided to buy some. After buying several pretty designs off ebay of birds, flowers, and other things, I realized that the covers I bought are actually smaller than the original light switch covers I have. The new covers fit just fine, but there is a small border of unpainted wall area left around them. I don't want to return the covers, and I don't want to buy a whole can of paint to just cover a tiny little area like that. Is there any creative way to decorate the wall space around the cover?

posted by Nematoda to home & garden (5 comments total)

You can pick up little bottles of acrylic paint at craft stores for under two bucks each. There are a ton of colors to choose from and although you probably won't be able to match the wall paint, you could probably find a nice accent color that would work well. I wouldn't paint anything big with it, but I have used that paint to accent some trim in my bathroom and looks pretty good.
posted by stefanie at 6:25 PM on April 14

What about finding a complimentary paper color (or even patterned paper) and decoupaging it on the wall under the light switch cover and then putting the light switch cover over it? If you round the corners of the paper, it might echo the corners of the light switch cover and actually accent the pattern on the cover You can use modge podge to get it on the wall.

You can also find some neat fabric and soak it in liquid starch and then press it to the wall; it'll stick but leave nothing behind when you peal it off if you decide to sell or redecorate.

You might also consider painting that bit with a complimentary color, maybe using acrylics or something water soluble for easy removal or paint-over.

Fun project!
posted by cachondeo45 at 6:28 PM on April 14

Here's a simple approach: buy a roll of pre-pasted wallpaper that will complement the room, cut pieces that will look good and set off the switch plate -- make sure the dimensions will work well with the pattern you have -- and then just cut & paste. You could use two contrasting layers for additional interest, maybe with the back/larger layer being a solid color to make an additional thin border.
posted by amtho at 8:12 PM on April 14

You can buy pint cans of paint in stock colors and custom mixed colors in quarts if you would like to match the wall.

Get a quart of something that will look nice against your other paint color, paint the area around the light switch cover, and paint something decorative on another part of the wall.
posted by yohko at 10:06 PM on April 14

If you don't get an answer here that inspires your creativity, many of the larger DIY (or home improvement) stores sell small sample pots of the regular wall paint for a nominal price. It should be easy to get a reasonable match for your existing wall colour.
posted by Jakey at 1:49 AM on April 15