When you’re staring down the end of a kitchen remodel, after making a lot of big decisions, there are some things that you just let go of. For me, one of those was our light switches and outlets. I literally just told my electrician ‘as long as it’s white, I don’t care’.
Well, it turns out that I do actually care. I wanted a look that was a little more polished, and we needed more features too. Items like USB ports and easy dimmer switches make a world of difference when you’re using them on the daily! So, I teamed up with Legrand to install items from their Radiant collection, which just happens to be the perfect mix of style and function.
Our island was made for cooking, and I’m always referencing my favorite blogs and pins for recipes, so having my ipad at the ready (and plugged in!) is key. Of course, we also only have one outlet in the island, which makes it limiting to have a device plugged along with other appliances.
We swapped out our basic outlet for this USB outlet where I can have my ipad charging while also plugging in blenders, mixers, whatever we need! But what I like the most about the Radiant collection overall is how minimal it is visually. The plates just pop on once you’ve installed the outlets or switches, which means no visible screw heads, and I dig that.
I especially love how polished the outlets look on our tile backsplash!! Much less fussy and more minimal.
I never thought I’d pay so much attention to this little corner where you enter the kitchen, but now that I’ve placed my favorite vintage painting there, and swapped out our old light switches for these lovely dimmers, it’s made a huge difference. It feels like a little moment of its own…
Around the corner from that, we have our version of the ‘family center’. It’s the spot where we drop our mail and bills, and I pin up items like recipes and reminders. And up until now it’s been a bit of a hot mess. Recently, I finally made the effort to get some organization in place, and I’m happy to report that a few weeks later, it’s still looking like this, which means it’s working!!
Besides adding the file organizer and folders for all the members of our family (Gracie included!), I also found this perfect old wood box that wrangles our items like gift cards, post-it notes, paperclips, and check books. And then there’s the addition of this charging station from Legrand! You guys, it’s the coolest. Of course, this only works for newer phone models, but you just stick the phone in the cradle and it charges right up! The USB outlet is also great, of course, for other items. (I’m always using it to charge up my Orange Theory band!)
The best part about this little setup, though, is that we totally use this area for entertaining – especially in the holiday months!
Our big stash of booze (that we rarely even use, but I have for cocktail recipe posts!) sits right under the countertop. When we’re ready to entertain, I just pull up whatever we need, clear this area of ‘office’ stuff, and use it as a little cocktail station!
The outlet here even inspired me to add this tiny lamp! One of my regrets in building out this nook was not adding lighting, so this solves that problem perfectly. Having a phone on the charger means we’re ready to play tunes all night long without having to worry about it running out of juice – AND it stays out of the way of any liquids! Genius.
