I’m almost finished decorating and moving my son’s bedroom. Since he was born, he’s been in a tiny bedroom that barely fit his bed and dresser. He’s 5 1/2 now, and it was time for him to have a bigger bed and a bigger room and a bigger space to play and grow. We decided to move him to a bigger room in the house, one that we were using as extra space for clothes, ironing, sewing, etc. Basically, a junk room. I’ll post more about the room design later, but today I’ll focus on a small piece that makes a big difference: the outlet and light switch plates.
My vision for the room is simple, functional and unique. My son wanted to paint the walls green, but I thought that would be too much. So we settled on green and blue accents in the room. I wanted to get some decorative outlet covers and light switch plates. I couldn’t find any I liked online or in the stores. Most of the ones for kids had characters on them, which is another thing I’m trying to stay away from as I decorate his room. I saw some nice metal plates, but they seemed a little too mature for a 5 year-old, and they cost more than what I want to spend ($3-$8 each). In my son’s new room, there are 5 outlets, 2 light switches, a phone jack cover, and a cable outlet. That means I would need 9 plates for the room. I looked around online, and then I remembered I saw on Pinterest a while ago a way to make your own outlet covers. So boom! That’s what I did for less than $5!
Here is what I used:
- outlet and light switch covers – I bought some from Home Depot for $0.29 – $1.00 each. I also used a couple of the ones that were already on the walls.
- scrapbook paper – fortunately, I had some at home from my old scrapbooking days
- Modge Podge – also already had some at home
- Utility or X-acto knife
- Sponge brush (I couldn’t find mine, so I used a piece of an old rag)
Here’s what I did:
- Traced the outlet/switch covers on the back of the scrapbook paper, and used the utility knife to cut the shape around and the holes for the outlets/switch and screw holes inside. I cut the edges about 1/4 bigger so that I could wrap the paper along the sides of the plates.
- Applied Modge Podge to the front and sides of the plates, as well as on the back of the paper.
- Smoothed the paper on the plates and applied more Modge Podge over them.
- Let it dry and applied another coat. I applied 4-5 coats of Modge Podge.
That’s it! I really like how they came out. I still want to trim the corners so that it looks neater. I did put one on the wall. If you have longer screws that the ones that come with the plates, I encourage you to use those, as the scrapbook paper makes them a little thicker, making it harder for the shorter screws to catch inside the wall.
I would love to do this in other rooms in my house, experimenting with different textures of paper and fabric!