Easy Fix When Your Switches Don't Line Up with the Cover Plate

After painting all the interior walls in my home, I decided to get update my light switches and cover plates from plain white to elegant ivory and oil rubbed bronze.

My husband is the son of an electrician, so I knew swapping out the light switches would be a breeze. (For him, anyway).

What I didn't expect was, that after all the new switches were screwed firmly into their electrical boxes, they didn't line up with the cutouts in my gorgeous new cover plates.

What?!

Did we get defective switch plates???

No, turns out...

When your switches don't line up with the cover plate, there's an easy fix:

First, I have to let you in on a little secret: The devices themselves are meant to have some "play" in them, so you can adjust them left to right and up/down to match up perfectly with the cover.

See how the screw hole (highlighted in orange in the image below) is an oval shape? It's bigger than the screw that mounts the switch to the electrical box.

All you have to do is loosen the screw a little bit and push the switch (or outlet) in the direction you need it to go in order for the cover plate to line up.

See?

Once it's in the proper position, just screw it back in tight and you're good to go!

After we made some minor adjustments to this switch shown here (and some others throughout the living room), everything lined up perfectly.

You may need to adjust all of the devices in your electrical box to get a multi-gang plate to line up with each switch.

So simple!

Side note: My husband didn't think we needed to go to all this effort to replace the electrical devices and covers, but now that they're in, he loves them!

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: Always shut off the power to the device(s) before making adjustments to positioning.

Shop Kyle Switch Plates for new electrical devices and quality cover plates. An online superstore for high-end and hard-to-find electrical components - find solutions you won't get at your local hardware store.

Replacing the Cover for an Outlet in Your Floor

Floor outlets are so convenient aren't they?

When positioned underneath a couch or side table, they keep your lamp and electronics cords discreetly out of sight. And, they prevent tripping hazards from running cords from side tables to wall outlets.

If they're not underneath furniture, you'll want to keep them covered when they're not in use.

Whether the power plug in your floor has a round, rectangle or square cover plate, you may find at some point that the cover needs to be replaced. Especially if you've decided to sell your home and want to get it Open House ready before your house goes on the market.

At Kyle Switch Plates, we get calls every week about buying just the cover for a floor box outlet.

The problem is, the manufacturers of outlets that go in the floor don't sell the covers separately. The little round caps that fit into the cover plates, are available for purchase if you need replacements.

(Be sure to note brand and size needed before purchasing caps.)

The cheapest way to get a replacement cover for a floor mounted receptacle...
(and this is only if you have a single Leviton brand receptacle - not a duplex outlet) 
...is to buy the Phone Jack Floor Box Kit, and just use the brass cover plate.

(To replace your outlet cover with a phone jack cover, you must ensure you have a single Leviton brand floor receptacle. We recommend double checking the measurements before purchasing.)

If you have to buy a whole new unit in order to just replace your missing or damaged cover, you may want to consider expanding your box to accommodate additional electrical plugs or add data jacks alongside the outlet.

For instance, if you currently have a single receptacle for only 1 plug, consider updating to a duplex receptacle that will allow 2 things to be plugged in. Or, if you already have a duplex outlet in your floor, see if you have room to expand to a larger box that has two outlets side by side, to accommodate 4 plugs at once.

Shop all floor box configurations at Kyle Switch Plates.

Floor box covers are also available in a satin nickel finish to go with gray flooring. (Covers not sold separately.)

Covering a Single Switch in a Wide Box [2 Simple Solutions]

Sometimes a 2-gang electrical box (a box that's made to hold 2 switches or outlets) ends up with a single device.

Ripping out the double masonry box to replace it with a single handy box will result in a bigger hole in the wall and the need to replaster around it.

Save yourself the headache and cover your double wide box with 1 of 2 switch plates, which we'll show you below.

Problem:

Double wide electrical box with only a single device (could be a switch, outlet or data plug):

Solution 1:

If you don't mind things being a little off-balance, you can easily cover this switch with a double cover plate that has a switch cutout on the left and no cutout on the right:

The benefit of this simple solution is that a single rocker single blank cover is available in a variety of finishes, so you can easily match the plate to the color scheme of your walls, trim or decor.

Solution 2:

If having the switch off to one side bugs you, here's another solution.

You can get this centered switch cover which screws into your device to hold it in the middle. Simply remove the device from it's position in the electrical box, and attach it to the cover using the screws provided with the plate.

The plate then screws into the 4 tabs in the electrical box (the 2 not being used on the right and the 2 that previously held the switch to the left).

This plate is only available in white, so we recommend this solution if you have white molding and trim and want to keep the look fresh, like in a kitchen or powder room.

Buy Covers for Single Switches in Double Boxes:

Use the links below to order covers for toggle and rocker switches or duplex outlets that are mounted solo in a double size box.

These plates work with 2-gang masonry boxes that have 4 slots for screws, like these here:

(For covering other styles of boxes, see our Centered Device Tutorial here).

For Rocker Switches / GFCI Outlets:

1-cutout-1-blank covers for rockers
centered cutout covers for rockers

For Toggle Switches:

1-toggle-opening-1-blank cover
centered toggle covers for wider boxes

For Duplex Outlets:

1-outlet-1-blank cover plate
centered duplex outlet covers