Switch Plates for Tile Backsplashes {with trimmed edge}

Updating your home is a fun way to personalize your living space. Adding a tile backsplash to a wet bar, installing board and batten to your walls, or upgrading your kitchen with marble counter tops are all popular ways to make your living space your own.

One issue that DIY homeowners often run into when doing projects like these, however, is that the newly installed tile or wainscot materials can leave little space for your light switch or outlet cover.

When Your Switch Plate Won't Fit

Here, an existing light switch and outlet were tiled around after granite was added to a wet bar countertop:

We've outline the area that the cover plate takes up around these electrical devices. As you can see, the trim around the tile eats into the space where the outlet cover needs to rest.

Note: There is some wiggle room with switches and outlets. Loosen the screws mounting the device into the electrical box and push as far as you can in the direction you need the devices to shift. Sometimes, that's all it takes to get a cover plate to fit into a tight spot.

In the situation shown here, shifting the devices as far to the right as possible wasn't enough.

But a 2nd solution is very simple - a cover plate with all of the openings shifted in one direction.

The {trimmed} left edge of this narrow plate allows it to fit:

Narrow Switch Plates Fit Tricky Tight Spaces

In some cases, you'll need a cover plate that has a single edge that is "trimmed" or narrower than a standard plate (as shown above). Other times, you may need an outlet cover that is narrow all around.

Find a variety of hard to find narrow cover plates at Kyle Switch Plates - where we specialize in switch plate solutions for DIY homeowners.

What To Do When a Switch Plate [Or Outlet Cover] Won't Fit

DIY projects often come with some unforeseen hiccups and surprises along the way.

My husband and I have done a number of projects that involved working around outlets and light switches and even though I know the importance of planning ahead and leaving plenty of space for the covers, even I've run into the predicament of ending up without enough space to fit the cover.

*Sigh*

Good news is, there is a solution and it's so simple!

Our outlet cover mishap was the result of a board and batten project that went under a redesign mid-project.

A more common reason a switch plate cover doesn't fit is when you've added tile to enhance a wall in your home.

Here are 2 examples - 1 was avoidable and the other was not:

In this bathroom remodel project, an inexperienced DIYer brought the height of the tile too high, leaving no room for the cover plate - probably a result of a last minute decision to add the row of tiny brown accent tiles in between the tile & the finishing trim:

In this home bar project, the bullnose edge for the tile backsplash was thick enough that the cover no longer fit:

Kyle Switch Plates makes both short switch plates & narrow switch plates that will still cover your entire electrical box opening, but fit these tricky situations. The difference is that the openings in the plates are shifted to allow extra room on 1 edge of the plate.

For the bathroom tile incident, a 2-rocker half short plate is the perfect fix. The plate is trimmed, or short, on the bottom. It can be rotated upside down to be short on the top as well.

The home bar project was also fixed with a double rocker plate, however, instead of being trimmed on the bottom, this plate is narrow on one side. Adding a half narrow double rocker plate only required the homeowner to swap out their toggle switch for a rocker switch.

An alternative to changing the switch from toggle to rocker would be to convert the left plate opening to a toggle with a toggle converter for rocker switch plates.

If you find yourself in a similar situation leave us a comment! We'd love to hear how our half short or half narrow switch plates saved your DIY project mistake!

Shop short switch plate covers.

Shop narrow cover plates.