I have never thought of switchplates as a decorating accessory. To me they're a utilitarian necessity and I go out of my way to camouflage them. I don't like to see them imposing themselves on an otherwise flawlessly decorated room.

I don't like to make them difficult to find, which is sometimes the effect of being TOO good at camouflage. (Particularly in rooms guests are most likely to use, because it's bad enough being in a strange house at night without having to hunt for the light switches!) But I think it's possible to keep them low-key so your eye kind of skips over it when looking at the room from an aesthetic perspective. I usually go for something plain that's in keeping with the quality of the rest of the room. (I.e. a super cheap plastic switch plate is going to look really really out of place in a room that clearly has high quality finishing otherwise. So you want to find something that's plain, but that looks like it fits with the overall approach to the space.)

If they all match and they're not particularly decorative or intricate, then I think you get used to seeing them in the house and mentally ignore them unless you're specifically looking, so it works out nicely.

your switch plates should be different in every room since the rooms are different colors. You can paint them the same color as the walls or buy decorative switch plates - there are some very nice ones when you search "decorative switch plate"s.

I'm of the type to have them all the same throughout the house...just me

Tha nks folks i have some great ideas...it's not that i want to do wild colors or anything, but i guess if i do metal ones, i should stick with that thru out the place to keep it cohesive. I like the industrial look of metal switchplates i guess. thx again, i'll be back with better questions-- I promise LOL.

I ordered mine online from Switch Hits. They have a huge selection!

In our recent kitchen remodel we left the ones on the painted walls white. However, the ones in the backsplash and on the island, because of the cabinet color and the backsplash color, we went with ORB. I'm glad we did because the ones in the backsplash look a lot better in ORB than white.

Love a nice switchplate!

Paint them out, same color as wall. They are nothing yu want to draw the eye to.

I think of them as matching my white wood trim in the rooms. Mine stay white and they don't get scratched like the painted ones do.

I don't know about not drawing the eye to them. I think my burnished bronze switchplates add a nice touch of richness to my rooms.

I actually made mine match my furniture. They are different in each room.

The switch plates on backsplashes can be painted out to match the stone or tile. Check out our hand painted plates

The right switch plates are great to draw attention to. Just like you would a lamp or a ceiling light. Style in houses has become so plain jane over the years. We purchased some Legrand switch plates with their square touch buttons and I think they make a great addition to the view of the room with a subtle pale blue screwless plate and a magnesium gray color switch. I've purchased brushed metallic ones in the past which also looked amazing against backsplashes. White Plastic plates are boring, they tend to discolor in sunlight and they never blend into walls anyway with toggle switches poking out. Embrace them I say and step into a new future!

I also purchased some of these for the white areas I want to keep white like bathrooms and areas that I need to use a smart white switch.

seriously, you needed to resurrect a six-year-old thread in order to plug your switch plates?

Any comment to a question, regardless of when the question was asked, will update the thread. It's usually not the person who initially asked the question. The snarkiness sometimes on this board is unreal and unnecessary.