Oak Switchplate Covers

Jesse Akre asked:


Having a fun escape room is becoming more and more popular in today’s homes. These rooms may be a creative space where artistic endeavors are undertaken or a room where all the books are fiction and the goal is to get lost in the fantasy. Some of these rooms are simple others are extravagant mural-covered masterpieces.

If you’ve been creating a fun and fantastic look to any room in your house, no doubt you have put a lot of time into it. You have found fun pieces of furniture, accents, possibly even cute lighting features to give you the light you need in a non-traditional manner. But there’s something missing.

As you look around the room you see the great new coat of paint you put up, the fun curtains and whimsical chairs, but then you spot the problem. The switch plates in the room are still those original white or beige boring pieces that came with the house.

When you think about the things that make up a room, switch plates are probably nowhere near the top of that list. But, when you completely decorate the rest of the room, and forget about the switch plates, they will let you know they are around by being a blight on your creative space.

Luckily, it is not hard to stop the attack of the boring switch plates and have switch plates that are fresh and new.

If you have a very specific theme, you may want to start your search for switch plates online. While hardware stores and even department stores will have a variety of switch plates, often if you are looking for very specific items, you may have to look in specialty markets to find them. A simple search with what you are looking for (i.e. Coca Cola, jungle animals, martinis or Superman) and switch plates will take you in the right direction.

Part of the key to online searches for switch plates is the wording. While you may be thinking you want a jungle theme, that key word may not be enough to let you see all the options that are available for you to use. You will likely need to change up your switch plates search to add words such as rainforest, jaguar, monkey, or other things that you would find in a jungle motif.

Another important thing to remember is that all switch plates do not have to be alike. While many things in a room have to match, you can have some fun with switch plates. You could put the monkey switch plate in one area of the room and the jaguar in another. When you are adding a fun flair to a room, you are allowed to mix it up a little more than you would be able to in regular decorating situations.

Also remember, there are a lot of designs of switch plates out there. Take your time in your search and make sure you have seen all your options before choosing the one that is the perfect final touch for your fun space.

Jesse Akre asked:


When decorating a room for the young kids in the family, you have no doubt used a lot of fun and bright colors. But there are likely a few pieces of the room that still are a little drab, such as the switch plates. You need them to cover the wiring where the light switch is, but wouldn’t it be great if they were more fun? Now they can be, and it’s a project you and your child can do together.

You need to start with a switch plate cover made of ceramic, some polymer clay, from the craft store, parchment paper, and small tools like knives to cut the clay. When you are selecting the clay to use, you need to decide how creative you want to be. While you can purchase specific colors of clay and create your own designs, there are also ready made sticks of clay with designs in them that you can cut into ready to use decorative pieces.

On the parchment paper you need to draw the shape of the switch plates, including the hole. This will be your reference for laying out the clay.

If you are starting with colors of clay to make your own design, you need to knead the clay with your hands until it is workable. Then create the design you like. You can use various household tools such as toothpicks, knives, Exacto knives, etc to create the designs you want to see on the switch plates. You want to keep the clay thin, 1/8 - 1/16 of an inch.

If you are using the ready-made clay designs, you will still need to hold the clay in your hands for a few minutes to get your body heat to warm it. Then cut the clay into small similarly-sized blocks with an Exacto or other blade. Again, remember to keep the clay thin, at 1/8 - 1/16 of an inch.

Start placing your clay designs on the drawing of the switch plates. You may notice that the pieces look a little ragged on edges and are not completely together, this is where your delicate touch comes in. you will use your fingers to smooth the pieces together and make them into one solid piece. When you have created the complete shape of the switch plates design, you need to transfer the clay to the switch plates.

This is done by flipping the parchment paper over, on top of the switch plates, and peeling it off. Pull out those finger tools and again make sure to smooth design to the switch plates. If there are extra edges, cut them away.

Now cook the clay, following the directions on the packaging. Don’t poke at it until it has cooled, you can muddle the design. After it cools, try to pick up the switch plates and see if the clay pieces have adhered to them. If not, you can use an adhesive to hold the two together.

Now it’s ready to put up. If you want you can coat with a lacquer to protect the clay and make it easier to clean down the road.

The Handyman Guy asked:


Your Choices for Home Energy Audits

Have you ever thought of saving energy use in your house as you have always been confronted with high electrical bills for the past months? Didn’t you know that you can create a change with such scenario? Yes, certainly. Examine the home energy auditing!

What can a home energy audit do for you?

When a home energy audit has been guided in your own house, the difficultys and angles where your home is losing excessive energy will be indicated. A home energy audit not just allows you to recognize how effective your cooling & heating systems are. Moreover, a house energy audit will in addition give you ideas on how to preserve the warm water that you often use on a every day basis.

Why do you need to employ a home energy audit?

In its most basic sense, a house energy audit is one fine step of assessing the quantity of energy that you consume in your home & it not just offers ways on how you’ll be able to evaluate the suitable measures which you may implement to conserve your energy use & monthly bills to be paid for.

Whom can you depend on to conduct the house energy audit?

It is truthfully your own choice. You may hire an expert home energy auditor or diy. Of course you will be paying for the services of the house energy auditor. With an expert, you know that he can create a comprehensive auditing of your house energy consumption concerns. An auditor derives benefit from a series of equipment & techniques to choose the precise energy structure existent in the home. Among the equipment used in house energy audit are infrared cameras are used to reveal those hard to discover angles of missing insulation & air infiltration too as the blower doors that gauge the leaks in the whole building envelope. But if you do want to cut back your expenses, just put to a test the do-it-yourself guides for house energy auditing.

What are you should probably do for the do it yourself home energy audit?

When simply given sufficient time, you may conduct your very own home energy audit & detect the vital problems that exist in your house. Don’t fail to keep the checklist of all the problems & areas in the home that you’ve discovered. This will direct you as to how you will prioritize the required repairs and upgrades in the time to come.

Locate for air leaks. Draft a list regarding the air leaks present in your house. When this gets detected, you can save as plenty of as five up to 30 percent of the total expenses inside a yr and you may in addition get pleasure from a plenty of comfortable energy circulation in the long run. Not just check for the indoor air leaks present along the gaps of the base board, junctures of the ceiling or walls, & the border of the flooring as well. Check out & see if there’s sufficient air that flows in the switchplates, electrical outlets, baseboards, window frames, attic hatches, weather-stripping around doors, window-mounted air conditioners, and hearth dampers. In the outside piece of the home, the external corners like the chimneys & the exterior brick and siding must be checked as to whichever or not they meet. 1 caution though, when sealing the house, you should be somewhat aware of the most possible air combustion and pollution that may occur. This will be very risky for the health of the household if taken for granted.

Look inside the insulation. There are surely minimum requirements for the insulation that exists in the house. The attic, ceilings, and walls of the house has to meet the longed for amount of the insulation levels. Checking the insulation levels of the attic, walls, and ceilings may be hard, as you’ve to deal with several electric circuits therein.

Check out the cooling or heating equipment. The heating and cooling equipment must be checked out annually or as directed by the manufacturer. The routine checkup contingents on the age of the equipment of course.

Contrariwise, if you prefer getting a house energy auditor, make a list of the existing problems in your house in advance. The auditor will take charge of the bellows door tests and the thermographic inspection which are all vital when it comes to house energy audit.