Last Minute Lighting

Our GC, Todd, has often told us that we are some of the most informed home owners with whom Charis has worked. We take this as a compliment, but we're sure that it's been frustrating at times.

On one hand, we have an idea of what we like, even if we don't know how to name or describe in the correct terms. On the other hand, we've never done this before, so we don't really know what we're doing. For both Niels and I, that lack of knowledge sends us into research mode. (Hello, Pinterest! Hello, Houzz! Hello, GardenWeb! Hello, Google!).

As knowledgeable as our Charis Homes team (Todd and Glenna) is, between Niels' growing up in Europe and my time at home to web surf, we've been able to introduce them to a few new ideas, too. Fortunately, they have welcomed our ideas, implemented many things, and explained where code variances have not allowed others.

One idea we had from the very beginning was under counter outlets.

Source: ths.gardenweb.com

We found this picture on the GardenWeb forum and were sold on the idea of having our outlets out of sight. We showed it to our electrician and he said it could be done.

Fast forward several months. Jim ordered plug mold for under our counters. Unfortunately, the only kind he could find was a sort of aged computer color:

Not so lovely...

Also, the outlets weren't angled, and with the strips of wood from our cabinets, the whole plug mold could be seen by anyone my height: 5'4". We were underwhelmed and stymied. Jim wasn't aware of anything else we could use, and wasn't crazy about how it looked either. We felt bad that Jim spent three hours working on them. We decided to think on it for a day.

Which meant, I went back online to do some digging to find what we really wanted. And skies opened up and shone upon this website:

Task Lighting has a product called Angle Power Strips. It was exactly what we were looking for!

Best of all, you can customize both the strip and the receptacle colors. Each is available in brushed nickel, snow and dark roast. 

I couldn't find a place to order them, but I did see that they were on Facebook. I posted a comment, and was very impressed that Emily quickly responded. We connected offline and I learned that they aren't in stores because they only sell to designers and contractors. We put her in touch with our electrician and she was able to expedite the order (at a cost, of course).

Jim is pretty laid back, but talking to him this morning, he seems almost giddy about these lights. We also decided to order our LED under cabinet light from Task Lighting as well. The components are made to order, so they will be put together today and shipped to us tomorrow. Fantastic customer service. Can't wait how they look!

I wish we would have found them earlier. We would have loved to have used their 4" LED can lights as well.

***Updated 09.07.12***
I just realized I didn't post a new photo with the Task outlets. Much better! I would have preferred white outlets, but I let Niels make the color choice on this one).