13 Clever Places to Add Electric Outlets to Your Home

One of the best things about building or remodeling your own home is all the little special touches you can add. You can customize every detail and make it perfect for your life and family. One detail you might have yet to think of, but that can make a big difference in your day-to-day experience in your home, is the number and placement of electric outlets.

We use electricity for everything–from powering out entertainment and our work to helping us prepare meals in the kitchen, to making our homes cozy in the dark winter months. And having outlets in unusual but highly practical and well-thought-out places is a perfect way to make your home feel completely customized and perfect for you. Read on for some ideas about where to place outlets that you might not have thought about.

Standard Electric Outlet Placement

Most home builders and remodelers will place your outlets to meet minimum building code standards.

That means, in general, no place on a wall is more than six feet from an outlet. So you’ll likely have an outlet within six feet of every doorway or fireplace.

If you have a very long wall, you may have twelve feet between outlets. Although not required, it’s standard to put outlets fifteen inches up from the floor, to be ADA compliant.

Older houses might have them twelve inches from the floor, but these are a little harder to access. In the kitchen, outlets will generally be only four feet apart and no more than twenty inches from the top of the counter.

But building code only provides minimum standards. If you are remodeling or building a new home you want to design your electric outlet location to be ideal for your needs. 

An electric plan, like thi simple one for a bathroom, will show where outlets and switches should go. 

Clever Ideas for Electric Outlet Placement

While you definitely want to go ahead with standard electric outlet placement in your home, there’s nothing that says you can’t add more outlets in strategic places! This will make your life easier and more convenient.

Outlets In the Kitchen

1. Add some outlets in your pantry. This gives you a place to put a coffee station, your microwave, or other small appliances. You could mount an electric can opener, or use a small drink refrigerator in your pantry.
2. Put outlets on the side of your kitchen island, so people can charge their laptops. This makes the island a great place for homework or working from home. It’s also nice if you use your island as a meal prep station, enabling you to power appliances like a mixer or blender as you cook.
3. Consider adding outlets above your kitchen cabinets and using a light switch to power them. This enables you to add Christmas lights or cove lighting, or even speakers.
4. Make a docking station in your kitchen by adding an electrical outlet or two inside a drawer. Docking drawers keep all your charging devices and cords in one place, easy to find, and out of the way. 

Angled power strips are a great way to add electric outlets in subtle way. They even can be installed with built in lights

In the Living Room

1. Outlets at mantle height next to the fireplace will give you the perfect location to plug in your Christmas lights and mantle decor–without ugly extension cords ruining the look.
2. If you have a lot of windows in your living room, consider placing an outlet under each one, so you can put electric candles, lights, or other decorations in your windows.

Outside the House

1. Having outlets under the soffits outside your home makes putting exterior lights up a breeze–no unsightly extension cords to deal with! These outlets also make it easy to install security cameras around the perimeter of your home.
2. You definitely want outlets on your front and back porches. Cafe lights, outdoor speakers, and even a mini fridge can be run from these exterior outlets.

In the Bathroom

1. You might want to install an outlet behind your toilet for use with a bidet. Even if you haven’t become a bidet convert yet (and they are rising in popularity across the United States!), you may want one as you get older.
2. Consider two sets of outlets near the vanity, so your curling iron or straighter can be heating up while you use your hair dryer.
3. Outlets in a bathroom drawer are a great idea! It’s handy to be able to keep your hair dryer plugged in and ready to go.

Other Places

1. Put outlets in long hallways to make vacuuming easier, faster, and less aggravating. It’s easy to plug into the next outlet and keep going, without having to tangle with the cord dragging through each room.
2. Make sure you have plenty of outlets in your garage, to make it easier to use tools, run extra lights, or use a shop vac. Consider adding a 220 v outlet here too.

When you’re remodeling the walls are often open so its a great time to upgrade some electric outlets. 

Upgraded Electric Outlets

Like most things in your house, your electric outlets can be upgraded to offer a variety of features.

Smart outlets allow you to automate whatever you plug into them by using an app or voice commands (linking them with Alexa, for example).

You can get outlets with USB charging ports to make charging your devices easier, especially if you have them installed in your docking drawer.

Nightlight outlets feature LED strips that illuminate a small area around the outlet–placing these down a hallway or in the kitchen means you can find your way at night without turning on bright overhead lights. Tamper-resistant outlets have strong spring-loaded shutters that prevent anything but electrical plugs from being inserted, making them safer for homes with young children.

Recessed outlets are excellent for wall-mounted televisions and other devices with cords and cables.

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We Can Help

In the end, the more thoughtful you can be about places you may want to use outlets in the future (and whether or not you want outlets with upgrades), the more convenient your home will be for you.

Think about how you use your home now, and where more outlets would make your life easier, and start making a list. If it feels overwhelming to try to figure out these details, we can help. Our design-build approach to remodeling means that you will have all the help you need in thoughtfully planning out your remodel down to the very last outlet location.

We serve Waverly Hills, Summerbrook, Midtown, and other Tallahassee area homes. Contact us today and let’s talk about your plans for your home and how we can help you get there.