Kitchen renovation Outlets - under cabinets or in backsplash ?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Consensus seems to be backsplash - appreciate the input!

And I love the charging drawer idea personally, but we are putting a charging station in another spot so won’t need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's so much personal preference in this! Don't worry about getting it 'wrong', it'll just help you make the decision next time you have a choice!

My preference is to have the outlets under the top cabinets because I think it looks cleaner - unless you have an appliance that has to be plugged in all the time or one that will remain plugged in (like the coffee maker). You'll have to make sure, though, that any under-cabinet lighting you have doesn't get hot because you don't want to accidently burn yourself when going to plug/unplug something.

If you have the room, I'd suggest a drawer with a plug so you can charge device/power packs in it. I wish I had one. With 3 teens, we have a lot of stuff that needs charging and I hate how it loks on the counter.

We did this also and I love it. Also no worries about phone and iPads getting wet and ruined

[Anonymous]

under-cabinet and that is what we did for our bathroom as well. I just don't like seeing the slab broken up for outlets.

Not into the charging drawer. Agree it is a waste of space/our phones are always out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's so much personal preference in this! Don't worry about getting it 'wrong', it'll just help you make the decision next time you have a choice!

My preference is to have the outlets under the top cabinets because I think it looks cleaner - unless you have an appliance that has to be plugged in all the time or one that will remain plugged in (like the coffee maker). You'll have to make sure, though, that any under-cabinet lighting you have doesn't get hot because you don't want to accidently burn yourself when going to plug/unplug something.

If you have the room, I'd suggest a drawer with a plug so you can charge device/power packs in it. I wish I had one. With 3 teens, we have a lot of stuff that needs charging and I hate how it loks on the counter.

This is stupid no one puts their stuff away to charge they are using it at the same time

I agree. A waste of a drawer and an uncomfortable plug in situation.

Agree too.. Plus, we often check our phones while they're charging. What a hassle to open/close the drawer all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's so much personal preference in this! Don't worry about getting it 'wrong', it'll just help you make the decision next time you have a choice!

My preference is to have the outlets under the top cabinets because I think it looks cleaner - unless you have an appliance that has to be plugged in all the time or one that will remain plugged in (like the coffee maker). You'll have to make sure, though, that any under-cabinet lighting you have doesn't get hot because you don't want to accidently burn yourself when going to plug/unplug something.

If you have the room, I'd suggest a drawer with a plug so you can charge device/power packs in it. I wish I had one. With 3 teens, we have a lot of stuff that needs charging and I hate how it loks on the counter.

This is stupid no one puts their stuff away to charge they are using it at the same time

I agree. A waste of a drawer and an uncomfortable plug in situation.

+1

Plus tough to accommodate laptops, ipads, etc.

I would set aside at least one charging area. We now regret that we don't have a popup outlet on the island.

[Anonymous]

We did outlets on the backsplash - horizontally under the windows. So tucked away but more accessible and less obvious than the undercounter outlets.

[Anonymous]

I love my plug molding outlets under the cabinets.

[Anonymous]

Backsplash and horizontal

[Anonymous]

All of our small appliance are “garages”cabinets that have power in them with additional outlets to plug into if one needs to be temporarily moved from another garage or from pantry.

[Anonymous]

We have both. For everyday use appliances (tea kettle, toaster, etc), we have horizontal outlets on the backsplash. We also have several undercabinet outlets.

[Anonymous]

I just got a new Instant Pot and in the manual it says NOT to use under cabinet outlets. Doesn't say why but I'm sure there's a reason behind it. Don't know how common that warning it.

[Anonymous]

We love our new charging drawer. Every night we take away kids devices and put them there to charge. They are out of the way and we always know where to look for them. I pull the cord out of the top of the drawer to charge my phone on the counter on top of the drawer when I'm in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's so much personal preference in this! Don't worry about getting it 'wrong', it'll just help you make the decision next time you have a choice!

My preference is to have the outlets under the top cabinets because I think it looks cleaner - unless you have an appliance that has to be plugged in all the time or one that will remain plugged in (like the coffee maker). You'll have to make sure, though, that any under-cabinet lighting you have doesn't get hot because you don't want to accidently burn yourself when going to plug/unplug something.

If you have the room, I'd suggest a drawer with a plug so you can charge device/power packs in it. I wish I had one. With 3 teens, we have a lot of stuff that needs charging and I hate how it loks on the counter.

My DH is handy and did this himself. I LOVE it. We were already keeping the charged power packs in the drawer so it's nice to charge them in the same drawer. We don't have iPads but do have Kindles that charge in there as well. The kids' cell phones are also in there overnight as are the airpods/earbuds/headphones and anything else relatively small that needs to be charged. It's SO much better than seeing them laying on the counter. The laptops were never charged in the kitchen - way too big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did outlets on the backsplash - horizontally under the windows. So tucked away but more accessible and less obvious than the undercounter outlets.

This is a good idea and I have never seen this before. Can you please post a photo?

[Anonymous]

We did under cabinets for most of the kitchen so that the backsplash tile would be uninterrupted. We created a small bar area where we plug in all appliances that stay out (coffee maker, toaster and vitamix), and for that area, we did outlets on the backsplash. I highly recommend having a designated space for all plug in appliances so that they don’t clutter your prep area, and then just do the backsplash outlets in that area. We have a small row house kitchen, and we created a little area for the appliances towards the back of the house.