3 Reasons I chose the adorne collection by Legrand

When I attended the Kitchen and Bath Show (KBIS 2018) this past January with Modenus on the Blog Tour, we had a little block of time that was not scheduled.  When the PR Assistant for Legrand reached out to me and asked if I could spare 30 minutes to drop by their booth, I knew I wanted to make the time to go.  As I design and manage renovations, the little details like electrical switches and outlets, are items I specify for clients.  I knew I specifically wanted to see the adorne® collection.

A little side note: Although I was given the product to use in my own basement development in turn for writing this dedicated blog, all of the thoughts are mine and mine alone.  

The adorne® collection: Electrical Outlets

POP-OUT™ OUTLET

When planning out the electrical plan, I always look to the professionals.   Robb Lacey, with Jewel Electric, offered this information:

Outlets should not be any further than 12 feet from each other.  This ensures that you are never farther than 6 feet away from power.  This is measured along the wall.  Anytime a wall is broken (whether it be a door, a closet, or tall window), there needs to be an outlet within 6 feet.

While outlets are a necessity in spaces, they can often be - how shall I say this - ugly!  When I saw the adorne® collection POP-OUT™ OUTLET I was immediately drawn to how cool these were.  For almost every outlet in our basement development, these little beauties were installed.

When you need to have something plugged in, you just push the square and the outlets pop out!  For the install of these, this outlet comes with a special frame for mounting and requires a deep electrical outlet (22.5 cubic inches). It does not require new wires for typical installation. See my little video below for how great these are!

DUAL USB OUTLET

As we have a basement bedroom going in, I knew it was important to have at least one USB outlet for her.  I had Jewel Electric install one of these adorne® collection Dual USB Outlet where her desk is going to be.

While our basement development is a new build, the great thing about these outlets is that they fit into existing electrical box and do not require new wires for typical installation.  So - anyone can add these to their space!

GFCI OUTLET

Since we added in a bathroom, I had the adorne® collection GFCI Outlet installed.  This outlet comes with a variety of features as listed on the website:

This item performs an automatic test every three seconds —preventing the unsafe condition of power without protection. With SafeLock Protection, power to the outlet will be disconnected if components are damaged and protection is lost.

Switches

When it comes to switches, most clients are using Decora Light Switches.

When we built our home, these were considered an upgrade.  We have them on our main floor as well as our second story.  For our basement, however, I used a number of different switches.  I used adorne® collection

• sofTap Switch
• sofTap Dimmer Switch
• Timer Switch, Manual On/ Timed Off and the one I am most excited about -
• the Motion Sensor Switch Manual On / Auto Off!

sofTap Switch

I used these switches for a number of areas in our basement development: my daughter's room and for the dry bar cabinet lighting.  These two areas require the simple on/off feature (and nothing fancy).

Do you see the little circle in the middle of the square switch?  That lights up when it is dark so you will always know where the switch is.  As for the installation, this switch fits the existing electrical box and does not require new wires for typical installation.

sofTap™ Dimmer Switch

Along with the sofTap™ switch, I also had installed the adorne® collection sofTap™ Dimmer Switches installed for all of our pot lights.  What I love about the dimmers is that with a soft tap, the lights slowly either go on or go off.  When you go to turn off the lights, the lights dim first, and then they turn off.  Here are the two switches (sofTap™ Switch and sofTap™ Dimmer Switch) that are located in my dry bar area. The sofTap™ switch is for the cabinet lighting and the sofTap™ Dimmer is for the potlights in this area.

Again, installing these is pretty easy as they fit into existing electrical boxes and do not require new wires for typical installation.

Timer Switch, Manual On/ Timed Off

Have you ever walked into a bathroom where the fan has been running all.day.long?  With two young adult children in my home (my son is twenty-two and my daughter is twenty), there are a lot of showers in my home.  With the shower comes a lot of steam.  I had the adorne® collection Timer Switch installed in the bathroom.  What I love about this electrical switch is that you can set the fan time and know that the bathroom fan is not going to run all day long.  I also like that with a soft tap of the switch, you can manually turn it off if need be.  In keeping with the consistency, there is that little round circle in the middle of the switch that lights up when it is dark.  And once again, you may have guessed this about the installation:  this switch fits the existing electrical box and does not require new wires for typical installation.

Motion Sensor Switch Manual On / Auto Off

OMG - I can not tell you how excited I am about this switch!  I can not tell you the number of times I have come home to find the lights on and no one is even home. Drives me bonkers!  I have the Motion Sensor Switches installed in three different places:  the laundry room, the bathroom, and the lights leading downstairs.  As it states on the adorne® collection website,

The adorne Manual ON/Auto OFF Motion Sensor Switch provides combination control by allowing you to manually turn lights on when entering a room and automatically turning them off when you leave via motion-sensing technology.

The switch itself goes with all of the switches mentioned above and has a soft tap button to manually turn on/off the light if need be.

The above image shows the sofTap™ Dimmer switches paired with the Motion Sensor (located on the far right).  Once again, the installation does not require anything special as the switch fits into an existing electrical box and does not require new wires for typical installation. I did a really quick video to show just how great it is.

Cover Plates

With both the outlets and switches, you obviously need cover plates.  As I mentioned above, most of my clients (including what I have in my own home) install Decora Light Switches.  With these switches and outlets, there are screws that hold the cover plate in place.  If you are anything like me, and the older I get the more my OCD comes out, there is one thing that will drive you crazy.  Have you guessed what it is yet?

See the screws?  See how they are all facing a different way?  Drives.Me.Crazy!  With the adorne® collection wall plates, their design has no visible screws.  I love that!

Since I chose Powder White for all of my switches and outlets, the white-on-white design is perfect for the more contemporary look I was going for. What I especially like is that this product comes in dozens of finishes, including a variety of luxurious metals, or order in your own custom finish. While I chose the 'standard white', the sky really is the limit on how to customize your space!

3 reasons I chose the adorne® collection by Legrand

Now that you see what has all gone into my basement development, I wanted to share my 3 reasons why I chose the adorne® collection for my basement development.

1. Innovation.  I am in absolute love with the pop-up outlets.  No longer does one have to look at a plugin and cringe (and believe me, I have clients who do cringe at the site of an outlet). Pop them out when you need them, pop them back in when you don't.
2. Sleek Design.  As I mentioned above, the fact that all of the wall plates have no screws showing is a huge deal for me.  The adorne collection wall plates offer a level of sophistication to a space. They are sleek and come in a variety of colour choices.  Go boring like me with Powder White (and it's ok to say it's boring), or go bold!  The choice is yours.
3. Installation.  While my basement is a 'new build', all of the products that I have mentioned in today's blog can all be installed in existing homes.  This is a great way to update a space that does not require a ton of work!

I'm looking forward to the carpet being installed today in my basement and getting one step closer to being completed.

Thinking of an upcoming renovation and are not sure where to start?