Guide to Planning Electrical Outlets in Your Custom Home

October 23, 2018

There are a lot of details that go into planning and designing a custom home. The best part about it is that every nook and cranny can be designed to suit what’s best for your needs, including the placement of the electrical outlets. Here’s a guide to planning electrical outlets in your custom home to help you with these details:

1. Create a List

The first step when it comes to a guide to planning electrical outlets in your custom home is to create a list. Start out by creating a list of all the rooms in your custom home.

After working with a custom home designer, you may already have a list done and a basic layout to reference. Having a list will help you organize the process and will provide a checklist to ensure no room is left out of the planning.

2. Consider Each Room

Once you have a list and basic room layouts in mind, you can start to consider each room. You’ll want to think about what you’re likely to have in that room, where things might be placed, and how the room will be used by everyone in your family and by guests. This can help you determine whether a standard outlet will give you what you need or you need to upgrade and incorporate charging stations.

Kitchen

As one of the most highly-trafficked rooms in the house, and one that traditionally has a lot of appliances, you’ll likely want to plan for several electrical outlets in the kitchen. If you have a basic layout already, then you likely have a good idea of where the large appliances will be. Those areas are a good place to start for planning electrical outlets. From there, you can consider the rest of the kitchen.

Will your kitchen have an island? If so, you can equip all sides of the island with an electrical outlet and maybe even add a charging station for good measure. An easy-to-access charging station will be especially useful if people will be hanging out in the kitchen or using the island as a workspace. You can even put a small strip of outlets underneath your cabinets to ensure you have plenty of options available for smaller appliances like mixers.

Living Room

Another high-traffic room is the living room or family room. Whether it’s just the family or you have guests, it’s likely everyone will be hanging out in this room, which means it needs a lot of electrical outlets.

In addition to powering anything you have in the room, like TVs, lamps, and more, you’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of outlets available for people to plug in and charge their devices. Will your living room have a fireplace? It’s usually a good idea to plan for electrical outlets on either side of the fireplace in case you need them for anything placed on the mantel.

Bedrooms

Unless you’re planning to spend a lot of extra time in your bedroom, you likely won’t need as many outlets here as you would the kitchen or living room. Then again, it all depends on how you use it and what you plan to put in the bedroom. A bedroom that is relatively simple may only need a few outlets for lamps, a fan, and easy charging near the bed.

A larger bedroom that has a sitting area, a desk, or other function will need to have more outlets available to power those areas. A common approach is to figure out where the big items are going, like the bed and the dresser, to make sure there are outlets nearby and then plan for more as needed from there.

Bathrooms

Think about the layout of your bathroom and how you’re most likely to use it. This will help you plan the best placement for the outlets. You want them to be convenient and placed in a way that won’t result in cords stretching across the sink or other dangerous situations. You also want to make sure you have enough available for everything you need.

Will you need to plug in an electric toothbrush? What other items will you need to plug in? In addition to a toothbrush, you may also need space for a blow dryer, hair straightener, electric razor, curling iron, charging your phone, or other corded items.

Garage

When planning for electrical outlets, it’s easy to overlook the garage. Although you may not need to use electricity in the garage often, it’s often one of the most frustrating places to not have an outlet when you need it. It’s usually recommended to start with an outlet in the ceiling that can power a garage door opener and work from there.

If you plan on having a workspace in the garage, make sure you plan to have some electrical outlets near the workbench. From there, you’ll want to add at least a couple more outlets around the perimeter of the garage so you have options available to use vacuums, air compressors, or other tools. You can also plan to create a charging station, which is one of the tool storage ideas.

Specialized Rooms

Once you have all of the standard rooms covered, take a look at the other rooms you’re planning to have in your custom home. Whether they’re being used for extra storage for now or serve a specialized purpose like a home office, you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of electrical outlets available for those rooms. A home office will have more specific needs than a room serving a different purpose. The best approach for these rooms is to consider what you will need to plug in and plan accordingly.

3. Don’t Forget the Outdoors

When planning electrical outlets in your custom home, it’s easy to focus entirely on the inside of your home and completely forget about the outside. But, an important step in the guide to planning electrical outlets for your custom home is to think about the outside of your home too. Outdoor electrical outlets can help make gardening, landscaping, and home maintenance much easier.

If you’re planning to have an outdoor living space or patio, electrical outlets are important in those areas as well. Outlets under the eaves are great for holiday decorations and outlets closer to the ground are perfect for tools, lighting fixtures, outdoor fountains, charging devices, and more.

Planning for a custom home can be overwhelming, but working with a custom home builder can help. They’ll handle the details and the process, so you can enjoy the journey as your custom home is created. Contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090 to make your dream home a reality!