You're probably wondering about that title... Let me explain:
One day, I got asked to work as a high school student for Euphoria. Yes, that Euphoria, the Emmy winning HBO show starring the lovely and magnificent, Zendaya. But, Christy, what does this have to do with your outlet cover? Lemmmme tell you.
With most tv shows, you work on a sound stage. On these sound stages, not too far off, is a hanger / warehouse labeled: The Mill. The Mill is where most of the construction is done for the sets, props, facades, etc. As a maker, I LOVE watching these people work. I also love seeing what they throw out *insert The Grinch smile here*.
Now, I'm not about to go dumpster dive while I'm on set - that would be heavily frowned upon. However, I'm not opposed to kindly ask someone from the construction department if they wouldn't mind if I took some of their scrap wood in their trash pile from going to the landfill and further contributing to greenhouse gases. Did I just guilt trip them? Maybe...maybe not.
So I asked.
And you know what happened? Well, obviously you know, as with the title of this whole journal post was very foreboding to this very question. They said Yes! YAY!
I grabbed this sheet of 1/4" plywood from the dumpster, and set it aside for me to bring back when we had time in-between scenes. Unfortunately there was no spare time during the shoot. I lugged that bad-boy back to my car after we had wrapped for the evening and shoved it into the trunk of my car - which happens to only be a mid size sedan, and drove it home.
Now, I had no clue what to make of it. It was only a 3ft by 4ft sheet of 1/4" ply... not too many sturdy projects or anything to wrap it with... so it sat in my backyard. For months. MONTHS.
Fast forward to after I built my bed for the guest room (which, btw, you should check it out HERE if you haven't read about it or watched the video so far) and as I was lying in the bed, I was staring at the light switch and was thinking I should change out the covers for it. I go on Etsy and see resin molds for it but didn't like any of them and/or didn't want to spend money... moreso the latter. So I thought to myself: I wonder if I can DIY this? I remember scrolling on Instagram and loved those minimal outlet covers where there are no screws - it snaps into place. I thought: Those would be really dope - but not in plastic. Wood would be cool....
LIGHTBULB MOMENT WENT OFF HERE
Couldn't I technically just take my current light switch cover, take it off, and use it as a template?
Couldn't I technically, just use the wood I already have in my scrap pile, and cut that?
What template would I use?
Will it match the bedroom aesthetic?
Yes, Yes, I already know, and Yes.
When I created the dresser (which, I've also wrote about and if you haven't checked that out, you can see it here), I made the "dresser knobs" using a silicone mold as a template. What if I used that as the same template, so it would match the room aesthetically?
The amount of joy I was having from having everything connect and come together was exhilarating to say the least.
I grabbed the circular saw, cut a piece out big enough for the template, penciled out the template and went to cutting. In hindsight, I would have done my cutting in stages which would have benefitted me better later as it got progressively harder to cut when there was less material left to clamp. Anyhow, you can watch the video below on the tutorial. However, if you're too lazy to watch, I'd cut in these steps instead:
pencil the layout of the hole (where the light switch or the outlets are) - cut that out
lay the template of the overall design and then cut that out.
It was so difficult to clamp down the piece to cut the inside out when there was not much material left for me to clamp down on. My jigsaw could only maneuver so much. Anyhow, once everything was cut out, I then took my router and slightly indented the back piece so that the screw from the box wouldn't make the cover protrude out even further. I did a really crappy job on that part, but its the back side - who cares? and now it just sits snuggly against the lightswitch and is perfect. I painted it the same color as the dresser and now everything matches. I was so wholly impressed I am thinking of doing it to the exposed outlet under the window as well. I didn't realize how quick and easy it would be!
Anyhow, long-winded post. Sorry, I know, I'm no substack writer, but if you're here, I love you. Thanks for reading this far down.