I have almost everything figured out and decided about my plan for our bedroom, and now it’s just a matter of implementing the plan. But I have an obstacle and I have thought a lot about finding a solution, but so far I can’t think of one.
The problem is that the switch box in our house is located on a wall in the room that will now be our bedroom.
When this room was our home gym, the switch box was inside the closet area and I hid it behind a large mirror on the right side of the closet, to the right of the TV and the “sweat your guts out” sign. .
I was okay with that solution since it was a home gym. But now that this will be our bedroom and the walls that created that closet area are gone, I hate the idea of ​​leaving the switch box there.
I plan to turn that nook into a reading nook with a comfy chair, floor lamp, ottoman, etc. The switch box is tall enough that it won’t interfere with the wainscoting I plan to install on the bottom of the walls. And you could always put a very tall and wide mirror leaning against that part of the wall. So worst case scenario, if there’s just no way to move it, I’m sure I can fix it and get it working. But I prefer not to.
Moving a breaker box for an entire house isn’t cheap, and I’m sure the further you move it from its current position, the more expensive it will be. I can’t even imagine moving all those cables from one side of the house to the other. I think it would be better (and cheaper) to leave it on this side of the house, if possible. But again, I just can’t find a place for it.
The room that makes the most sense to me to put a switch box is the current guest room, which will be the closet/laundry area. But there are some problems with that plan. First, it is against code (at least in Waco) to place a switch box in a closet. I don’t know if technically this would count as a closet since it is literally a bedroom that will be used as a closet and laundry room. But even if we can get away with that technicality, I don’t see any room for it.
Right now, the switch box is located just on the other side of the wall where the pink mark is…
In a perfect world, I would love to put it inside an upper cabinet above the dryer.
But that won’t work because it takes you away from the rest of the rooms, and even though it’s not much further away, it’s still far enough away that most cables are too short to reach. And once again, that makes the entire process very expensive. But also, code requires that a breaker box have three feet of space on each side so it can be easily accessed. If you put it inside that cabinet, you wouldn’t have three feet of space on the right side of the cabinet and the breaker box.
It would be easier to put it in this section of the closet. It would bring it closer to the other rooms, so no cables would be too short to reach. But again, you don’t have the required three feet of space on either side. Although it would be easy to access. It would simply be hidden by hanging clothing, which can be easily removed.
The only other option I could think of is to put it in the hallway. But again, where? It would be perfect if I could go right behind the painting in the chapel…
But that’s a sliding door leading to the bedroom, and one downside to having sliding doors is that it limits what can be on the walls. The pocket that door opens into ends about halfway up that chapel image, and that doesn’t leave room for a switch box.
I’m actually thinking about removing this hallway cabinet, and that would free up wall space, but again, there is a sliding door in what will be the closet and laundry room. The pocket that door opens into takes up a lot of space to put the switch box in there.
So I honestly don’t know where I could go. The only solution I can think of is to completely remove this separate bedroom door, add French doors to this opening to make it the entrance to the entire master suite, and then I could put the switch box behind the chapel box. .
I like that idea since once everything is finished, everything beyond the opening between the music room and the hallway will be the master suite. The hallway bathroom will be accessible from the other side and will no longer be in the hallway. So if I put French doors between this area and the hallway, making them the entrance to the master suite, I don’t really think I’d need a separate door to the bedroom, right?
I think it would be good to remove that door, widen the doorway, and remove the hallway cabinet to open up the space and make it easier for Matt to get through this area.
If I wasn’t using wallpaper in the bedroom, this wouldn’t be a big deal. But if I’m going to move it, I really want to do it before I put up grasscloth wallpaper in the bedroom. I just can’t find a good solution. I know there is one, but I haven’t found it yet.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical labor, so I do most of the work in the house alone. You can learn more about me here.
