Trendi Switch

A wiring range built around colour

Most switch ranges offer four or five finishes and expect you to pick the least obtrusive. Trendi works the other way round: twenty-five colourways across one plate profile, on the assumption that a switch can be part of a scheme rather than something to be hidden. That includes the conventional finishes, and then plum, strawberry, moss green, ocean blue and bright teal, which almost nobody else makes at all.

What the range covers

The point of a single profile across twenty-five colours is that a whole room can match. The range runs to one, two and three gang switches, dimmers, single and double sockets, USB outlets, cooker switches, fan isolators, data and TV points and blanking plates. A kitchen refit can take every position in one finish rather than mixing a coloured switch with a white socket because the range stopped short.

Choosing a colour that still works in five years

Worth saying honestly, because it is the question people actually have. A strong colour on a switch is a smaller commitment than a strong colour on a wall, and a cheaper one to change, but it is still a decision that outlasts most paint. Two approaches work. Match the switch to the joinery or the metalwork rather than the wall, so it stays right when the paint changes. Or pick from the neutral end for the whole house and use one strong colour in a single room where it is a deliberate gesture.

Where a coloured switch earns its place

A dark switch on a dark wall disappears, which is the most common reason people buy one. Piano black on charcoal paint, or moss green on a deep green kitchen, reads as part of the wall rather than a white rectangle interrupting it. The opposite also works: brass or copper on pale plaster becomes a small deliberate detail alongside matching handles and taps.

Twenty-five colours, and how to narrow them down

Twenty-five is more choice than most people want, and the range sorts into four groups that make the decision manageable. The neutrals (matt white, ice white, warm grey, cool grey, light grey) disappear against paint and are the safe answer for a whole house. The darks (piano black, matt black, charcoal, carbon fibre) read as deliberate on a dark wall and almost vanish on it. The metallics (copper, champagne gold, platinum silver, brushed steel) behave like hardware and want matching handles or taps to sit with. And the colours proper (plum, strawberry, pink, moss green, dark green, navy, midnight blue, ocean blue, sky blue, bright teal, orange, dark brown) are the ones nobody else makes.

The practical route is to decide which group first and the shade second. Most people who arrive wanting a coloured switch leave with a dark or a metallic, having realised the colour they liked was the wall rather than the plate. That is not an argument against the colours, only against choosing one from a screen.

Fitting, compatibility and how the finishes hold up

Trendi accessories fit standard UK back boxes on the usual 60.3mm screw centres, so they replace existing plates without new boxes in most cases. Check the depth: a 25mm box suits switches and plates, sockets and dimmers generally want 35mm. Dimmers need matching to the load, and LED lamps in particular want a dimmer rated for them rather than a legacy resistive one. All of it is electrical work and belongs with a qualified person.

Gloss finishes such as piano black show fingerprints and want a dry cloth; matt and textured finishes hide them. Nothing here should meet a solvent or an abrasive cream, both of which will dull a coloured plate permanently in a way they would not dull chrome. A damp cloth followed immediately by a dry one lifts anything ordinary.

Buying for a whole room

Order the positions together. Colours are produced in batches and, while the tolerance is close, matching a plate bought a year later is not guaranteed on the stronger colours. Count the switches, sockets, outlets and blanks in the room before ordering, and take one spare on an unusual colourway if the room is one you would not want to see interrupted.