Sightlier light switches

ART ADVISOR Marcel Sitcoske points out one design decision that remodelers often neglect: light switches. “Electricians will put a switch anywhere,” she says, shaking her head. Why allow a 50-cent switch plate to compete with her silk-screen “Flowers #66” by Andy Warhol, a Jasper Johns lithograph or two Ray Charles White silk-screens on aluminum? Sitcoske consolidated switches when possible; eight are on one steel column between the living room and kitchen. Wall switches are only 37 inches from the floor instead of 48. Outlets are 6 inches off the floor and oriented horizontally. On walls that needed a light switch, outlet and thermostat, she lined them up vertically, “so subconsciously they don’t disturb the eye.”

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J.E.