Flat wall plate?

Question

I'm remodeling our bathroom and I'm putting up a larger mirror. The larger mirror covers an unneeded outlet for my needs. I'd still like to keep the outlet in case I decide to get a smaller mirror, need the outlets, or sell the house though. I originally figured the easiest way to deal with this is a blank wall plate. However, the ones I'm finding seem to protrude out too much so the mirror doesn't look flush against the wall.

Are there flat wall plates? If not, how would you suggest going about this? My other idea was simply cutting and painting a thing piece of plastic but it seemed janky.

Answer 1

Mounting a mirror over a box containing live wires is against code. A junction box (which is what this becomes) cannot be buried such that a permanent fixture (the mirror) must be removed to access it.

Assuming that the wires do not continue out of the box to another outlet or lamp, you should find the source of the wires (another outlet or breaker box) and disconnect from there so that the wires are no longer live. At this point, I believe you can cover the box legally.

If you do this, I'd label the wires in the covered box noting where they are disconnected, use wire nuts to cover both ends of the wires and simply leave the box open behind the mirror.

If the wires do continue on to a needed outlet or light, you really cannot cover up the box with a permanent mirror.