Bocci and Prado both sell outlets that sit in a hole in a finished surface with no cover plate. That is the whole proposition, and it is not a plate. It changes who installs the device, when in the build it is decided, and whether the work can be undone. Studio Timeless makes nothing like it.
In short
- Bocci sells the 22 System, made in Canada since 2009: round devices in two diameters, Ø35 and Ø46, set behind a mounting plate that is mudded into the wall.
- Prado sells the Unifit, a round outlet that clamps into a 1 and 3/8 inch hole with adjustable lugs for material from 1/4 to 1 and 3/8 inch thick.
- Neither is a cover plate. The binational cover plate standard excludes parts intended to support live parts.
- Both are decided before the wall is finished. A brass plate is decided after.
- We make no flush device of any kind, and we publish no required box depth, which is the one dimension a flush system forces you to commit to.
Bocci and Prado are not plate brands
Two search terms bring people here every month, bocci outlets and prado outlets, and both arrive expecting a brand of switch plate. Neither company sells one. What they sell is the absence of a plate: a device whose face is flush with the finished wall, the wall acting as the surround. Every practical difference follows, because a plate sits on top of a finished surface and a flush device is what the finished surface is built around.
Everything below was read on October 27, 2026, from each manufacturer’s own material wherever possible. We link to neither company nor any retailer, our standing rule on competitor articles, so facts are attributed and dated in the text. Where a manufacturer page publishes nothing, we say so rather than fill the gap, as with Meljac, Kost and Tala.
What the Bocci 22 System actually is
Bocci describes the 22 System on its own resources page as a suite of electrical wall accessories that integrate with any architectural finish, designed by Bocci and made in Canada since 2009. The device list is broad: Type B outlets in 15A and 20A, telephone, cable, a keypad control, data, USB-A at 15W, USB-C at 45W, a twin USB-C, HDMI and a removal tool. Mounting plates come single and double for concrete, multi-material and drywall, plus trim caps and ring covers in each diameter.
Two dimensions carry the whole system, Ø35 and Ø46, and the matching plate, trim cap and ring cover all key off them. Bocci states the system installs flush in millwork, glass, stone, tile, concrete or drywall, with separate installation guides for each. A single drywall mounting plate datasheet gives the plate in polycarbonate, in white, with the instruction “mud-in,” and says it is designed to plaster directly into drywall without a visible cover plate or trim.
What those pages do not publish: plaster is not named among the substrates, the colour options sit in a separate linked document, and no standard number appears in the page text beside the linked UL certificate and CE declaration. An absence of a claim is not a claim of absence, so we name the pages and the date rather than draw a conclusion.
What the Prado Unifit actually is
Prado sells the Unifit series, and its installation sheet is the most dimensionally explicit document in this comparison. Self-contained installation calls for a Ø1 and 3/8 inch hole. The optional flush mount countersink is Ø1 and 1/2 inch. The sheet shows a material range from 1/4 inch to 1 and 3/8 inch, the span the adjustable lugs clamp across, and the hardwired version with a back box uses the same hole.
The wiring rules on that sheet matter more than the dimensions. NMC cable is acceptable. For 15A the sheet calls for 14 AWG; for 20A, 12 AWG only. Branch circuit wiring must come from a separate cable assembly originating outside the box, with no other wiring or raceways entering it, and other than the connections to the single device, conductors may not be spliced or continued on to another device. For metal boxes it requires the bonding conductor on the box and the green screw still visible before the substrate goes on.
On certification the sheet reads “CONFORMS TO UL STD. 498” and “CERTIFIED TO CSA STD. C22.2#42,” plus an unlabelled number, and names no testing laboratory mark. It also instructs that installation must be done by skilled professionals only.
Three systems on eleven properties
| Property | Bocci 22 System | Prado Unifit | Studio Timeless |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | plate, device, trim cap | a self-contained round outlet | a one-piece brass unit, or a plate alone |
| Visible on the wall | a round flush cap | a round face, 1 and 1/2 inch class | a rectangular plate, two screws per gang |
| Opening | round, Ø35 or Ø46 | round, 1 and 3/8 inch, countersink 1 and 1/2 inch | American rectangular cut-out, or 12 mm round for a Retro Toggle |
| Substrates named | millwork, glass, stone, tile, concrete, drywall | drywall, millwork, stone | any finished wall |
| Box | behind a mounting plate | back box accessory, hardwired | a standard American device box |
| Splicing in the device | not described | not permitted, per the sheet | device terminals, as usual |
| Trades | installer, finisher, painter | a skilled professional | an electrician |
| Decided at | substrate, before the finish | substrate or millwork | trim out, after the finish |
| Certification wording | UL certificate and CE declaration linked, no standard named | conforms to UL 498, certified to CSA C22.2 No. 42, no mark named | cULus on the knurled toggle, CE on the Retro Toggle |
| Out without wall repair | no | the face, not the hole | yes, two screws per gang |
| Solid brass plate | no | no | eight finishes, solid throughout |
One line in that table is the whole article: decided at substrate, against decided at trim out. Everything else is downstream.
A cover plate is a defined product category, and these sit outside it
There is a published standard for what we sell, and its scope is the cleanest way to see the boundary. The Standards Council of Canada notice for the binational cover plate standard gives the scope as applying to “metallic and nonmetallic cover plates and associated gaskets for flush mounted wiring devices” that are “intended for installation in accordance with the National Electrical Code, ANSI/NFPA 70.” Its project need section names the harmonized binational standard as CSA C22.2 No. 42.1 and UL 514D, Cover Plates for Flush-Mounted Wiring Devices.
The exclusion is the useful part. The scope expressly leaves out “cover plates or outlet box hoods intended to provide direct support of live parts, or parts that may become energized.” A mud-in barrel holding the receptacle does exactly that: it is structure for a live device, not a cover over one. The two are not competing versions of one category but different products appearing at the same point on a wall, which is also why flush mounted in that title describes the device and not the plate.
A faceplate is required to seat against a finished surface
The federal workplace standard says what a plate has to do, and it defines the whole trade sequence. 29 CFR 1910.305 requires that snap switches mounted in boxes “shall have faceplates installed so as to completely cover the opening and seat against the finished surface,” and the next paragraph covers the grounding of metal faceplates. Both requirements presuppose that a finished surface already exists.
That is the dividing line, stated by a regulator rather than a brand. Our product closes an opening in a wall that is already painted; a flush device goes in before the wall is finished and the finish is brought up to it. Neither is better in the abstract: they belong to different weeks of a schedule, and choosing wrong is a sequencing error, not a taste error. Our position has not changed since our answer on screwless and trimless plates, and the Tala article covers the nearest case we have examined, a screwless stainless face plate.
The decision happens at a different stage of the build
A flush device commits the wall before the wall exists. Opening diameter, barrel depth, mounting plate and often the box behind it are all fixed at rough-in, and the City of Saint Paul residential rough-in checklist shows how much else is fixed at that moment: 36 items, and a statement on its face that all wiring must be inspected before it is concealed. The Nassau County residential electrical checklist publishes the other half, the final inspection list, including a maximum box recess of a quarter inch. Between those two sits the whole window in which a flush decision can change, and it is short.
We wrote the stage up in what a rough-in inspection actually covers, including that depth and gang count are frozen there. Here is the admission this article owes the reader: we publish no required box depth on any family. A flush system makes you commit to a depth and publishes the number; we ask you to commit to a device and publish no number at all, which is the worse position for anyone closing a wall this week. If you are at that stage, send us the plan and we will give you the depth in writing before the drywall goes up.
Three pages, three answers on certification
This category has a recurring documentation problem and these two show it in miniature. Bocci links a UL certificate and a CE declaration without naming a standard in the page text. Prado states conformance to UL 498 and certification to CSA C22.2 No. 42 and names no laboratory mark. United States retailer pages for both state more than either manufacturer page does. None of that is wrong; three pages giving three answers is a reason to check the piece, not a conclusion about it, as we found with Tala on October 25.
The UL Code Authority FAQ supplies the test. It states that UL Listed products are required to carry a marking that identifies the Listed company, which means the mark lives on the part and not on a web page. It also notes that CE is usually a manufacturer self-declaration and that CE products are not considered Listed as defined in NFPA and ICC model codes and standards, a point we apply to our own Retro Toggle every time we mention it. How to run the check yourself is in our guide to verifying a certification mark, and what to do when an inspector will not accept a device is in our article on unlisted and imported equipment.
Reversibility: two screws against mud, sand and paint
A brass plate comes off with a screwdriver. Two screws per gang, the plate lifts away, the wall is intact, and the next owner can put something else there. A mud-in system is bonded into the finish by design, because that is what makes it disappear. Taking one out means cutting, patching and repainting, and the round opening does not accept a rectangular American plate, so the conversion is a wall repair, not a swap.
The asymmetry runs both ways, so here is the unflattering half. A visible plate is a visible commitment to a style: tire of brass and you look at brass until you change the plates. A flush device is style-neutral, a real advantage in a house that will be redecorated repeatedly. What it costs is the ability to change the opening cheaply. Our position, argued in our piece on replacement modules, is that repairable and reversible beat invisible over twenty years, and that is a judgement, not a fact.
One device per run, and what that does to a circuit
The Prado sheet rule that conductors may not be spliced or continued on to another device has a consequence that is easy to miss. In ordinary American wiring, receptacles on a circuit are daisy chained: the cable lands at a box, the device is wired, the next cable leaves. If splicing in the device is not permitted, each position needs its own home run or junction, which means more cable, more boxes and a different rough-in drawing.
That changes where the junctions go and how many boxes a circuit needs. The capacity side is in how many outlets can be on one circuit and the physical side in electrical box types and sizes. Neither changes because a device is round, but the box count does, and that is a cost line a client sees first.
The hardware price is not the price
A plate is bought and fitted by one trade in one visit. A mud-in device passes through several. A United States retailer comparison page read on October 27, 2026, describes the Bocci sequence as a mounting plate followed by rounds of mudding, sanding and painting requiring skilled craftsmanship. That page sells the competing product and Bocci’s own resources page does not summarise the sequence, so treat the detail as one vendor’s characterisation. The general shape is not controversial: anything mudded into a wall involves a drywall finisher and a painter after the electrician.
| Stage | Who | What is committed | What it costs if it is wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rough-in | electrician | box position, depth, diameter | the wall is reopened |
| Substrate | installer | the hole, cut precisely | an oversize hole shows for good |
| Finish | drywall finisher | the surround, in passes | a ridge at the edge |
| Paint | painter | wall brought up to the device | overspray on the face |
| Trim out | electrician | device in, circuit tested | nothing visible is adjustable |
| A brass plate | electrician | one stage, one trade | a different plate, ordered |
None of that makes a flush system expensive for no reason. It makes it a different kind of purchase: most of the cost lives in labour and coordination, not in the part.
Where each one is objectively right
Four cases, plainly. When the brief is that nothing should be visible, a flush device is the only product that does it. When the outlet lands in stone, glass or a panelled millwork face where a rectangular plate would read as an intrusion, the round device is the better detail. When it sits in a counter or a cabinet face rather than a wall, our range has nothing for it. And when the house will be restyled every few years, invisibility outlasts any finish fashion, including ours.
We also cannot match either on signal devices: HDMI, data and keypad control in one matching family is a real advantage for a media wall, and our range stops at power, USB and lighting control.
Four cases the other way. On a finished wall, where a plate covers the opening and its rough edge and the job takes one visit: taking the old plate off plaster is the whole preparation. In a period or traditional interior, where visible brass and a slotted screw are the point rather than something to hide, as in the retro and vintage range. When reversibility matters, because the next owner can change the plate without touching the wall. And when the metal itself is the finish you are buying: eight finishes, solid brass throughout, compared on our finish comparison page and in our piece on what makes a plate worth paying for.
The catalogue for that work is wall plates and outlet covers, brass outlets for the one-piece duplex, GFCI and dual USB-C units, and brass light switches and brass dimmers for control, compared in our duplex, GFCI and USB-C article.
If you want brass and flush at the same time
We have no answer, and it is better to say so than to sell a near miss. There is no solid brass mud-in device on our catalogue and none planned. Three honest options remain. Choose a finish that recedes rather than contrasts, usually Matte White on plaster and Unlacquered on dark panelling, both on the finish comparison page. Use a blank plate where a position is needed but no device is, from blank wall plates. Or put the visible brass where it is wanted and leave the discreet positions to a standard stocked plate, which is the mixed approach we describe in specifying a whole house room by room.
One safety point to close. Anything here that involves opening a wall or touching a device is electrical work: switch off the breaker, then verify the absence of voltage at the device with a meter rather than trusting the panel label. The right to do the work is a state question and the duty to declare it a local one, as separated out in our article on permits and licensed electricians; new circuits, service and panel work generally require a licensed electrician and a permit. Your local code and your authority having jurisdiction govern, not this page, and we confirm no wiring compatibility without written confirmation from the manufacturer. Our installation and compatibility guide is the place to start, and how to read an inspection checklist the place to go next.
Frequently asked questions
What are Bocci outlets?
Bocci outlets are part of the 22 System, which Bocci describes as a suite of electrical wall accessories that integrate with any architectural finish, made in Canada since 2009. The devices are round, in two diameters the company calls Ø35 and Ø46, set behind a mounting plate that is mudded into the wall so no cover plate shows.
What are Prado outlets?
Prado outlets are the Unifit series, a round self-contained outlet that clamps into a 1 and 3/8 inch hole using adjustable lugs. The installation sheet gives a material thickness range of 1/4 to 1 and 3/8 inch and an optional 1 and 1/2 inch countersink.
Is a Bocci or Prado outlet the same as a flush or trimless switch plate?
No. A trimless plate is still a plate, set into a plaster reveal. These two are devices with no plate at all: the finished wall becomes the surround. Different construction detail, different trade sequence, different repair story.
Does a Bocci or Prado outlet need a junction box?
They differ, and both should be confirmed with the manufacturer. Prado publishes back box accessories for hardwired work and a self-contained option for millwork and stone. Bocci sets its devices behind a mounting plate. The manufacturer instructions govern, and your inspector has the last word.
Are Bocci and Prado outlets UL listed?
Read the wording carefully, because it varies by page. On the Bocci resources page read on October 27, 2026, a UL certificate of compliance and a CE declaration are linked but no standard number appears in the page text. The Prado installation sheet states conformance to UL Standard 498 and certification to CSA Standard C22.2 No. 42, and names no laboratory mark. The only proof that counts is the mark on the piece.
Can you install a flush outlet in an existing finished wall?
Sometimes, and rarely cleanly. The hole has to be cut to a precise diameter in a wall that is already painted and the surround refinished. A plate exists so that this does not happen: it covers the opening and its rough edge.
Does Studio Timeless make a flush or invisible outlet?
No. We make no flush device, no mud-in mounting plate, no trim cap and no barrel depth options, and none is planned. Our products are one-piece solid brass units and separate brass plates for American device openings. If invisibility is the requirement, we are the wrong supplier.
Can you put a brass plate where a flush device was installed?
Not without wall repair. A mud-in system leaves a round opening and a mounting plate bonded into the finish. Our plates are rectangular and sized for American device boxes, so converting back means a new box, patching and repainting.
Are flush outlets allowed by code?
That is a question for your local code and your authority having jurisdiction, not for a manufacturer page. The general shape: a listed device installed according to its listing and the National Electrical Code is what an inspector looks for, and approved in the code means acceptable to your inspector. We confirm no wiring compatibility without written confirmation from the manufacturer.
What is the closest thing to an invisible outlet in solid brass?
A blank plate where no device is needed, and a finish chosen to disappear rather than contrast. Matte White on plaster reads as quiet; Unlacquered on dark panelling recedes as it darkens. A different kind of restraint from invisibility, and what we can actually deliver.
Choosing between them
Ask one question first: is the wall already finished? If it is, a plate is the product, and Studio Timeless sells solid brass ones in eight finishes that come off with a screwdriver. If the wall does not exist yet and nothing should be visible, a flush system is the product and we are not in the running. Start in switches and outlets, hold the metal with the Finish Sample Set, and send us your plan to have positions and box depths answered in writing before anything is cut.
Last updated: October 27, 2026
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