What Is Decora? The North American Decorator Switch Format
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"Decora" gets used as a catch-all term across North American switches, dimmers, and keypads - but it's not actually a wall box or mounting standard in its own right. It's a faceplate geometry that sits on top of the standard NEMA box already covered in our wall box standards reference.
This represents the best information we've been able to source and verify at time of writing. Standards and manufacturer specifications are periodically revised, and this should be treated as guidance rather than a substitute for checking current, specific manufacturer documentation for your project.
Where the name comes from
Decora was introduced by Leviton in the mid-1970s as a flush-faced, rocker-style alternative to the traditional toggle switch. Leviton's own branding and market reach turned "Decora" into the generic term the whole industry now uses for this rectangular decorator style, even on hardware made by other manufacturers entirely.
A faceplate standard, not a box standard
This is the detail worth knowing: Decora doesn't introduce a new mounting standard. It mounts to the same NEMA single-gang and multi-gang wall box already in use for traditional toggle switches, on the same 83.3mm (3.281 inch) fixing spacing.
What Decora defines is the device opening and faceplate geometry - a minimum 33.27mm × 66.80mm rectangular cutout, with a maximum corner radius of 2.36mm. Multi-gang devices sit on a 46.02mm gang-to-gang centre spacing.
Decora itself remains a Leviton trademark, but the physical dimensions are standardised industry-wide under NEMA WD-6 and ANSI/UL 514D, which is why decorator-style plates and devices from different manufacturers are broadly interchangeable, even though the brand name belongs to one company.
Where it isn't interchangeable
The rectangular cutout is standardised. The outer wallplate isn't. Screwless plate systems in particular vary by manufacturer - a Lutron Claro screwless plate and a Legrand Pass & Seymour screwless plate are sized differently, so the hidden-screw mounting sub-base from one brand generally won't accept the faceplate from another. Standard, midsize, and jumbo outer plate sizes add further variation on top of that.
There's a further layer of variation at the device level. Some manufacturers use a slightly different internal corner radius on the switch or keypad body itself, within the tolerance of the NEMA WD-6 cutout but enough to affect fit against a faceplate cut to a different brand's corner profile. Not every Decora-style device sits flush behind every Decora-style faceplate - worth test-fitting, or checking manufacturer compatibility notes, before specifying a mixed-brand device and plate combination on a project.
Faceplate dimensions across manufacturers
Different manufacturers ship the standardised 46.02mm gang-to-gang device spacing under noticeably different outer plate sizes - one reason faceplates rarely swap between brands even on identical device counts. The NEMA WD 6 wall box dimension is included below as the reference baseline every Decora-format plate builds outward from. NEMA WD 6 itself is specified up to 10-gang, though most commercial ranges stop at 6.
| Manufacturer / Line | 1-Gang | 2-Gang | 3-Gang | 4-Gang | 5-Gang | 6-Gang | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEMA WD 6 (wall box) | 70 × 114mm | 116 × 114mm | 162 × 114mm | 208 × 114mm | 254 × 114mm | 300 × 114mm | - |
| Lutron Claro (screwless) | 75 × 119mm | 121 × 119mm | 167 × 119mm | 213 × 119mm | 259 × 119mm | 305 × 119mm | 7.6mm |
| Leviton Decora (standard) | 70 × 114mm | 116 × 114mm | 162 × 114mm | 208 × 114mm | 254 × 114mm | 300 × 114mm | 6.4mm |
| Leviton Decora (midsize) | 79 × 124mm | 125 × 124mm | 171 × 124mm | 217 × 124mm | 263 × 124mm | 309 × 124mm | 7.9mm |
| Legrand Pass & Seymour (standard) | 70 × 114mm | 116 × 114mm | 162 × 114mm | 208 × 114mm | 254 × 114mm | 300 × 114mm | 6.4mm |
| Legrand Pass & Seymour (screwless/radiant) | 80 × 125mm | 126 × 125mm | 172 × 125mm | 218 × 125mm | 264 × 125mm | 310 × 125mm | 8.9mm |
| Control4 (Decora Wired Keypad) | 70 × 114mm | 116 × 114mm | 162 × 114mm | 208 × 114mm | - | - | 6.4mm |
| ETC Unison Echo Inspire | 70.1 × 114.9mm | 116.1 × 114.9mm | 162.1 × 114.9mm | 208.1 × 114.9mm | - | - | 7.6mm |
Standard-size plates across most brands track the NEMA baseline closely for a single gang, growing by roughly the 46mm gang spacing per additional device, right up to 6-gang for Lutron Claro and standard Leviton/Legrand lines. Screwless designs consistently run larger than the NEMA reference - Lutron Claro and Legrand's radiant line both add several millimetres in every dimension to conceal the mounting screws, which is exactly why a screwless plate from one brand won't sit flush over another brand's device yoke.
Control4 and ETC's published ranges top out at 4-gang; larger configurations weren't found in available sourcing. Not every Control4 line uses this footprint either - the Decora Wired Keypad above accepts standard Decora-style faceplates, but Control4's Contemporary keypad line explicitly does not ("Contemporary Lighting buttons are not compatible with Decora faceplates," per Control4's own documentation), and the newer Lux line uses its own separate premium metal faceplate system. Even within a single manufacturer's range, checking which faceplate ecosystem a specific product belongs to matters.
Worth noting separately: Legrand's adorne system uses a distinct square modular format rather than the standard rectangular Decora layout, and doesn't follow the same scaling pattern shown above.
How manufacturers use it
Lutron uses the Decora footprint extensively across its mainstream residential lines - Caséta wall dimmers and switches pair with standard decorator faceplates such as Lutron's own Claro screwless series, and RA2 Select and RadioRA 3 companion dimmers follow the same format. Lutron's higher-end architectural lines sit outside this - Palladiom and similar ranges use proprietary sizing rather than the Decora footprint.
Control4's Decora Wired Keypad is named for the format directly - it installs in a standard US wallbox and accepts a standard Decora-style or square faceplate. The keypad supports two to seven buttons across 37 possible configurations, with Control4's own faceplate as one option among several.
Leviton, as the originator, continues to offer Decora-compatible smart lighting devices across its Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave lines.
Dynalite's DSxA (DirectSet) button panel uses the standard NEMA single-gang form factor - the manufacturer specifically markets it for seamless integration with standard electrical boxes and wallplates. This sits alongside Dynalite's other user interfaces, such as the Revolution and Antumbra ranges, which are offered in both NA and EU wallbox formats to suit the region they're installed in.
ETC's Echo Inspire control stations, part of the Unison Echo system, are built to fit a standard backbox, including gang-able configurations - one-, two-, four-, six-, and eight-button versions all follow the same NEMA-compatible mounting approach.
Beyond keypads: entertainment infrastructure
The pattern extends past control panels into the connectivity hardware behind them. Obsidian Control's NETRON line includes wall plate inserts built specifically to the Decora format - the WP1CAT6, for example, is described by the manufacturer as a "Decora insert plate" for CAT6A network passthrough, mounting to a standard in-wall single-gang US box. Obsidian also produces a square-format equivalent (WP1CAT6-EU) for European installations, though the specific European in-wall box standard it targets isn't stated with enough precision to confirm which regional convention it aligns to.
Pathway Connectivity offers a similar modular receptacle system for DMX and Ethernet connectivity - wall plates from single-gang through five-gang configurations, in matte black, white, or stainless steel, all mounting to standard NEMA electrical wall boxes for a clean finish in production and touring environments.
How this connects to the wider standards picture
Decora sits directly on the NEMA 83.3mm fixing spacing already covered in our wall box standards reference - same box, same anchor ears, same spacing as a traditional toggle switch. The only real difference is the rectangular face aperture and the outer plate design. For the fastener-level detail behind that fixing spacing, see Why M3.5?
Don't see your format here?
This kind of research is exactly what goes into every new ControlBase and ControlSurface product we build. If you need a bracket for Decora, a specific screwless plate ecosystem, or any regional standard not yet in our range, we've already done the groundwork - get in touch at studio@730design.au and we can talk through what's involved in manufacturing to it.
Brand and model names are used for compatibility identification only. See our FAQ for full compatibility and affiliation details.