diff --git a/examples/grpc/tracer.js b/examples/grpc/tracer.js
index cee15c735f..34b03b1030 100644
--- a/examples/grpc/tracer.js
+++ b/examples/grpc/tracer.js
@@ -9,14 +9,7 @@ const { ZipkinExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/exporter-zipkin');
 const EXPORTER = process.env.EXPORTER || '';
 
 module.exports = (serviceName) => {
-  const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
-    plugins: {
-      grpc: {
-        enabled: true,
-        path: '@opentelemetry/plugin-grpc',
-      },
-    },
-  });
+  const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
 
   let exporter;
   if (EXPORTER.toLowerCase().startsWith('z')) {
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-node/README.md b/packages/opentelemetry-node/README.md
index 4dd8d84a74..df932e2ed1 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-node/README.md
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-node/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # OpenTelemetry Node SDK
+
 [![Gitter chat][gitter-image]][gitter-url]
 [![NPM Published Version][npm-img]][npm-url]
 [![dependencies][dependencies-image]][dependencies-url]
@@ -10,14 +11,14 @@ This module provides *automated instrumentation and tracing* for Node.js applica
 For manual instrumentation see the
 [@opentelemetry/tracing](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/packages/opentelemetry-tracing) package.
 
-## How does automated instrumentation work?
+## How auto instrumentation works
+
 This package exposes a `NodeTracerProvider` that will automatically hook into the module loader of Node.js.
 
 For this to work, please make sure that `NodeTracerProvider` is initialized before any other module of your application, (like `http` or `express`) is loaded.
 
 OpenTelemetry comes with a growing number of instrumentation plugins for well know modules (see [supported modules](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#plugins)) and an API to create custom plugins (see [the plugin developer guide](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/blob/master/doc/plugin-guide.md)).
 
-
 Whenever a module is loaded `NodeTracerProvider` will check if a matching instrumentation plugin has been installed.
 
 > **Please note:** This module does *not* bundle any plugins. They need to be installed separately.
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ If the respective plugin was found, it will be used to patch the original module
 This is done by wrapping all tracing-relevant functions.
 
 This instrumentation code will automatically
+
 - extract a trace-context identifier from inbound requests to allow distributed tracing (if applicable)
 - make sure that this current trace-context is propagated while the transaction traverses an application (see [@opentelemetry/context-base](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/blob/master/packages/opentelemetry-context-base/README.md) for an in-depth explanation)
 - add this trace-context identifier to outbound requests to allow continuing the distributed trace on the next hop (if applicable)
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ This instrumentation code will automatically
 In short, this means that this module will use provided plugins to automatically instrument your application to produce spans and provide end-to-end tracing by just adding a few lines of code.
 
 ## Creating custom spans on top of auto-instrumentation
+
 Additionally to automated instrumentation, `NodeTracerProvider` exposes the same API as [@opentelemetry/tracing](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/packages/opentelemetry-tracing), allowing creating custom spans if needed.
 
 ## Installation
@@ -49,22 +52,16 @@ npm install --save @opentelemetry/plugin-https
 
 ## Usage
 
-The following code will configure the `NodeTracerProvider` to instrument `http` using `@opentelemetry/plugin-http`.
+The following code will configure the `NodeTracerProvider` to instrument `http`
+(and any other installed [supported
+modules](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#plugins))
+using `@opentelemetry/plugin-http`.
 
 ```js
 const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/node');
 
 // Create and configure NodeTracerProvider
-const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
-  plugins: {
-    http: {
-      enabled: true,
-      // You may use a package name or absolute path to the file.
-      path: '@opentelemetry/plugin-http',
-      // http plugin options
-    }
-  }
-});
+const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
 
 // Initialize the provider
 provider.register()
@@ -74,26 +71,43 @@ provider.register()
 const http = require('http');
 ```
 
-To enable instrumentation for all [supported modules](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js#plugins), create an instance of `NodeTracerProvider` without providing any plugin configuration to the constructor.
+## Plugin configuration
 
-```js
-const { NodeTracerProvider } = require('@opentelemetry/node');
+User supplied plugin configuration is merged with the default plugin
+configuration. Furthermore, custom plugins that are configured are implicitly
+enabled just as default plugins are.
 
-// Create and initialize NodeTracerProvider
-const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
+In the following example:
 
-// Initialize the provider
-provider.register()
+- the default express plugin is disabled
+- the http plugin has a custom config for a `requestHook`
+- the customPlugin is loaded from the user supplied path
+- all default plugins are still loaded if installed.
 
-// Your application code
-// ...
+```js
+const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
+  plugins: {
+    express: {
+      enabled: false,
+    },
+    http: {
+      requestHook: (span, request) => {
+        span.setAttribute("custom request hook attribute", "request");
+      },
+    },
+    customPlugin: {
+      path: "/path/to/custom/module",
+    },
+  },
+});
 ```
 
 ## Examples
-See how to automatically instrument [http](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/examples/http) and [gRPC](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/examples/grpc) using node-sdk.
 
+See how to automatically instrument [http](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/examples/http) and [gRPC](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/master/examples/grpc) using node-sdk.
 
 ## Useful links
+
 - For more information on OpenTelemetry, visit: <https://opentelemetry.io/>
 - For more about OpenTelemetry JavaScript: <https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js>
 - For help or feedback on this project, join us on [gitter][gitter-url]
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-node/src/NodeTracerProvider.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-node/src/NodeTracerProvider.ts
index 11a0874e5e..6d7f51737b 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-node/src/NodeTracerProvider.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-node/src/NodeTracerProvider.ts
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import {
   SDKRegistrationConfig,
 } from '@opentelemetry/tracing';
 import { DEFAULT_INSTRUMENTATION_PLUGINS, NodeTracerConfig } from './config';
-import { PluginLoader } from './instrumentation/PluginLoader';
+import { PluginLoader, Plugins } from './instrumentation/PluginLoader';
 
 /**
  * Register this TracerProvider for use with the OpenTelemetry API.
@@ -39,7 +39,12 @@ export class NodeTracerProvider extends BasicTracerProvider {
     super(config);
 
     this._pluginLoader = new PluginLoader(this, this.logger);
-    this._pluginLoader.load(config.plugins || DEFAULT_INSTRUMENTATION_PLUGINS);
+
+    config.plugins
+      ? this._pluginLoader.load(
+          this._mergePlugins(DEFAULT_INSTRUMENTATION_PLUGINS, config.plugins)
+        )
+      : this._pluginLoader.load(DEFAULT_INSTRUMENTATION_PLUGINS);
   }
 
   stop() {
@@ -54,4 +59,33 @@ export class NodeTracerProvider extends BasicTracerProvider {
 
     super.register(config);
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Two layer merge.
+   * First, for user supplied config of plugin(s) that are loaded by default,
+   * merge the user supplied and default configs of said plugin(s).
+   * Then merge the results with the default plugins.
+   * @returns 2-layer deep merge of default and user supplied plugins.
+   */
+  private _mergePlugins(
+    defaultPlugins: Plugins,
+    userSuppliedPlugins: Plugins
+  ): Plugins {
+    const mergedUserSuppliedPlugins: Plugins = {};
+
+    for (const pluginName in userSuppliedPlugins) {
+      mergedUserSuppliedPlugins[pluginName] = {
+        // Any user-supplied non-default plugin should be enabled by default
+        ...(DEFAULT_INSTRUMENTATION_PLUGINS[pluginName] || { enabled: true }),
+        ...userSuppliedPlugins[pluginName],
+      };
+    }
+
+    const mergedPlugins: Plugins = {
+      ...defaultPlugins,
+      ...mergedUserSuppliedPlugins,
+    };
+
+    return mergedPlugins;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/NodeTracerProvider.test.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/NodeTracerProvider.test.ts
index d38dda5319..c9594e9288 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/NodeTracerProvider.test.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/NodeTracerProvider.test.ts
@@ -81,29 +81,38 @@ describe('NodeTracerProvider', () => {
       assert.ok(provider instanceof NodeTracerProvider);
     });
 
-    it('should load user configured plugins', () => {
+    it('should load a merge of user configured and default plugins and implictly enable non-default plugins', () => {
       provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
         logger: new NoopLogger(),
         plugins: {
           'simple-module': {
-            enabled: true,
             path: '@opentelemetry/plugin-simple-module',
           },
           'supported-module': {
-            enabled: true,
             path: '@opentelemetry/plugin-supported-module',
             enhancedDatabaseReporting: false,
             ignoreMethods: [],
             ignoreUrls: [],
           },
+          'random-module': {
+            enabled: false,
+            path: '@opentelemetry/random-module',
+          },
+          http: {
+            path: '@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module',
+          },
         },
       });
-      const pluginLoader = provider['_pluginLoader'];
-      assert.strictEqual(pluginLoader['_plugins'].length, 0);
+      const plugins = provider['_pluginLoader']['_plugins'];
+      assert.strictEqual(plugins.length, 0);
       require('simple-module');
-      assert.strictEqual(pluginLoader['_plugins'].length, 1);
+      assert.strictEqual(plugins.length, 1);
       require('supported-module');
-      assert.strictEqual(pluginLoader['_plugins'].length, 2);
+      assert.strictEqual(plugins.length, 2);
+      require('random-module');
+      assert.strictEqual(plugins.length, 2);
+      require('http');
+      assert.strictEqual(plugins.length, 3);
     });
 
     it('should construct an instance with default attributes', () => {
@@ -269,3 +278,52 @@ describe('NodeTracerProvider', () => {
     });
   });
 });
+
+describe('mergePlugins', () => {
+  const defaultPlugins = {
+    module1: {
+      enabled: true,
+      path: 'testpath',
+    },
+    module2: {
+      enabled: true,
+      path: 'testpath2',
+    },
+    module3: {
+      enabled: true,
+      path: 'testpath3',
+    },
+  };
+
+  const userPlugins = {
+    module2: {
+      path: 'userpath',
+    },
+    module3: {
+      enabled: false,
+    },
+    nonDefaultModule: {
+      path: 'userpath2',
+    },
+  };
+
+  const provider = new NodeTracerProvider();
+
+  const mergedPlugins = provider['_mergePlugins'](defaultPlugins, userPlugins);
+
+  it('should merge user and default configs', () => {
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.module1.enabled, true);
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.module1.path, 'testpath');
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.module2.enabled, true);
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.module2.path, 'userpath');
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.module3.enabled, false);
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.nonDefaultModule.enabled, true);
+    assert.equal(mergedPlugins.nonDefaultModule.path, 'userpath2');
+  });
+
+  it('should should not mangle default config', () => {
+    assert.equal(defaultPlugins.module2.path, 'testpath2');
+    assert.equal(defaultPlugins.module3.enabled, true);
+    assert.equal(defaultPlugins.module3.path, 'testpath3');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/instrumentation/node_modules/@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module/package.json b/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/instrumentation/node_modules/@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module/package.json
index 59d87df350..bb40eab67d 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/instrumentation/node_modules/@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module/package.json
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-node/test/instrumentation/node_modules/@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module/package.json
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "name": "@opentelemetry/plugin-simple-module",
+  "name": "@opentelemetry/plugin-http-module",
   "version": "0.0.1"
 }