I don't think there is a way of doing it directly. Here is a hackey way of getting what you want for the Y-axis. Do similar for the other axis.
plot(1:10)
X = get(gca,'xlim')
xlim(X)
Y = get(gca,'ylim')
ylim(Y)
P = patch([X(1)-.05 X(1)-.05 X(1)+.1 X(1)+.1],[Y(1) Y(2) Y(2) Y(1)],...
[1 1 1 1],[1 1 1],'edgecolor',[1 1 1])
box off
