How to Hide Those Messy Wires
Untangle Yourself From Ugly Electrical Cords With a Few Tricks and Accessories
As we all become more and more tethered to our electronic devices, wire management is a challenge almost everyone faces. It's especially tough when trying to achieve timeless, uncluttered design. Who wants to see wires mucking up a beautiful composition?
Thankfully, our reliance on technology has created a market for managing it all – there are tons of products on the market to help us out, while creative homeowners and designers are coming up with solutions of their own to keep wires under control and out of sight.
Of course, the best solution is to fully integrate wires into a design (where possible), which requires a lot of planning and and healthy dose of construction. Let's look at some examples of how to build in wire management, as well as working it into homes, for those of us who can't make permanent changes to our homes, for one reason or another.
Thankfully, our reliance on technology has created a market for managing it all – there are tons of products on the market to help us out, while creative homeowners and designers are coming up with solutions of their own to keep wires under control and out of sight.
Of course, the best solution is to fully integrate wires into a design (where possible), which requires a lot of planning and and healthy dose of construction. Let's look at some examples of how to build in wire management, as well as working it into homes, for those of us who can't make permanent changes to our homes, for one reason or another.
In my last apartment, my husband took great pains to keep the floors in our home office wire-free. He used zip ties and eye hooks to mount all of our components to the underside of our wood desk. If you're not the DIY/handy type and would rather buy something to manage wires, you're in luck ...
by Room & Board
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Room and Board's cord management products (leg, horizontal and flexible) are great solutions for those pesky-but-essential computer wires.
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by Bluelounge
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| If you're anything like me, keeping components nearby and accessible is ideal, but they can be unsightly, or drop to the floor and quickly become "lost." Blue Lounge's clever CableDrop is a nice solution. |
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by Bluelounge
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| Don't have the option of mounting wires and other components to a hidden-away place? Pop your power strip (and the mangled wires attached to it) into this tidy little box and the problem is solved. Vacuum, dust, mop — do what you need to do; this little guy is on your side. |
Everyone seems to want to mount their flat screen TV on a wall these days, and it's easier than you think — even if you're a renter and you're not supposed to penetrate walls.
A small hole can be bored in drywall and wires can be brought up to the desired height without much fuss. Of course, it helps to have built-in bookcases like these, which provide a little more room for pulling wires around.
A small hole can be bored in drywall and wires can be brought up to the desired height without much fuss. Of course, it helps to have built-in bookcases like these, which provide a little more room for pulling wires around.
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by The Red Jet
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| If you're in love with a light fixture or a sconce like this one, but don't have the option to hardwire it, install it near window or door trim, where you can often staple the wire and even paint it so it blends in a bit. |
Take a queue from lofts and let conduits do the hiding.
Some wall-mounted light fixtures come complete with a conduit that matches the finish and is more than presentable.
Like built-in shelving, wood paneling gives you a little extra play in terms of wire-hiding and electronics-mounting capabilities.
by ZMK Group, Inc
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If your house or apartment didn't come complete with floor outlets, put area rugs to work to hide cords and wires so you can float furniture without worrying about how to plug in such things as lamps, computers and clocks.
Furniture with back panels make our lives easier. If your outlets are located a little high on the wall, a table like this will help conceal any wires. If outlets are closer to the baseboard, the panel still shields a lot of the wire, making it far more inconspicuous!
Wires are an inescapable part of our lives, but minimizing how much we see of them makes our living spaces so much more serene. This little table lamp has to plug in somewhere, but hiding the outlet behind the drawer portion of the desk conceals the "ugly" part of the lamp.
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| Desks with extra thickness, like this one, which has pencil drawers, give us more flexibility in terms of hiding wires, as the lip of the desk can conceal all kinds of industrial-looking wiring. |
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by Made in Design
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| Untangling wires probably eats up 15 percent of my day — an unacceptable percentage. I'm very seriously considering getting Pop Corn's Cable Turtle to keep my iPod and hands-free cell phone ear buds in check. The less time I have to spend unfurling them, the better off we ALL are.
More: 5 Ways to Decorate Around a Flat-Screen TV Well-Styled Electronics |
Ideabook published on July 1, 2011.
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Any ideas where to "hide" remote controls that are all over my house... tv, xbox, dvd, ceiling fan...AHHHHHHH!
I love the media cabinets similar to what renfroedesign showed. It makes it so easy to get to wiring, saves any wall damage, and if you are renting, you can take it with you!
I have to say that running cords underneath an area rug does leave a lump ... but ya gotta do what ya gotta do! I'm a big fan of floor outlets, but not everyone can install them. The area rug is a darn sight better than those rubber cord covers that keep a cord from being a hazard when it runs across any open area.
The first picture is one of the boxes from the container store you mentioned, in between my tv and bookshelf. It is one of my favorite products! I waited until they went on sale and then bought several! Also, inside that box is a neat surge protector with a remote switch, which turns off most of the outlets, except for the internet router and cable box which have to stay on.
Second picture is also of a box, although right now you can see the power strip cord! This is my boyfriends computer 'area' though, so I don't see it much LOL. That surge protector actually has outlets that automatically turn off when his computer is turned off- so all of his extras (headphones, speakers, monitor, etc) turn off when his computer shuts down or sleeps- while the outlet with the lamp is always powered.
Third picture is another product I love, made by BL (I love sales at the container store!). It is one of the best cord bundling solutions I've found. That is the medium size holding a larger computer cord. I have a large size holding my laptop cord where I don't have to see it, and I have several tiny ones nicely holding my ipod charging cord and my headphones (which is awesome in my purse- no tangles!).
Last picture is our new cable cord which has to go around the room and the sliding patio door.. It is the same idea as you mentioned above, about hiding cords in the features of the room. It runs along the baseboard, barely noticeable, and then along the metal part of the door, where it blends in with the metal. The only part where it might have been seen is behind the bottom of the bookshelf...where it goes into that white box from the first picture :)
I don't think I've ever posted comments this long, or pictures, but the cord concealments are one thing I'm actually proud of, decor-wise, in our condo!