Five Easy Ways to Hide Cords and Cables Around the House
Despite the prevalence of wireless devices, tangled cords and cables at home are still a problem for most people. If you own your home, you can hide the wires inside the walls, but if you rent a home or simply don’t want to drill or open the walls, this is not an ideal option. Plus, there are many much easier ways to hide them without having to learn about drywall repair.
Behind the furniture
One of the easiest ways to hide cables is to secure them behind conveniently placed furniture. These adhesive clips attach to the legs and backs of tables and consoles and hold all the wires in place. If you’re careful, you can magically make these wires invisible without touching the walls, and the clips can be removed at any time if you change your layout or move to a new place.
You can also use a key piece of furniture: a sofa or sofa. Installing a shallow shelf behind the sofa (level with the top of its back) or purchasing a narrow console table that fits behind it will allow you to secure wires underneath for perfectly hidden wiring. Plus, it adds a little storage space and an extra win.
Cable management boxes
If your cables only bother you when they explode in disarray in one place (like where they have to bounce off the floor to connect to your TV or computer), a cable management box is a decorative way to deal with them without having to deal with a large-scale organization project. You can find them in a variety of finishes and looks to match your existing style, and they keep all that cable chaos out of sight without any effort on your part.
Cable covers
If you need to run wiring far enough around the room, paintable, no-drilling cable covers will hide the wires and blend them into the background; After painting, these covers will not be noticeable at all. You can also purchase a crown molding or baseboard molding that will hide your cables completely unobtrusively, although they will require a little more work to install. If the room already has baseboards, you can purchase quarter-round channels that can be installed flush against the existing trim to create a seamless look.
Wall panels
A slightly more involved project won’t expose your walls, but will require some DIY skills. You can add wall panels to hide cables and wiring:
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Sheathing. Classic Look: Installing trim isn’t very difficult if you’re patient with measuring and cutting. This does not require opening up the wall, but it does require some drilling, nailing and sawing skills. The key here is to move the sheathing about an inch away from the wall with a few one-inch strips of sheathing to allow room for the wires to run behind it, then cover it with molding to close the gap.
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Accent panels. You can also add an accent wall using a wall panel behind your TV or table. Raise it an inch from the wall and route wires behind it to create a clean, seamless look that adds drama to the room. Wall panels can imitate wood, brick, stone or tile, or simply provide a pop of color in a neutral room.
Decor
Finally, the easiest, cheapest, and least invasive way to hide wires and cables is to run them behind things you already have. For example, a row of books or potted plants may provide sufficient camouflage for several bundles of wires. Anything that sits nicely on a shelf can hide wires without requiring drilling or rearranging furniture.