If you’re ready to tame that tech around the house, then here’s a fantastic collection of lots of brilliant ways to hide wires, cables, and more.
You’ll be wire-less (or at least it will appear more like it) before you know it….
- Reasons Wires Become An Issue At Home
- 12 Brilliant Ideas For How To Hide Wires / Cords / Unsightly Tech In Every Room…
- #1 – Use Purpose Made Furniture
- #2 – Use a Basket
- #3 – Use 'Made For Purpose' Trunking
- #4 – Hide Behind Faux Books
- #5 – Hide In a 'Fit For Purpose' Cable Management Box
- #6 – Use Special Skirting Board To Hide Wires
- #7 – Add Extra Detail To Existing Skirting Board
- #8 – Use Cable Clips to Hide Unsightly Wires
- #9 – Create a Visual Illusion With A Fake Wall
- #10 – Use Hooks or Under Counter Baskets To Keep Wires Out Of The Way
- #11 – Use a decorative Box To Hide Charger Wires
- #12 – Use a Charging Station For Tech Cables
Let’s face it – wires and tech in the house really aren’t that attractive.
It rarely adds to the decor, creates a lot of visual clutter, and isn’t something we want to be looking at, right?
Wouldn’t it be better to find ways to hide wires that would disguise them more?
The majority of our homes haven’t been built to naturally hide wires (unless you’re fully automated, and if you are, that’s amazing!).
Add that to the fact that we now have more tech (and therefore more wires) than ever before – and you’ve got a recipe for potential disaster….
So, if you’re struggling to hide all those wires and tech stuff around your home and just want it to look a little better and blend in with the decor, then you’re in the right place!
I’ve put together all the clever ways I’ve found to hide those wires once and for all (including my favourite option for hiding tech that you can choose colours to add to the decor without any drilling needed) – and I hope one or two of them give you the inspiration you’ve been looking for in your own home.
So – let’s get started, shall we…
SIDE NOTE – Although all these ideas are definitely worth a try, please always make sure that there is plenty of air circulating around the wires/electrics to be safe rather than sorry. When dealing with electrics you need to allow heat to escape….
Reasons Wires Become An Issue At Home
- Not enough plug sockets
- Sockets in the wrong place
- Technical boxes have to be put in places that ruin the style of your home
- Wires end up on show, in a mass of spaghetti under cupboards, and generally tend to be quite unsightly.
In my own home we have this issue – ALL THE TIME!
It was built in the 1930’s when there was less need for so many sockets etc…, so when we refurbished it a few years ago I was lucky enough to be able to add in plenty of sockets.
I probably went overboard, but I was on a mission!
QUICK TIP – Always have at least 1 set of sockets on each wall – to enable you to move furniture around wherever you want it. I go one step further and have 2 sets on each wall (one near each end of the wall) – that way you’ll always have a socket close by, and most of them will be hidden by furniture so it doesn’t look odd at all.
Although this works perfectly when you have the luxury to add sockets, it’s not the solution for most of us.
In fact – there are still a few rooms in our house where we couldn’t change things easily, and so we have been forced to place furniture in specific places in each space as a result.
Not ideal.
And don’t even get me started on the mass of wifi / DVD / router boxes we’ve got all around the house….
All much needed, YES – and the tech is great – ABSOLUTELY – but the look?
Not so much…
So – here are some ways to change all that, and make those messes of wires and cords around the house a thing of the past.
Related: 37 Easy Tech Related Items You Can Declutter From Your Home Right Now!
12 Brilliant Ideas For How To Hide Wires / Cords / Unsightly Tech In Every Room…
Here are just a few of the modern day annoyances that are as a direct result of unsightly wires and tech, along with some inspiration I’ve found from across the web to fix the issues…
I hope that it helps you make any decisions you need to for your own home.
#1 – Use Purpose Made Furniture
We all have some sort of need for tech related to paperwork in the house.
Maybe you have a printer, scanner, shredder etc….
And they tend to be quite large and ugly in most rooms – unless you’re lucky enough to have a separate home office (and even then, you might not want to feel like you’re in a proper office when at home).
Using furniture that’s built to hide tech is one of the best ways I’ve seen to eliminate the need to see home office tech on a daily basis without having to feel like you’re living in an office.
There’s space for everything, but it looks more like a normal sideboard – a hidden office that’s totally functional!
Grey Painted Hideaway Computer Desk
#2 – Use a Basket
I have a shredder, and hate the way it looks in my house.
As a result I’ve ended up storing it in a cupboard most of the time and only bringing it out when I have a decent amount of paperwork to shred.
I’ve seen a few people online using a simple basket to store it in, so that it isn’t obvious at all.
I love the idea of it always being plugged in a ready to use, but still out of sight… (but I wouldn’t recommend a lidded basket for safety reasons).
Large Cotton Rope Storage Basket With Handles, Versatile Organization
#3 – Use ‘Made For Purpose’ Trunking
A lot of people now want that gorgeous look of putting the TV on the wall.
However, without a huge cost of cutting the wall, tunnelling the wires up and plastering over them, this could be the perfect streamlined solution…
Adding a simple section of trunking in the middle of the TV down towards the TV unit or whatever is below it, makes all the difference to what you focus on when watching TV (you don’t want those distracting wires!) – it can usually be painted to match the wall as well.
Cable Trunking – Decorative Self Adhesive
#4 – Hide Behind Faux Books
There are also so many ‘techy’ boxes around the house – whether it be a router (which has to go by the phone line), a TV box or other stuff, and it can all create the wrong focal point in the room if you’re not careful…
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea to hide everything behind what looks like a collection on books on a shelf.
So simple but so effective.
After all, it’s much nicer to have books on show than those black or silver boxes…
I’m sure you could make something similar – but here’s one you can purchase ready made and you can choose from a wide variety of books/colours etc… to match your decor (yes, it’s a little pricey for UK delivery, as it’s a US product, but still may be worth it for you) – click here to find out more.
#5 – Hide In a ‘Fit For Purpose’ Cable Management Box
Another simple way to hide boxes that need to be out on show – such as a TV box, is to hide them in a box.
These ones can be hung on a wall which means they can be totally out of the way (or really close to the power source etc…) to avoid trailing wires as well.
Wireless Wifi Router Storage Box – Wall Mounted
#6 – Use Special Skirting Board To Hide Wires
These are the fixes you need if you are finding it hard to have furniture exactly where you want it – and you need to allow for lamps etc… , or if you just need to hide those pesky wires out of sight.
If you’re in the building/renovating stage, you could fit special skirting board that actually has space left out in the back of it that can be used to trail wires through.
Really simple, really effective – and clean and neat in any room!
#7 – Add Extra Detail To Existing Skirting Board
Why not just add a little extra detail to it!
You can add trunking / cabling either on the wall on top of your existing skirting, or on the floor by the skirting – whatever works best for your home and space.
(You wouldn’t be able to trail it on the floor if you had carpet, for example).
#8 – Use Cable Clips to Hide Unsightly Wires
When you have lamps or electrical items on pieces of furniture, there are usually wires that are trailing to the plug socket – and these can be really unsightly (especially if the furniture has long legs and no real back to it).
As such, you could use cable clips, which simply stick onto the furniture, and have a slot that the wires can be pushed into.
You can trail the wires up the legs of the furniture, or over the back – and they will stay in place, out of the way.
CABLE CLIP – 10 PACK MULTI PURPOSE CABLE TIDY CLIPS – SELF ADHESIVE (WHITE)
#9 – Create a Visual Illusion With A Fake Wall
This is a project from the amazing blog Swoonworthy, and it’s one of those truly ingenious ways to hide wires that I wish I’d have thought of!
If you have a little DIY skill then it’s definitely worth a try.
Simply adding a fake wall using cardboard painted the same as the wall means that you can hide a load of wires without any type of cabling or boxing in needed.
Obviously, this will only work when the wires are already in a hidden away area – as the visual illusion could be shattered at the wrong angle…
#10 – Use Hooks or Under Counter Baskets To Keep Wires Out Of The Way
Another quick trick for wires would be to attach a basket of some sort to the underside (or even the back) of the furniture and put the charger and wires into there instead of directly on the floor.
This is commonly used in offices, but I’m going to try this soon in my hallway as there are loads of wires hanging underneath the hall cupboard and even though it’s low, you can easily see all those annoying wires trailing over the floor…
CABLE MANAGEMENT TRAYS, UNDER DESK CABLE ORGANIZER FOR WIRE MANAGEMENT
#11 – Use a decorative Box To Hide Charger Wires
When talking about taming those pesky wires – you have to talk about one of the most wire producing messes…
That’s the one caused by chargers for the collection of phones / iPads / Kindles etc… that the family seem to collect.
Here are a few of my favourite ways to hide this cable clutter that would otherwise be left dangling…
I love this idea for how to hide cords, as you can have anything that needs a wire, all in one place – neat and tidy. The connections can simply be pushed through the decorative holes so that’s all you’ll see.
Verve Jelly Cable Management Box – System to Cover and Hide & Power Strips & Cords
#12 – Use a Charging Station For Tech Cables
This would make such a difference for how to hide cables on a hallway table, or kitchen work surface, or desk – as you can have everything charging, each with their own wire – but it all neatly packed away.
And it makes an EVEN better difference to the amount of wires on show if all your gadgets to charge can be charged wirelessly! (Apple items are usually ones that can be, but you can shop around and see what others there are).
It’s also a great idea for keeping them all together at bedtime (so the kids don’t take their phones upstairs… hopefully!
3 IN 1 WIRELESS CHARGING STATION
There you have it – loads of CLEVER ideas for ways to hide wires at home (and those annoying tech boxes too!)
If you start thinking a little outside the box (or in this case, inside a few boxes!) for inspiration, you may find that wires and tech around the home become less of a nuisance for you.
And why not go one further?
When you’ve finished sorting out the tech clutter in terms of wiring, why not start on the rest?
This is the very best idea for storing DVDs without lots of clutter.
It’s truly been a game changer for us!
