The wires that connect your electrical appliances to the power outlet, the pipes that bring you clean water whenever you need it, and the vents where the air you breathe travel are all necessary to improve your life and ensure your comfort. However, they are not exactly the best features of your home.
After you spent hours of your day and hundreds of dollars on the renovation, if the machines and parts you would rather hide are peeking out, you might not get the look you are going for. The wires, pipes, vents, meters, and boxes may be important, but they are an eye-sore most of the time.
Here are some tips that will hide and disguise the ugly things around the house.
Make the Piping a Part of the Design
Piping should not be a problem because it adds an industrial touch, a popular trend in interior design, within a room. However, do not allow its age to show. Rusty pipes are not visually-appealing, either, and will probably make your guest feel uneasy about the water coming out of the taps.
Let the pipes be a design element in a bathroom, but give it a fresh color. Using powder coating is ideal for bathrooms because it is much sturdier than regular paint (which means you would not have to retouch the color for a while). It is water-resistant, making it perfect for spaces where moisture is always present.
It is also the more environmentally-friendly option because it does not contain solvents hazardous to the health and the planet. It does not release volatile organic compounds that end up in the air, causing pollution.
Disguise Electric Wires
Although many devices are now battery-powered, there are still things around the house that need to be plugged into an electrical outlet whenever it is used. This results in dozens of black and white cords snaking around furniture everywhere in the house. They often make a room look cluttered, especially if they are left strewn on surfaces, as most people tend to do.
There are plenty of techniques to hide cords. For appliances that stay in one place, such as the television, cords can be hidden behind the wall to make them truly invisible. There are also cord covers that you can buy to hide them.
Your smartphone and tablet chargers can be hidden in a variety of ways. Some people got creative and hollowed out a book so that they have a hidden charging station that doubles as decor. Others use baskets to keep cords out of sight when not in use.
However, designating a drawer as a one-stop-shop for charging. It hides the cords and gives you time to disconnect for at least a few minutes when your device is hidden in the drawer.
Elevated Planters to Hide Garbage Bins
No one really wants to look at garbage, so why leave the bins out in the open where everyone can see it? A brilliant way to stow garbage bins away is by creating a raised flower bed that also doubles as a storage unit.
An elevated flower bed creates more space for whatever purpose, but, in this case, it is for storing something that you do not want to be seen. Although you know that your garbage bins are hiding underneath, no one would notice it because the vibrant and fragrant flowers will take all the attention away from it.
A raised flower bed is easy to DIY, but it can also be purchased from gardening and home improvement stores everywhere.
Conceal Utility Box
Utility boxes stick out a sore thumb and command attention wherever they are. They rarely blend into the design of the house.
Painting them over with the same color as the wall they are attached to can make them less noticeable, at least from afar. However, if you really want to hide them, you can either acquire a privacy screen that you can add or remove whenever you want. You can also build a wooden cabinet around them so that they are hidden, yet they remain accessible if you need to toggle with them.
Creativity is the key to hiding these ugly but necessary features of your home. However, you do not have to hide them to make them more pleasing to the eyes. By keeping them tidy and providing proper maintenance, these things would not be a nuisance that ruins the visual appeal of your home. They can be a part of your house’s arrangement and features.
