No one wants to have cables lying around their home. Not only does it look bad, but it’s also a safety hazard, especially with young kids or pets running around. Luckily, there are numerous creative ways to hide unsightly home essentials like routers, wires, and cables and make them into sleek decor for your home. This will keep your wires organized and keep your home safer from unwanted mishaps from your kids or pets. Besides, nothing is more satisfying than a bunch of neatly arranged cords!
DIY Cardboard Cable Management Box
Use sleek, streamlined boxes to hide power strips and tangled cords. You’ll likely find a problem with these underneath your desk, where the computers are, or near phone charging areas in your home. Grab a cardboard box and line it with paper towel rolls. Cut holes into the box to ensure you can slip the paper towel rolls into, and stuff it with cables and power strips.
Fabric Cord Covers
There’s a reason they say out of sight, out of mind! Create DIY paintable fabric cord covers and run wires through them. Paint them so they blend into the walls or furniture around them. You’ll want fabric about three times the size of the cord, so you have extra when the fabric bunches up. Cut the fabric into six-inch wide strips. Depending on your furniture, paint the fabric in various colors or use an off-white fabric that blends into the walls. They’ll be out of sight once you wrap them around the cord!
Hide Cords in Decorative Molding
To revamp your space, install decorative molding or baseboards with hollow spaces to tuck cables inside. This classy, timeless look will hide those pesky cords without you having to create a DIY project or use cardboard or paper towel tubes. Make sure the entrance to the molding is small so it conceals most of the cord.
Binder Clips
Attach binder clips to the back of tables and desks to keep your cords out of sight. These clips are versatile and can be used for cords of any shape or size. Slide the cord through the binder clip and let the larger part of the cord rest on the clip’s edge to hang. Or, you can use a pin to hold up the clip on a piece of corkboard and use the clip side to grasp the cord.
Braided Cord Sleeves
This is a fun DIY project where you can use rope and other crafty supplies to combine and organize multiple cables into a single sleeve. This will give you a cleaner, more streamlined look that looks decorative. Choose rope that blends well with your surroundings, and use minimalistic colors like gray, brown, black, or white.
Rearrange Your Furniture
If you don’t feel like buying extra supplies or using material lying around your house, you can position your furniture strategically around your home to hide wires behind or underneath. This solution quickly hides those wires if you have couches, chairs, and tables.
Under-Desk Cable Trays or Net
Installing cable trays underneath your desk lets you keep wires off the floor. Line the cables up along the tray for a streamlined look. If your tray is hidden within a cabinet, you can toss those cables inside since they’re hidden from view. You can also use a net and attach it to the side of your desk to keep cords inside. Netting makes it easier to spot where the cords are when you need them.
Cable Spool Holder
Decorative spools make it easy to find excess cables. They are also an organized, neat way to roll up your cables and keep them in one spot. Line up the cable spools and arrange them according to their usage. Create one row for phone cables, another for laptop cables, and another for camera cables.
Mounted Power Strips
There’s a ton of space on the underside of desks. Utilize that space to your advantage! You can easily attach power strips to the underside of desks and behind furniture to make the most out of all that unused space. Use double-sided adhesive tape to mount the power strips to your desk.
Decorative Boxes
Use ventilated decorative wooden boxes to store and hide wires and routers. Paint the boxes to match your home’s decor. Use a white box with painted flowers in a floral-themed or bohemian-themed living room. If your design is retro-futuristic, use a vintage-styled box or old treasure chest and paint it in bold, bright colors.
DIY Book Router Cover
Getting as creative as possible is part of the fun! Build a DIY book router cover using old books you find lying around the house or ones you pick up at the thrift store. Cut the bottoms and insides of the books out to make them hollow. Then, glue the tops together to make it look like a row of books on a bookshelf. You can make this as long or as short as you’d like.
Basket Storage
Wicker baskets are easy-to-use decorations that complement any aesthetic. They complement everything from a bohemian home to a minimalistic home. Use wicker baskets to your advantage here, with cutouts for cables to hide modems, routers, and other cables. Stick these baskets under your desk, inside your bookshelves, or beside your bed.
Wall-Mounted Shelves
Floating shelves are your friend when hiding away routers and modems. Mount tech devices on floating shelves around your living room and bedroom, and place small plants and other decorative trinkets next to them to conceal the wires. These work well next to areas in your home with tons of cables. It’s also a great way to have added space and storage.
Picture Frames
Use a deep picture frame to provide ventilation and house routers and cables. Strategically place these in areas where many wires or cables are sticking out. You can also place picture frames on your desk or around your workspace to conceal pesky wires or cables that stick out. If you have running cables across your wall, you can hang larger picture frames to conceal them.
Magazine Holders
Place routers inside vertical magazine holders for a neat, upright solution to organizing your routers, cables, and modems. You can use a basket design and hang it on your living room wall, or use a plastic see-through magazine holder and attach it to your fridge or above your desk.
Cabinet Modifications
If you want to revamp your cabinets, you can create a tech nook with holes drilled for wires. These wires will stick out of the cabinets and settle behind them. If you have computers and other devices that need to be charged, this is a great way to accommodate a ton of wires while leaving the space clean and clutter-free.
Fabric Skirts
Get crafty by adding a fabric skirt around a table or shelf and concealing devices underneath the table. Use bright, colorful fabric for a retro-futuristic look or simple, warm colors for a minimalistic, modern look. Ensure the fabric is long enough to reach the floor and conceal the wires, modems, and cables.
Repurposed Vintage Boxes
Vintage boxes are handy for concealing wires, modems, and routers. You can find unused vintage boxes collecting dust in your basement or attic. Anything works here, from treasure chests to suitcases to vintage bedside tables. The more rustic and vintage, the better! If necessary, cut a hole inside the repurposed box so the cables can quickly exit.
Custom Decorative Router Covers
Create a decorative cover or 3D print to complement your home’s aesthetic. Use a floral, bohemian-style, or funky retro print for a bolder, more eye-catching statement piece. Since these covers completely conceal the router, your guests won’t know what they are for. Design the cover so it’s cohesive with the decorations in the rest of your home.
Gallery Wall
To conceal wires in your living room, arrange a gallery wall around a TV and run wires behind the artwork or frames. This is where you can get creative. Use large, colorful artwork, paintings, picture frames, and other quirky art to conceal the wires. The more unconventional the artwork, the better, depending on how much of a statement you want to make. The goal is to draw the viewer’s eye to the art, not the cables.
Plant Hiding Spots
Place plants strategically around large, unsightly items like power strips and cables to obscure them. This is an excellent alternative if you have many cables that are not easily concealed by other means, like boxes or cabinets. Besides, adding greenery to your space is never a bad idea! To mix things up, mix large plants reaching the ceiling with smaller potted plants.
Velcro Straps
Bundle cords and tuck them out of sight behind furniture using velcro straps. Make sure they’re lined up, and wrap the velcro around them. That way, you can easily store them in an open cabinet space on the desk, at the bottom of your bookshelf, or on a floating shelf.
Pegboards
These are a great way to hang hooks and baskets for small tech devices and other smaller cords. They also double as fun decorative pieces that can be a focal point in your living room or bedroom. Decorate them with flowers and other trinkets to keep the cords and wires out of view.
Put it in a Metal Box
Use a perforated metal box to allow enough air to reach your router or modem. These classy decorations subtly conceal your router while acting as a statement piece in your living room or office. Otherwise, it’d be an unappealing black box taking up space. Surround it with plants and other trinkets.
Store it Behind a Crane Cabinet
You’ll get a new media console and the chance to hide away every last cord leaking out of your television and computer. It’s made of woven material with small holes, which allows air to pass through, in addition to the WiFi signal. If you have thicker cords, you can drill a bigger hole in the back of the cabinet to snake the cords through.