How to Hide Your Ugly Stuff!
In model homes you rarely see electronics like DVRs and DVD players, subwoofers and speakers, or multiple snake-like charging cords for smart phones and tablets. You also never see trash bins – inside or out. That’s because no human has actually lived in those spaces, and while we love that never-lived-in look, it’s difficult to achieve without a few genius hacks. We found ways to hide all the unsightly necessities that make a house a home – with a little help from clever hideaway experts.
How to Hide Cords and Electronics
You may not want to go to these lengths to hide your big screen TV cords, but blogger and interior designer Rachel at Shades of Blue Interiors, restyled an entire wall that did the trick. It’s the optimal aesthetic – creating an accent wall, behind which sits a pocket to store unsightly cords. She and her team also created bench seating with grate inserts to hide a subwoofer and speaker. The before and after is pretty stunning, and made a huge difference in the entire look of the wall/room.
We’ve never seen this one before and it’s a genius way to camouflage DVR or DVD boxes that necessarily sit in full view to enable easy access – manually and remotely. Blogger Haley at Me and Mr. Jones used perforated metal sheets — aluminum in this case – to create a hideaway for storing her cable box. It lies between a stack of books, beneath a big screen TV, which also hide the cords, to and from the box. Clean, pristine, perfection, plus needed ventilation.
Those Hard-Charging Eyesores
Cords. And more cords. And while we need them every day to charge our smartphones, tablets, and Bluetooth headphones – they’re an unsightly mess, even if you keep them coiled! HGTV solved the eyesore with a charging station drawer and we want one – in every room! Watch the video for start to finish instructions – so easy! It starts with lining the bottom of a drawer with cork floor tiles for a soft landing. Drill a hole in the back of the drawer for a power strip cord to pass through, and voila. Top of mind but out of sight.
If you don’t have a spare drawer, consider this alternative from Four Generations One Roof – a wooden bread box with a hole drilled in the back for the power cord that naturally hides your cords and electronics as they charge. Looks right at home on the countertop, with space atop it for flour and sugar canisters.
And Haley at Me and Mr. Jones doesn’t like the look of internet router. So to disguise hers, she put the bulky router behind a vintage crate “wagon”, filled with books and placed atop an antique suitcase. Her video tutorial – which helps you figure out how and where to place the router, is here.
How to Hide Trash Bins and Air Vents
We love this blogger’s site – Sawdust to Stitches. Corey is adept at snagging garage sale cast-offs and turning them into attractive, unique and practical pieces – like these rolling recycle and trash bins, hidden away in a kitchen-countered cabinet. We may not have all the skills to recreate her genius hideaway, but she offers enough how-to information that we could pass it along to our favorite handyman to copycat.
Look at these ideas from Architectural Digest for covering, camouflaging and reinventing air vents – especially the big return vents that look a little too industrial in today’s modern, contemporary homes. Our favorite is the eco-friendly resin vent cover created to substitute for traditional vent registers.
Perfection in Colliers Hill
Visit the model homes offered by Meritage Homes, Richmond American Homes, and Century Communities in the master-planned community of Colliers Hill for a glimpse of contemporary perfection. The floor plans are plentiful, and the amenities amazing. You’ll find the perfect ranch-style or two-story design — priced from the high $300s in this north-of-Denver neighborhood – one of the fastest-growing in Colorado!
