Nevada County homeowners know: not every aspect of owning a home is pretty. Besides all of the regular maintenance and upkeep that needs to happen, you have to deal with appliances, electronics, heating and cooling equipment. Although they are necessary, they don’t exactly make for magazine-worthy home decor. But you know what they say in the interior design world—when the going gets tough, the tough get decorating!
Lucky for you, there are numerous ways to disguise the things in your home that bother you. Most of these fixes are simple enough to make you wonder why you didn’t think of them first, cost almost nothing, and are easy enough to install in a few minutes. Here’s a look at some of the sweetest cover up schemes we’ve seen.
Pay No Attention to the AC Behind the Curtain
When you’re sweating it out on a Grass Valley summer day, you don’t mind your AC unit’s unattractive appearance. However, in the winter, it’s clunky appearance embarrasses you a little bit. Luckily, disguising it is easy. You can dress the unit up with short cafe curtains hung on a tension rod over the unit—they’re easy enough to remove when you need to cool yourself unobstructed.
Give Your WiFi Router a Cozy Home
Some routers look unsightly and out-of-place—especially if your style is less than modern—but their boxy shape means that they can be easily disguised. Swing by the library book sale in Nevada City for a cheap hardback book, pull the pages out, and admire your work! A new case for your router! Or pick out a decorative cardboard box from a craft store and cut a small hole in one side. Tuck your router inside and enjoy your WiFi free from the distractions of ugly electronics.
Dress Up Your Outlet Covers
When you’re serious about your decor, every blank surface in your home becomes an opportunity to add a subtle accent or note of color. Switchplate covers make for an easy DIY project—doll them up with patterned fabric, old maps, or the pages you took out of your book for your router cover. Slather them with Mod Podge and voilà! You’ve effectively transformed your outlets into art.
Spiff Up a Scuffed Refrigerator
There’s no way you’re going to toss a perfectly good refrigerator because it’s a little dinged up, right? With stainless steel peel-and-stick appliance paper, you can give your fridge, your dishwasher, or even your stove a quick update, without spending hundreds or thousands for a new model.
Shutter Your Utility Meters
Your meter maid won’t mind this fix! A few bi-folding shutters propped up in front of your utility meters makes your exteriors happier, without sacrificing functionality. When it’s time for a reading, you just fold them right up. Form and function—it’s what great disguises are made of.
Curtail Your Cords
Messy cords that are prone to tangling are the bane of everyone’s existence. It doesn’t matter how professionally you present yourself, a wad of cords sprouting out from behind your desk can definitely make you feel less than put together. You can easily create a cover for those cables with a bedsheet (color of your choice) and a tension cord. That way your space looks put together and you still get to keep all of your electronics.
Stop Hating Your Heating Systems
Not feeling the DIY thing? Snap on a pre-made register cover, radiator cabinet, or baseboard heater cover-up. They’re designed with vents to keep the hot air flowing throughout your home, but they come with sophisticated art decor designs and burnished brass finishes that lend a certain polished patina to even the most underwhelming parts of your home.
For more decorating ideas, head over to our Pinterest page!
