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by Keerthi Naidu
6 months ago in Design Dilemma
Wires Galore
How do people conceal wires for cable boxes, DVD players, etc with a wall mounted TV? I'm considering adding a shelf at the top of the wainscoting but even still, the wires will show from the TV to the shelf...any ideas? I'd be so grateful! It's such an eyesore right now!
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punkey90 Hire an electrician. They can run all the wires easily inside the wall usually, shouldn't take over a couple of hours to complete. Alternately, place a tall cabinet or bookcase under the tv, and use a plant or vase to conceal the wires between the cabinet and tv. In our bedroom I didn't want to go to the expense of the electrican, so we have a chest of drawers under the tv. We have a jewelry box in the center, then I pulled all the wires to 1 side and have them coming down behind a basket of fake grass.
6 months ago ·
eztia Put a bookcase under the television and put the wires and cable box in a bin on one of the shelves.
6 months ago · ·
Shahina You can build a long box type panel ( matching with your wall style ) from your TV to floor or any furniture you want to keep below the TV. Pass your wires through this panel. This will hide unwanted wires , electrician will do the work perfectly !
6 months ago ·
Keerthi Naidu These are great ideas - thank you! I think ideally I'd like to run the wires through the wall but I don't know how costly/difficult that will be.
6 months ago ·
punkey90 It's usually not difficult at all to run the wires in the wall depending on what's inside. What's on the other side of the wall? Plumbing pipes etc. can sometimes make it tough, but my electrician can work miracles & run wires where I thought it would be impossible. Depending on your relationship with an electrician, I would think you would be able to get it done under $100.
6 months ago · ·
Keerthi Naidu Yeah that's the thing, it's a bathroom on the other side so I don't think there's much space and I'm not sure how it works with plumbing and such. Hmm....but I'll definitely look into hiring one!
6 months ago ·
tatts Bring the TV down. A lot. That TV is far too high for optimal viewing while seated. You should be looking straight ahead, not up, when watching TV. Then you could use Eztia's idea--put a small cabinet there under the TV (which would also allow for better speakers and other home theater items.
6 months ago ·
Keerthi Naidu It's actually in a bedroom and the bed sits fairly high so I don't know that I need to bring the TV down too much but I think having some sort of storage option is a really good idea. And would be super useful. Thanks!
6 months ago ·
ct design studio Having everything run through the wall would be ideal but I don't think the quote of $100 is accurate. Not in my neck of the woods anyways! For now pick up a kit like this and paint it the wall color.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=100657476&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&MERCH=REC%2d%5f%2dproduct%2d6%2d%5f%2dcord%3bconcealing%3bstrips%3b100669770%2d%5f%2d100657476%2d%5f%2dN
6 months ago · ·
ct design studio I mean run the kit down to the top of a storage piece to stash the boxes.
6 months ago ·
punkey90 yeah, sorry the $100 figure would probably be hard to get unless you have an electrical connection (hee-hee) . I'm kind of buddies with my electrician, and can get a deal. But, that being said, that would be a fair price in the case of an empty wall, they could knock it out in 30 minutes if there was power close by. But I know fair often has no bearing in the real world with contractors. And in your case if there's lots of issues with plumbing, etc. it could get crazy fast.
6 months ago ·
Keerthi Naidu Ok, I think first step is figuring out how hard it would be to run the wires through the wall, if not some sort of furniture piece will have to do. Thanks so much for your help, everyone!
6 months ago ·
punkey90 thought I'd take a quick pic of how it looks in our bedroom. the wires are secured to the back of the tv on the left side, and are coming down behind the plant. you don't notice them unless you are really looking around for them.
6 months ago · ·
Darzy For about $5 at Home Deport or Lowes, you can get a skinny flat strip you sticky tape to the wall and line up the cords inside. The 4" flat strip is paintable...so you paint it the color of the wall to make the cords "disappear". You obviously can see the strip looking closely, but looks a lot better than the wires showing. I have this in my bedroom for a large tv. The strip is on the wall and the lower part is hidden by my dresser so you only see about 6" of the strip also.
6 months ago · ·
Shahina Darzy, you have an excellent idea !
6 months ago · ·
Darzy thx!
6 months ago ·
judyg This is the best. Install, paint your wall color, hang the t v on it, all wires go behind the piece and there are shelves to hold whatever. A media miracle :>)
http://www.dwr.com/product/muro-media-storage-unfinished.do?sortby=ourPicks
6 months ago ·
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