Darzy Great ideas! Thank you for sharing. I particularly like the under the cabinet hidden plug(s). And, the recessed television and speakers. Heck..they're all great ideas!

casarona Wall mounted charging station for my iPad? Where can I buy one of those???

Sigrid Electrical plugs make so much more sense than a wall-mounted iPad charging system. The minute Apple changes the connector --- or worse yet, the battery specs, you've got an ugly adaptor or a wall-mounted piece of useless junk.

cyqi The built in plugs under the cabinet is great! What about completely built into the wall cabinet facing down?

bumble67 This is an excellent subject! I loathe white switch plate covers that stand out from the wall, they are easy enough to blend in but a huge problem are the electricians who don't consult and put the switches and plugs where they think they should go. They end up slightly off centre or the forget to group switches. One electrician placed our switches so close to the edge of the wall we could use proper door frame moulding and had to size it down to accommodate a light switch! This is all very important to know if you are building or renovating since you have control over where they go as opposed to a developed home where you have to live with it.

Paintings by Kirsten Elizabeth Gilmore hinged Paintings can cover alarm boxes. Here's a pinterest image of that: http://pinterest.com/pin/157063105724385370/

I also had a customer who wanted to cover a thermostat with a hinged, 3" deep painting, but I would think totally enclosing a thermostat might mess up temperature readings. What do you think?
Here's an image of that idea: http://pinterest.com/pin/129478558008171939/

Paintings by Kirsten Elizabeth Gilmore Please, visit my blog to see creative examples of "Paintings as creative camouflage decor" http://paintingsbykirstenelizabethgilmore.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-do-i-cover-this-thing-on-my-wall.html

Becky Harris I wish whomever had put in my thermostats had read this ideabook first. Not only are they in conspicuous places on both walls and looking ugly, they are in stupid places for gauging heat - the one downstairs is right in the line of a cold blast of air from the front door, the one upstairs enjoys the heat in the hallway and gets a false sense of warmth while I freeze in my room.

thg1750 Glad I'm not the only one bothered by "gizmo blemishes." I thought I was just weird! (Or maybe we all are?) Anyway, banish away, I say.

Brenda Greer Great ideas. Unfortunately for us, we are building in an adult community in Fl. The build everything "cookie cutter" to keep prices down. We are very limited as to any changes. I really like the under cabinet and iPad plug in areas.

janiceandjohn There are so many considerations to the "blemishes" that we just don't think about until we're faced with a new project. We are completing construction on our new home, and I had a terrible time finding the right covers for our outlets and switches in the kitchen. We have black granite tile countertops with one inch slate on the back splash...both have black grout. I chose black outlets and switches. Should have been simple, eh? Not so. It was almost impossible to find an outlet cover in black that would house a square outlet (all GFCI's are square) with a standard toggle switch. Another combination was a GFC! outlet (square) "ganged" together with a standard outlet (rounded corners), and right next to that was a single toggle switch. I ended up having to replace the standard round cornered outlet ($2) with another GFCI ($10) and the electrician had to change the way it was wired. Then I had to order outlet plates online. The plastic (or nylon) ones were way overpriced, so I upgraded to a nice hammered metal design....6 covers for $110....ouch! I do love them, and they will last forever, but it was certainly a shock!

Some of these things are mandated by code, so you have little choice in their placement. When I was a child, I remember wide baseboards in all the rooms and the electrical outlets were placed in the baseboard...down low...out of sight. Now, they mar your walls because they have to be placed 14" or more above the floor. If they are too high, they limit furniture placement against the wall. They also have to start no more than 6 feet to the right of the entry door and continue around the walls no less than 12 feet apart, meaning sometimes they are totally useless, but "up to code." Arghhh! I have one inside my coat closet!

Also, thermostats must be placed where they will read the room temperature correctly for efficient heating, so sometimes that's not the most attractive place. Now, don't even get me started on light fixtures and bulbs................LOL

agiesbrecht For me, the big thing would be flexibility. For a while I was living in a rented house that was getting close to 100 years old, and one of the bedrooms only had one outlet. Not one pair of outlets - ONE OUTLET. There was much wrangling of extension cords. Yet if the "wireless charging" technology ever gets off the ground, the need for scads of outlets will disappear. It can't be that impossible to design a house that makes it easy (or less headache-inducing) to add and remove wiring and various technological setups, can it?

Bud Dietrich, AIA Hi All - Yes, the code really does a lot to dictate where things have to go. Of course, if you think of the code as a starting point you'll be able to come up with solutions that really work and don't make your walls all pock marked.

the gudhouse company In a recent project we "borrowed" an idea from the 100 year old homes in the neighborhood. Our client loved the tall baseboards in the older homes. The 1x6 base we used was a perfect hiding place when the outlets were placed horizontal instead of vertical. The hiding place was so successful that our client has told us that he has had to point them out to a confused service person more than once! (If you can't find the outlet in this picture it is on the lower right side.)
As for the stat on the left side, I'll have to send them this link and suggest a Nest.

beckmathis I was really excited to read this but became a little but disappointed. I was hoping for ideas on how to disguise already placed "gizmos", specifically an obnoxious ADT alarm panel. No one told me that the wireless systems demand that the control panel set directly above the electrical outlet- which just happens to be in the middle if my entry foyer wall!

nap_sd All great ideas. I am a commercial interior designer and seem to spend way too much time explaining to the contractors and actual workers in the field exactly WHY the thermostat or receptacle has to be moved to match what our drawings show; it was put there for a reason! This os one of my pet peeves.

cyqi Hi, beckmathis, I used to have the electric switch panel in the middle of my foyer wall. I bought a picture with deep box frame from IKEA (

Bud Dietrich, AIA @nap_sd - keep fighting the good fight

Paintings by Kirsten Elizabeth Gilmore beckmathis, my blog article is about. an idea similar to what cyqi described. I found images and DIY articles of people who either hung deep canvases or who started with a deep frame then hinged a painting onto it so that the painting is the door to your alarm system. Hope this is helpful for you. :)

http://paintingsbykirstenelizabethgilmore.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-do-i-cover-this-thing-on-my-wall.html

keeyan Power strips, the way to go. I shall be getting them from Eugiq (http://www.eubiq.com/ ) for kitchen home office and AV entertainment area.

Georgia Blum I think I'm going to try that trick of painting an outlet to camoflage in the backsplash. If I mess it up I can just buy a new one right? I should pick paint that won't get scratched from the plugs...maybe enamel paint or something like that? Any tips?

Bud Dietrich, AIA @Georgia Blum - I'm not sure what type of paint to use though an enamel should do it. Maybe someone else can weigh in or you can ask the question of the designer that did the camouflage.

More Than Murals I clean the outlet cover with denatured alcohol to remove any greasy residue, then I prime it w/ a bonding primer like XIM. I texture & glaze the cover to match the tile, then clear coat w/ a good protective top coat.

Georgia Blum Bud Deitrich and More than Murals: Thank you! What exactly do you use to "texture and glaze" the cover? My backsplash is shiny glass tiles. And just to make sure, you have to remove the cover first right? That would make it harder to match up the pattern perfectly but you don't want to paint it right on do you?

More Than Murals I finish the plates in place. I tape & paper the tile around the outlet cover to prevent the XIM overspray from getting on the tile. My products vary depending on the tile. I usually use Proceeds’ smooth absorbent texture cream & Proceeds’ glazing medium both mixed w/ colorants. Once I have my colors right, I scale my tape back to a 1 1/2" so I can see the tiles & grout lines. If the grout lines are visible I stipple the entire plate w/ a grout color after priming, then use 1/8" or 1/4" tape to mask off the grout lines. If you have glossy tiles, Proceeds’ sister product line Golden (art stores-Jerry's Artorama) has a self leveling gel that is thick, high gloss, & dries fairly quickly. I used this high gloss gel to match glass tiles on a shower ceiling to help hide the recessed light. Unfortunately I'm not finding any pics of it. The client lives about 5 minutes away. I'll see if I can take some & post them later.

saml9 Ugly outlets are a reality - here is a pretty funny blog highlighting them.... www.uglyoutlet.com

Bud Dietrich, AIA @saml9 - thanks for sharing www.uglyoutlet.com - really funny and oh so sad!

Georgia Blum More than Murals- Thank you so very much!!! I've never heard of Artorama, so we maybe we don't have it in Canada. That's OK, I know just where to look around here. This is going to be fun!

karelina Great ideas! I wish you talked more about camouflage. Perhaps another article? The camouflaged switchplate is wonderful. I can't really redo my 1900 house so more ideas on how to hide vents and plates would be great!

Albert Angulo Ok guys these are all easy to solve items.You want to get rid of a bank of switches no problem, this is basic lighting control 101. Find your local Audio Video Integrator that is certified in lighting control and instead of a bank of six switches you can do it all from a single gang ( only one location) device and still control every thing independently.The more common manufactures of lighting control would be Lutron, Crestron, Vantage and Control4 there are many others but those are the ones I like to install.
Janiceandjohn As far as outlets go you can use a product called Trufig and make those out let's appear to disappear . We do entire homes with this platform.
Alarm panels can go anywhere in the home especially closets. You can now use your smart phones and iPads to control your alarm using Total Connect.

Televisions can be recessed but you have to allow some ventilation for cooling otherwise you can quickly "cook" your TV as as you just turned it into an oven.

Speakers can absolutely be recessed and can be trim less just like recessed lights are trim less. Look up Sonance they wrote the book on this category. They even make speakers that hide inside your landscape! We install lots of those in south Florida.
We even have what is known as invisable speakers that you install in the wall then you put joint compound on them and they become the wall. You can paint them or wall paper over them completely! No one will ever know they are ther untill you turn them on. Way cool!

Kirsten you can't cover a thermostat as it has to measure ambient air temperature placing it in a painting would be insulating it and your A/C would not operate correctly, however.
Thermostat's can be relocated into any closet out of site out of mind. You have to use one that has a connection for a remote temperature sensor! It's about the size of a quarter and can be completely painted or wall papered etc. Again if you use a smart thermostat this can be controlled through a smart phone, tablet or handheld remote.

You can use paintings to hide TV's and similar a manufacturer we use often is Future Automations there painting mechanisms will blow your mind.

As far as the iPad charging comment you were incorrect Sigrid as the charging device stays the same , however as the form factors change the sleeve that you see the woman's hands will change also to accommodate the new form factors. I have already updated many of our projects as the the iDevices have changed. So no worries there. Launch Port makes those.

THG1750 you can't elimate these item from your house but you can find very creative ways to hide these things in your home. I have turned this concept into a career. My company Linear Control in Miami specializes in doing all of these and yes I have all of this on display.