Do you have those design problems in your home that just annoy you? I think one of the worst ones is cords and outlets showing all over the place. If you have a newer home, hopefully your builder got creative with outlet placement. If you live in an older home you may have to get creative on how to hide outlets using smart decor placement.
Take this console table in the hallway. I really don’t want a whole bunch of light switches and outlets showing. Especially if I’m showing a house for sale or taking photos of something. I want to hide the outlets the best I can. I remember I had just remodeled a room and my sister said, “I love everything you did, but there is one thing bothering me. That fire detector just looks out of place.” I had painted our walls Kendall Charcoal and the ceiling was white. However, the fire detector was a very yellowish cream color. Now it was already there from the previous owner and the ceilings are 24′, but it’s something she clearly noticed. So people do notice out of place things, they just might not say anything.
Look at these pictures. This decor is still nice, but you can see everything the builder did. Now of course it is important to have a light switch at the top of the staircase for that foyer. Sometimes you can’t get around it so that’s where your smart decorating comes in. Watch how I made small changes so you couldn’t see the outlet or the light switch.
I like this option a lot better. It hides all the blemishes that I want to hide and the outlets and switches are still very accessible to me if I need to get to them. It’s practical and pretty. All I did was use some height and some smart decorating to solve this problem that annoyed me. Think about what annoys you in your house and what ways you can disguise it with small decor changes.
For those of you that might be building a new home, there are some really neat things out there in terms of outlets. I love the new pop up outlets in counters of new homes. They are flush and you push them and they pop up out of the counter. They are also getting so creative with the outlet placement. I’ve seen them in drawers in the bathroom for your curling irons and blow dryers which is brilliant. Also, in the kitchen, I’ve seen several outlets in the bottom of cabinets so they are hidden. They are also putting them in the pantry so you can put your toaster and coffee pots in the pantry instead of cluttering your counters. Talk to your builder about outlet placement and really think about where you want to put things during the building process. It just takes a little planning.
I hope this simple demonstration gave you some motivation to go and fix things that are annoying you in your own home. A couple simple changes fixed my design problem and I’m much happier with the result. Good luck guys.
Yours Truly,
Jenn
