No Comments »

Design Dilemma: Hiding Ugly Things

• Tweet

• Tweet

Air-conditioners.  Radiators.  Water pipes. Electrical cords. Even badly-placed electrical outlets. It doesn’t take much to introduce a note of ugliness into an otherwise pristine home. It can be a frustrating problem for design-conscious homeowners who have labored to make their home environment as beautiful as possible.  Yes, you’ve invested in a B & B Italia sofa, but what can you do about all the computer cords behind your desk?

Take heart, because there are some inventive solutions out there to banish ugliness. For instance, can you spot the air-conditioning unit in the living room above? Yep, we missed it too.

Let’s take a look at a few ideas:

AIR CONDITIONERS

Can you spot the interior air conditioner in this Paris apartment by Pascal Grasso Architecture? Neither could we!

LIGHT SWITCHES, THERMOSTATS AND AWKWARD ELECTRICAL OUTLETS

Sometimes, light switches, thermostats and electrical outlets are stuck in strange places. One clever way to address this problem is by creating a gallery wall or some artistic interest that totally distracts from the awkward outlet. Something like this:

Or this:

 

Here the same principle applies. The outlet was wallpapered in the same paper as the wall:

And here’s a mirrored plate that works masterfully at concealing a plate in a mirror:

And in the kitchen below, the radiator is incorporated into a window seat:

Below an air return is cleverly concealed to become just part of the architecture: