It might be hard to imagine, but there was a time when electricity was a novelty, and no one had power buzzing through their walls. Everyone alive today was born into an electrified world, and most of us take for granted that we can operate a wide range of electric gadgets just by plugging something in and pressing a button.
Of course, electricity comes with a price. There’s the literal price in the form of the utility bill that shows up every month. There’s also the non-zero chance of an electrical fire and the risk of electrocuting yourself when you decide to DIY some wiring in your house. But there’s one more price to be paid: The distracting presence of power outlets and their cover plates. Chances are the outlets in your home are smack in the middle of walls and are covered by ugly plastic plates that draw the eye, ruin the symmetry of your interior design, and collect dust and dirt.
Take heart, though. If you suddenly realize that the look and feel of your house is affected by the appearance of your power outlets, you can hide them in a wide variety of ways.
Code requirements
Keep in mind that your local area has a building code based on the National Electrical Code that dictates how many outlets are required in different rooms (usually depending on their size and the length of the walls) and what kind of outlets are required (damp areas in the kitchen and bathrooms usually require GFCI outlets, which have built-in circuit breakers). That means you probably can’t (legally) simply remove outlets from your walls if you don’t need them and don’t want them. If in doubt, check with a licensed electrician. You’re also almost certainly legally prevented from “burying” a hot outlet in your wall, so if you’re tempted to hide your outlets by putting drywall over them, think again.
So, you’re likely stuck with your outlets. How do you at least make them less obvious?
Move to the floor
One trick is to move your outlet to the floor. While a floor outlet might be just as visible as a wall outlet, this will move it out of the line of sight, allowing you to have clean, unbroken walls. It also offers the advantage of not having power plugs snaking everywhere, as you can run them along the bottoms of walls or keep them tightly wound near the appliances they connect.
Pop up from counters
Another option for hiding electrical outlets is to change them over to pop-up outlets hidden in kitchen and bathroom counters or other pieces of furniture. There are a lot of options for different looks and different installations, but keep in mind that buying one off the shelf and having it installed in a kitchen countertop may not be exactly hidden—their covers might not exactly match. For a more seamless (and more expensive) look, you can look into something like the S-Box outlet, which uses the same material as your counters to hide itself away.
Put in (or under) a cabinet
One great way of hiding an outlet is to move it inside a cabinet. You should check with your local building code, but generally this is perfectly okay as long you follow all the normal electrical code requirements. One thing to consider is that many local building codes require that the minimum required outlets in kitchens and bathrooms be “accessible,” and an outlet inside a cabinet might not count towards that minimum.
If that won’t work, you could also add a series of outlets under your cabinets or under the countertop using a track system.
Matching cover
If moving the outlets isn’t an option for you, your next option would be to camouflage them. There are several different ways to do this, ranging from cheap and simple to expensive and sophisticated:
Paintable plates. The cheapest thing to do, especially if the outlets are on a painted wall, is to buy paintable outlet plates and paint them to match. While still visible, this will go a long way toward hiding them in plain sight. You can also add matching wallpaper to your outlet covers to make them vanish into the surrounding wall.
Outlet covers. An option for tiled walls is a plate cover that can be matched to your existing backsplash or wall color or design, like the Simplicover. All you need is a sample of the tile used that you can cut into shape. A slightly more elegant solution is offered by companies like Trufig, Bocci, and Designmod, allowing you to recess the outlet and then place a flush covering over them, making them nearly invisible. Recessed outlets might require you to hire a professional to adjust your existing setup, however.
Accessorize
The simplest (and by far the cheapest) solution? Hide those outlets behind stuff. A side table next to the couch or bed, a vase or cookie jar on a kitchen counter, a clock or tablet on a stand in the bathroom can be placed strategically to hide an outlet. After all, out of sight, out of mind, and if you can’t see the outlet, does it matter that you didn’t spend a weekend and some money moving it out of the way?