How to Hide Pesky Lamp Cords….Let me preface this by disclaiming I am in NO WAY an authority on this subject, so follow my lead at your own risk! (That pretty much applies to everything I do and say on this blog!) Hiding the cords in my Living Room is kind of a two-parter….and requires a split cord extension and some tiny, clear Command hooks. (Update: Now Command makes clear hooks with clear sticky tabs, instead of white tabs! Can’t wait to update my project with them.)
Our home has a slab foundation, which means we sit on a block of concrete (and according to Mr. Sugarplum, also an ant hill).
So there are no outlets or vents in the floor, only the walls and
ceilings. The furniture in this room floats in the middle, away from the
walls and subsequent outlets. And to make things even more difficult,
there is only one accessible outlet.
I’ll use this old room pic for a visual (since it’s all I’ve got right now).
The split extension is plugged in at the outlet behind the chair, and
runs under the rug. The two female ends of the cord are under the couch,
but not under the rug, where each lamp behind the sofa is plugged in.
I know running a cord under the rug puts some of you in panic mode. But I was told as long as you use a new cord (which is required to meet strict safety guidelines), and the connecting parts aren’t covered, it is safe.You decide what feels right for you. (Although I do recall you plugging 87 strands of lights on your Christmas tree this year!)
And since the furniture and rug are pulled away from the wall (and outlet),
we were left with 18-inches of exposed cord. I was more concerned about
someone tripping over them in a wild game of Nerf Darts than
aesthetics, so we covered the exposed cords with flesh colored brown duct tape.
Not
the prettiest, but holds the cords firmly in place while giving them a
bit of camouflage. Now, the reason for the split extension is for Part
Deux of hiding the pesky cords. Here we have lovely new lamps, but all
we see are dangling wires.
We
can disguise that by threading the cord through a series of Command
hooks placed along the back of the table, and down the leg. Make sure
your hooks are smaller than the table legs so they don’t poke out.
Reverse the direction of each hook so the cord stays in place.
Most
lamps don’t have cords long enough to wrap down the table and over to a
center outlet, so this is where the split extension comes in. Each of
the two female ends of the extension cord (eeeew) is just under the sofa near the male end of each lamp cord.
Make sense? I’ve confused myself and I sort of
know what I’m talking about, so hopefully you’re still with me.
Concealing the cords completely only happens in magazines, but this is
pretty good for real life.
Same situation on the side table…the cord is hogging all the attention.
Attach the Command hooks (the really tiny clear ones are hard to find, but worth the search) along the table leg and thread the lamp cord through.
And bye-bye attention hog!
If
your home is built on a pier-and-beam, floor outlets can be installed
fairly reasonably and you can skip all this hub-bub! Do you have any
brilliant ideas for disguising cords? Remember, I’m not an electrician, I
just play one online.