You can't beat the heat without them, but they're the ugly stepsister of home products.Mara, the blogger behind Design Evolving, knew she'd need easy access to her wall-mounted AC in the summer, but hoped to hide that unsightly sucker the other nine months of the year. IKEA's popular bookcase turned out be just the right size to cover the unit, while offering room for extra shelving, too. Dara cut a hole in the back of the piece large enough to fit her AC, and fashioned cabinet doors to cover it when not in use.Sure, you lose a bit of the elegance and gain a possible head-bumping problem when the doors are open (a curtain or accordion-style door might have been another option), but it's a small price to pay for a lovelier look whenever you're not blasting cold air.Here's the final result: Get Mara's instructions to recreate this project at Design Evolving.TELL US: What do you think of this solution?More Home Design Inspiration:• 10 Sneaky Ways to Hide Household Eyesores• A Stylish Trick for Decluttering a Medicine Cabinet• 9 Different Ideas for Floating Shelves

11 Beautiful Blogger Home Tours That Have Us Excited for Fall This Insanely Extravagant Dorm Room Is Nicer Than Your Bedroom 35+ Inspiring Living Room Ideas 20 Bathroom Design Ideas and Decor Inspiration Ellen Pompeo's Secrets to a Cozy L.A. Home 70+ Bedroom Ideas and Decor Inspirationair conditioner and heater in one unit 35 Gorgeous Kitchen Ideas You'll Want to Stealcost of whole house air conditioning unit This Gorgeous Farmhouse Will Make You Want to Escape to the Countrysidehow much are 3 ton ac units 11 Adorable Ideas for a Gender Neutral Nursery This Beautiful New Jersey Hideaway Is the Beach House of Your DreamsHiding the Monstrously Ugly AC Unit? I love my new apartment but hate its ugly airconditioning units.

I like that we don't have to block our windows with air conditioners, but the built-in units are hard on the eyes. Aside from throwing a blanket over them when they're not in use, do you have any ideas for concealing these monstrosities? Personally, we find the tight little covers that you can get at the hardware store pretty good. They are usually off-white and generally make the machine fade away into the wall. We think that making the machine disappear is better than trying to "decorate" it, but some may disagree. Here's a funky solution from ATChicago: Air Conditioner Cover by Leslie Fry. In your case, however, you also should do a little fixing up of the enclosure so that it looks a little better all the time. We would apply some thin Luon tight around the machine and paint everything to match the wall. While the AC is not glamourous, we'd say the main problem you are combatting is a visually busy and not tidy surrounding.27 Brilliant Ways Help You Get Rid Of The Eyesores at Home

1. THE COLOR WRAP Most window A/Cs have slats or sections of bare plastic that can be covered with wrapping, scrapbook, or printed paper. Use spray mount or double-sided tape. Stick on, and voilà! Kate’s Paperie has lots of paper choices for under $5 (212-941-9816). 2. THE CUSTOM CABINET Environmental therapist Matthew Tudor-Jackson designed a lacquered ash cabinet that hides his A/C and all the cords and cables attached to other living-room electronics. Two slatted doors let cool air out. Unless you’re an ace carpenter, hire Red Hook’s GN Woodwork (718-643-6968) for similar results. Prop stylist Lauren Shields made a short café curtain that sits a third of the way up the window just high enough to cover the A/C. She pulls it aside when the unit is on. For no-sew curtains, try Ikea (718-246-4532). 4. THE OBJET D’ART Designer Jayne Michaels and furniture dealer Larry Weinberg used vintage holed tiles and an iron frame to create a sculpture that stands on a table before the window.

All you need: a meshlike material that’s nice to look at and lets air through. 5. THE WALL RELIEF Artist Leslie Fry designed a bas-relief sculpture to fit over her wall-unit A/C. She built a wooden frame, then affixed a cover made from plastic forms found in cookie boxes. Prince Lumber Co. can cut wood to spec (212-777-1150). Photo-Form can make bas-relief tiles from any digital photo (from $300; 888-744-3676). Paul Ryan: Free Lunches Make Kids Soulless [Updated] How Oscar Pistorius Might Avoid Prison The Best of Twitter Interrupting Cameron’s Phone Call With Obama After Newsweek Reveal, Man Insists He Isn’t Bitcoin’s Creator The Plot From Solitary Mike Lee’s Tax-Reform Plan Does, in Fact, Suck The Hijacking of Satoshi Nakamoto Broke Law Firm Dewey & LeBoeuf Was Also Fraudulent, Prosecutors Say Only 39 Percent of New Yorkers Approve of This Bill de Blasio Character Now Bro Who Never Worked at Goldman Sachs Deemed Unqualified to Write Goldman Sachs Elevator Book

How Not to Talk to Your Kids Justin Davidson: How Can the Vienna Philharmonic Change Without Changing? Why You Truly Never Leave High School Space of the Week: A Firehouse, Revisited How I Got Over My Al Gore-a-phobia By Noon, These Two Will Have Brought In Another Half a Million More Dollars New York Wedding Guide - Makeup Artists DirectoryDon’t want to display your cords, switches or your pet’s bowls where everyone can see them? Then hide then away. Traditional storage spaces usually mean that you’ll have a rather unpractical décor so we propose a few different ideas you might like. Be creative and hide all these things and more in plain sight.Why hide your cables and cords when you can turn them into wall art? Instead of trying to make them disappear, display them on your walls. Be creative and you’ll find a way to perfectly integrate them in the décor.As you all know, cable storage is a problem we all struggle with. But there are many solutions for it.

For example, take a cardboard box, cut out two canals on the sides and hide the cables inside. It’s better than have them all tangled up under the desk.You can use empty toilet paper rolls to organize and store cords. To make them more appealing, you can decorate them with washi tape.Here’s another way in which a box can help you hide the cables. Punch out holes lengthwise on one side of the box and you’ll be able to let the cords go through them and remain organized.You can also hide them in a drawer. It’s a great idea for spaces such as the home office or the living room where you want to keep a clean and organized look.If you’d rather not hide the cables in drawers or boxes, there’s a way in which you can make them look less ugly. Transform them into power lines for miniature electrical towers.When all the drawers and doors are closed in this room, the space seems almost empty. But behind this austere décor hide a variety of secret storage compartments, most of them hidden inside this raised platform.

Unless you really like how your router looks like, you don’t want it looking unaesthetic in the corner of your living room or in your home office. So hide it in a box. It’s a very simple solution.You could also make a book cover disguise for the router. Take an old book or a book with a cover you really like and cut out the pages inside it. Then use the cover to disguise the router.A printer takes up lots of space if you put it on the desk and it’s not exactly very good-looking to be worth displaying. So hide it in one of the drawers from your desk.The garage door opener is not an element anyone is proud to display on the wall. A framed photo or something similar would look much better. But you can be clever and hide the switch behind a frame.The vent is one of those things you’d gladly remove from your home but can’t. A compromise would be to make it look less obvious and to disguise it somehow. This is actually a great idea.One way of disguising or hiding things like the thermostat or the outlets is to include them in a mosaic of framed photos or artwork displayed on the wall.

Another solution is to place a painting over the thermostat. You’ll know it’s there but everyone else will only see the painting.To make this system user-friendly so you can easily reach the thermostat whenever needed, you’ll have to find a suitable way to hang the painting on the wall. This system seems perfect.Don’t want the AC ruining your beautiful décor? Then hide it with a cover. Make a frame using wood and, to also make it functional, paint it with chalkboard paint. Then you can use it as a message board.In case your home is lacking storage space but has a staircase, we have a wonderful idea: you can turn the stairs into storage spaces. Each one can be a pull-out drawer.Whether you have a staircase or just a step or two to help you connect the levels in your home, you can use this opportunity to add some storage space for things like personal items, books and all sorts of other things.You love your pet but don’t want the food and water bowls being in the way? Hide them in a drawer.