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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

RAST to the Rescue: Effectively Hiding the Cable Clutter

IKEA Rast nightstand to hide cables

Materials: RAST nightstand, BEHANDLA wood treatment oil, a piece of BOMULL fabric

Description:
My girlfriend and I were looking for a cheap and effective way to hide the cables of the phone and networking equipment in the living room. The RAST nightstand was just the right size to hold these items but we wanted it in a different color to match our living room as well as a front cover to hide the ugly cables.



IKEA Rast nightstand to hide cables
IKEA Rast nightstand for cable management
IKEA Rast nightstand for cable management

The RAST nightstand was given the BEHANDLA wood treatment oil to get a dark brown finish which was closer to the color of the LEKSVIK series furniture. It took two or three coats for the wood to get a solid dark brown tone. We used a simple brush to apply the oil, but a paint roller should work as well.

Finally, for the cover, we attached a double folded sheet of BOMULL canvas with thumbtacks to the inner frame of the RAST. Sitting in front of the power and phone outlets, it perfectly keeps all that clutter out of sight. It even houses a small home server while providing maximum woman acceptance factor. Oh well, and some dust bunnies.

IKEA Rast nightstand for cable management

See more of the Rast cable hideaway.

~ Vornoff

8 comments:

  1. The router doesn't send through the fabric? It would be fantastic if you could keep that out of sight too

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  2. Hmm we actually never thought of putting the router beneath. Gonna try and see if it still works there. Thanks for recommending :)

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  3. Amazing!!! looks so good!

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  4. Looks nice. One thing you could've done/could still do, is build a very, very simple wood frame just a fraction smaller than the cabinet opening. Then stretch the fabric/canvas over it, stapling to the back of the frame (a good way to stretch it evenly is to start with a staple in the middle of each side, making a diamond pattern, then working your way around). The little bit of added width from the fabric would help it fit snugly in the opening, and would be easily removable. This would overcome the irregularities that come from the thumbtack method. :)

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  5. very nice! high woman acceptance factor here!

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  6. Great idea!!

    I'm going to do this on a similar cabinet to save the expense of buying doors..

    However, instead of thumbtacks, I'm going to use stick on velcro on the timber, & sew on velcro on the fabric. That way it's easy to wash the fabric, or even change it for different seasons.

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  7. you should better use a wooden frame instead of thumbtacks

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  8. agreed with first comment, cleaner is better, and the internets go through cloth. :D Going to do this will all my cords underneath my tv now. Really great idea, thanks!

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