Ceiling fans are one of those things that I think interior designers choose to ignore.  You very rarely see them in areas other than outdoor living spaces in design magazines and TV shows.  Could you imagine the designers at Million Dollar Decorators adding a ceiling fan to one of their bedrooms?

Southern Living

As far as I’m concerned, the lack of ceiling fans in good bedroom design leaves a lot of “real life” to be desired. I am one of those people who really needs air circulating above me as I’m sleeping.  For my husband and I, having no ceiling fan is a deal breaker in our master bedroom redesign.

Sunday in Bed

We are now facing the question about what color blades our fan should have.  Before we painted the bedroom, the dark blades blended with our beige wall and ceiling color, much like this room.  It looked great.

Urban Grace Interiors

But now that our ceiling is white, it really stands out too much to me.  We will have some dark toned wood in the room, but I’m worried that the dark blades are too much with the ceiling.  It took us a LONG time to find a ceiling fan when we moved into our home, but we fell in love with this fan and its design.  I am really struggling with this decision.

I bought some white blades to switch out, but the blades I bought were bright white, uber plastic-y and were definitely not going to work.  Back to the store they will go.  Perhaps white blades made of better materials will be okay.  I’ve also considered painting the reverse side of our current blades to be an exact match to our ceiling, so that’s an option.

What do you think I should do?  What color are your ceiling and ceiling fan?

One of the small issues that drive me absolutely nutty in an otherwise well put together room is when I can’t get the furniture to push all the way up against the wall.  That big gap is just as ugly as leaving your toilet seats up.

The fact that I can not push this bookcase in Emma’s room up against the wall wears me out.  Perhaps I pay way too much attention to things like this, but it is what it is.  Nearly 100% of the time, this problem is due to those pesky AC plugs.  When plugged into the wall, those plugs and their protected bases stick out almost 2 inches.

I finally decided that enough was enough, and I needed a low profile plug solution.  All it took was a quick trip to Home Depot.

We bought a flat plugged extension cord, and I am now able to push the bookcase nearly all the way back to the baseboard.  What a difference!

You have several different options for low profile solutions in your home.  They are easy to use and make a world of difference.  Here are some of my favorites:

Low Profile Plug and Cable Solutions

1.  Flat Plugged Extension Cord – As shown in my example above, this option is the easiest and quickest way to work with traditional AC plugs.  The profile of the flat plug is less than 1 inch, whereas a traditional AC plug takes up nearly 2 inches when plugged into the wall.  This cord can be purchased at home improvement stores – mine is from Home Depot and cost $9 for a 3 grounded outlet cord.

2.  Triple Cube Swivel Plug – This is a cheap and useful plug when you are dealing with non-grounded plugs (i.e. 2 pronged or flat plugs).  You plug the triple cube into your wall and rotate the 3 non-grounded outlets to point down.  The profile of this plug is 1 inch, so it takes up about an inch of space less than just plugging a traditional AC plug into the wall.  This plug can be purchased at home improvement stores for about $3.

3.  Recessed Outlet – If you are electrically inclined, replacing your standard outlet with a recessed outlet is another option.  Traditionally used for home theaters (like recessing your power cords behind a flat screen TV), this outlet works great behind a piece of furniture.  The recessed portion is almost an inch deep in the above recessed outlet ($8 at Home Depot), but you may be able to find deeper recesses if you look online.

4.  Male to Female Right Angle Adapter – Another cord issue you may have behind a piece of furniture is the annoying coaxial cable.  Your cable signal is greatly effected by how tightly you are able to screw in the cable to the receptacle.  With a right angle adapter, you can screw your coax into the receptacle in such a way so that your can get it tight and there is no pressure on it from trying to push a piece of furniture back to the wall on top of it.  We used this same adapter (purchased for under $2 at Altex) in our bedroom, and we were able to push the dresser where our TV sits about 2 inches closer to the wall.

Do you think any of these options help you keep a low profile behind your furniture?  What other solutions do you use?