I hung a plant on my wall, y’all.
Okay, let me back up. I have a good reason.
Behind that plant and poster is a huge eye sore – the thermostat and carbon monoxide detector for the second level of the house. Granted, they are vital to our home, but their big whiteness on my wall just stared at me every day. Taunting me. Laughing at me. Saying, “You can’t get me. Nah nah nah nah boo boo.”
Oh, thermostat and carbon monoxide detector. You have met your match.
I knew that I couldn’t do anything too crazy to them. They both need a good amount of airflow around them to do their jobs properly. So, anything I used had to stand away from the wall. I considered a piece of furniture, but the hallway is only 36 inches wide which didn’t leave enough space. So, it had to be something that hung on the wall…and I came up with a plan.
I ran to Ikea (which is 15 minutes from my house – jealous?) and grabbed a few things to see what would I could work into my evil plan. I first picked up a Dignitet curtain wire to string across the wall and a set of Riktig hooks (don’t you love Ikea product names?) to hang some things from the wire.
I installed the wire twice. The first time was in the wrong place and I had to spackle and repaint that part of the wall – so annoying. But, a part of DIY, right?
Then, I found a poster that I liked. I cut it down to a smaller size and mounted it to a piece of foam core like I did my glittered vintage travel poster. I also hung a Riskorn hanging planter holding one of my favorite plants to neglect. I added a white garden gnome plant pick I bought at Target last year and a disco ball on a piece of twine that my friend Nester sent to me.
And y’all. I am SO happy that I did this. Now when I look at that wall, I only see fun things that make me smile. No more hideous thermostat and carbon monoxide detectors in sight. And the cool thing is that they still have plenty of room for airflow.
Oh, and for those of you who like to see “real” pictures on blogs, check out all the Legos and puzzles and books on the floor in the playroom. Real people with real kids live here.
If you are looking for other ways to hide a thermostat, try checking out these pins:
- Blend it into a gallery wall
- Put a shelf underneath it and lean a framed photo over it
- Hide it behind a screen or a set of old doors
If you have dark walls, does your thermostat bother you? Does it taunt you like mine did to me?
P.S. Did you notice that my yellow wall is green now?
Awesome idea and looks pretty!
Thanks so much, Julia!
I’m wondering if that plant being so close to the carbon monoxide detector will decrease its accuracy.
Does that type of plant filter carbon monoxide out of the air around it? I don’t know if all plants do that. That plant may make the air around the detector cleaner than the overall air in the house. Maybe I’m paranoid, but it’s something to think about.
No worries on that, Roxanne! Plants use Carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, not carbon monoxide. It’s a different chemical compound all together. 🙂
Lots of plants filter carbon monoxide (and other noxious gases). That’s what makes them such awesome housemates.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6717376_house-plants-carbon-monoxide.html
That article specifically mentions snake plants as one of the most effective at filtering carbon monoxide.
I still don’t know if putting a carbon monoxide filtering plant near a carbon monoxide detector will affect it’s reliability. I’m sure your house has several CO detectors, so if there ever was that much CO it would get detected long before there is a problem.
Thanks for looking into it further, Roxanne! I’ve read the NASA study that all of these eHow articles reference, and there’s actually no mention of CO…and that the studies were performed in closed container conditions, which makes the study pretty much irrelevant for household use.
BUT, I do agree that everyone has to make their own decision about what feels safe to them. Tom and I are self-proclaimed science nerds and feel completely comfortable with its location, but I wouldn’t want someone to do what I did if it makes them feel uncomfortable.
Thanks again!
Looks great!
Here’s another clever idea a friend of mine came up with for hiding his thermostat and circuit panel.
http://safaffect.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/clever-concealers/
Nice! Does he have trouble with the airflow around it?
No, it seems to work well. I suppose as long as the mask/artifact chosen has enough or large enough holes, it should be just fine.
Great idea, doesn’t look like your are deliberately trying to hide anything either.
Thanks, Adam!
Hey! So that’s my ultimate favorite ikea planter. And this idea is crazy clever. You mentioned mounting your poster to foam core. I tried this recently for a tryptic and it was an epic disaster. Tips? (Did you post about it?)
Thanks!!!
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte! I’ve referenced it, but I haven’t posted it. I used a big glue stick and put glue all over the foam core. Then, I laid the poster down and smoothed it all out. When it dried, I used a straight edge and an Xacto knife to trim it to the size I wanted it to be.
That planter is awesome. I’m so glad that I found it!
I LOVE this!!! And you are my hero right now because I have been staring at the instruction for my curtain wire that I am hanging in my office and for the life of me I can’t figure it out. I would say I’m pretty good at putting IKEA products together by now but this one has officially stumped me 🙂 How the heck did you do it??? Love the trees print too and the way you hung the plant on the wall!
Summer, that thing nearly had me in tears. And when I realized that I wanted to move it up – which meant taking it apart and redoing it? I almost hit things.
But, you attach it to the bracket with the set screws on one side. Then, you attach it to the other side with the set screws, making sure both of the long rod has about 5/8″ clearance on either side. Then, you stick the hex wrench into the long tube and twist clockwise until the wire tightens. Does that make sense? The directions were crazy to me, but once I started working with it, I was able to figure it out.
You rock! Thanks so much! I’m going to try it again this weekend 🙂 Hopefully I can muster up the brain power 🙂
Thanks again!
I used this Ikea kit for curtains a few houses ago and have kept the clips and reused them over and over again. I laughed when I saw this because last night I just used these clips, some heavy duty staples that I didn’t put in all the way, and a bunch of art that I didn’t want to frame but wanted to hang, to gallery-wall decorate my office. It looks awesome! So I suggest finding other uses for the little clips – they are surprisingly handy!
This is great! My husband is against all my other ideas due to lack of airflow and I have several sets of those kits from ikea already.
I love live live when bloggers play it real! Real ppl live there! Thank you for including that (though your home is incredibly neat anyway, even with the legos that take 5 minutes to pick up but moms almost always hav that chore!). Great post! Google sent me here!