Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Permanent eye sores: Covering up electrical panels

Good morning! Sabah el khair! Günaydın! Now that you got your English, Turkish, and Arabic dose of the day let's talk about some serious eye sores in the home. Electrical panels. YUCK! I know they are a necessity, especially when we women are cleaning, cooking, baking, DIY'ing and blogging all at the SAME TIME. All that power will definitely cause some breakers to trip, thus preventing a fire. WIN!  When that happens we mozey on along to that ugly electrical panel and flip the switches back. I know I shouldn't be so harsh, especially when my own panel has saved me on numerous occasions but lets be real; it's UGLY.

Some times I feel like builders are the men from Mars, and designers are the women from Venus. None-the-less the two live together almost harmoniously (o: and everyone makes things work. Here is my example:


Most electrical panels in the USA are like the one on the left of the picture above. However, what the heck is up on the right??? It looks like a UFO, and at night, the Main Street Electrical Parade sans music. Oh-me-oh-my. I think they are the meters that, in the USA, would be outside your house, but in Dubai it's inside? I guess. As soon as we moved into this house this was the FIRST thing I noticed. Granted it's in a low traffic hallway, but it can still be seen from almost any spot in the house. Not to mention every time I walk into the kitchen, it blinks at me in a weird way. :o/


So my simple solution was to cover that thing up with the most minimal effort. Since we live in a rental, I couldn't do anything irreversible or expensive. Plus, with all the 3D action on the right panel, my only choice to cover it would be something free flowing like this...



My hallway is so narrow these were the best shots I could get. 

My husband screwed in a rod and I threw up this really pretty hand sewn quilt art. Not meant for sleeping at all. If you saw the back! Oh my!! It was big enough to cover both panels, maybe 4 1/2 ft x 3 ft. It was the best solution for my situation. However, I found other great ideas for smaller and solid door panels.

Bird House Family had this framed wall paper idea. Even though she only had one odd ball panel to cover, the sequence of three balanced it and made the art look more natural. Who wants art screaming "I'm covering an electrical panel"? Maybe you? 





So cute!! Lindsay at A design story covered these small panels on the left with canvas art she made. Even though the panels were in her pantry, no one wants to see ugly. Nothing like seeing eye candy when getting some belly candy ha! 


Garden Stew had this option. Though not something I would do, but if it works for you then go for it. She painted the door with a scene that matches another painting in the same room and left the boarder of the panel as a "frame". Great painting skills!!


One last close up of my beauty! I guess you can say she is the family pet. 
Low maintenance (o: 


So there you have it, 4 options, and maybe even more online, to cover up that nasty electrical panel. Lets review: 1: hang a light quilt 2: hang framed wallpaper or art 3: Hang a painted canvas and 4: paint it up. As long as you have easy access to it like I do, then it shouldn't be a problem! And with 2% battery left on my laptop, it's time for me to head out without checking grammar mistakes lol. Have a great day/night what ever it is on your end of the world. 




-Debora



6 comments:

  1. WOW… I am thoroughly impressed with your great ideas…that looks like such hard work…but the results…gorgeous!
    Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I really feel strongly about it... awesome.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Becca, thanks for taking the time to comment. I just want to clarify, the other ideas are from other bloggers, each picture has the corresponding source in a hyper link just below each pic. The only idea that is mine is the camel quilt. Glad yo enjoyed the post.

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  2. Ohhh my Goddd, im totally agreed with you... i have my electrical box in THE LIVING ROOM!!! and in what i consider the MAIN wall of that space. ashhhh please let me know where can i buy a cheap textile , i was thinking to to the same than you but i can not find a cheaper one... i live near MCC... hope one day we can meet each other.

    Melissa

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    Replies
    1. Hey Melissa,
      I'm glad you found this post useful. I actually bought my quilt from the Duabai Souq. You can find a lot of variety out there. Get ready to bargain though because they start off high in the couple hundred dirham range, but you can get it near 100 if you try. Good luck!
      -Debora

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  3. Its as if you had a great grasp on the subject matter, but you forgot to include your readers. Perhaps you should think about this from more than one angle. electrical panel

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete

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