The dreaded electricity box

[Fatty]

Does anybody have any great ideas about how to cover this up and not have it look horrible

 

[Zebra]

Build a little cupboard around it? You could do it without risking drilling into any cables because there are exposed timbers above and below which you could screw some battens to, and then fix some ply panels to the battens and make a frame and a door for the front. You do have to be careful that you can still get the cover off the consumer unit in case you have to do any work in it.

 

[Kearn]

We have this monstrosity to hide…! It is now internal inside an extension to the kitchen, but the waterproof box was necessary as it’s been outside for the last year. And frankly we’re not undoing everything to remove the plastic box, so that will be cut back.

The plan is to build a bespoke drinks cabinet /dresser around it with a flap door for access and a false back for all the cable runs…

 

[Itchinfilth]

I've bought old small sections of panelling and sections of coffers to box bits in / make cabinets from. Make a frame of battens and then fit the pieces of panelling. Others where size allows I've purchased suitable size cabinets. Although I appreciate modern comforts, I hate the look of the technology that provides these!

 

[Flyfisher]

There are not a lot of options really, other than to build some sort of cupboard around them. As Zebra rightly says the key thing is to allow for easy access if/when necessary, so that pretty much means some sort of cupboard doors arrangement.

We have a couple of consumer units hidden in this way, as shown below. The first example was actually relocated from a formal room into a hallway, where a cupboard was less intrusive, but it meant a lot of cables running part way along the wall so we simply boxed those in as you can see to the left of the cupboard housing the CU itself, rather than channel into the wall and possibly disturb the ceiling joists.

 

[fernicarry]

The tails from the meter to the CU seem more than a little excessive. If that's been done recently due to a smart meter install I'd get them back in to tidy it up. Or an electrician could potentially deal with it if he's willing to pull the service fuse. That'd at least reduce the amount by which the boxing needs to project.

I moved my fuse box so I could demolish the boxing in. It was in the front bedroom, presumably a hang-over from when the house first got power via an aerial supply and no one ever thought to question it even when the supply was moved underground. One of the few sockets in that room was on the side of the boxing which once you jammed a double bed up against it was inaccessible. Genius... Given that all the big loads are miles away at the back of the house (cooking, laundry, car charger etc.) it was also in just about the worst possible place in a technical sense too so it really had to go.

I also can't abide having services on show and I'd really want to move that one somewhere less intrusive. Hard to justify on its own but if you are ever doing other electrical work then give it some thought.

 

[LadyArowana]

Ours is quite similar to Flyfisher’s, a cupboard the carpenter built. You have quite a narrow space above the curtain so I wonder if a hanging false box cover would conceal it and still allow easy removal to open the unit. Something only hung from above which simply lifts off matched in to the existing woodwork