There are four honest answers to how to hide power cable on wall art, and they trade effort against how invisible the result is: hide it behind furniture, cover it on the surface, route it inside the wall with proper fittings, or remove the cable entirely by choosing a battery piece.
There is a fifth thing people do, which is burying the adapter's own cable inside the wall. That is the one to avoid, and the reason is worth understanding before you cut anything.
The Houseland oval panel ships with a mains adapter, so this is a live question for it — and the piece is designed to hang with the cable dropping behind furniture.
Start with the easy answer: hang it where the cable disappears
Above a sofa, a console or a bed, the cable drops from the bottom edge and vanishes behind the furniture. No tools, no cover, nothing to buy.
This is why the recommended hanging position for a long panel is usually above furniture rather than on open wall. It is not only a composition rule; it is a cable rule.
Two details make it work properly. Leave enough slack that the cable is not pulled taut against the panel's exit point, because tension there loosens the connection over time. And run the cable straight down rather than diagonally to a socket — a diagonal is visible above the furniture line even when most of the run is hidden.
If the socket is at the wrong end of the sofa, an extension lead behind the furniture is a better answer than a diagonal cable across open wall.
How to hide power cable on wall art with a surface cover
On open wall, a paintable cover is the practical middle option. It is a plastic channel with an adhesive back that the cable clips into, and painted the wall colour it reads as a shadow line rather than as a cable.
What makes the difference between invisible and obvious:
- Paint it before fitting, with the wall paint, and give it two coats. Painting in place always leaves a halo on the wall.
- Run it vertically, in line with an existing edge if there is one — a door architrave, a corner, the edge of a chimney breast. A cover that follows an existing line disappears; one crossing open wall does not.
- Choose the smallest section that fits. Most people buy a channel far larger than a slim LED cable needs.
- Take it all the way to the skirting, not to a point near it. A cover that stops short draws the eye to exactly where it stops.
Routing inside the wall, and the part people get wrong
The tidy solution on plasterboard is an in-wall route with a pair of proper fittings: a plate behind the panel and a second plate lower down, with the cable passing between them inside the cavity.
The critical detail is what goes in the wall. Kits sold for this purpose use two brush plates or a rated inlet and outlet, and they are designed so that no mains connection or adapter sits inside the cavity. The low-voltage cable from the adapter to the panel is what passes through.
What is not acceptable anywhere is burying a mains adapter, a plug, or an extension socket inside the wall. Adapters generate heat, they are not rated for enclosure, and a connection you cannot inspect is a connection that will not be inspected. Kits exist precisely so this does not have to happen.
The practical route: cut both openings, drop a draw wire or fish tape from the upper to the lower, tie the cable on, pull it through, fit both plates. On a stud wall check for a horizontal noggin between the two points first — that is what stops most attempts halfway.
Before you cut into any wall
- Scan for cables and pipes. A detector over the whole route, not just the two holes. Existing wiring runs vertically above and below sockets and horizontally near ceilings.
- Know the wall type. Plasterboard on studs is the only construction this method suits. Solid masonry needs a chased channel and making good, which is a different job.
- Check for insulation or a vapour barrier. In an external wall you may be creating a path through a barrier that should not be penetrated.
- Fire compartmentation. Do not cut between floors or through a party wall.
- Rented property. Cutting holes in the wall is not a reversible change and it is not usually yours to make.
If any of those give you pause, the surface cover is a genuinely good result for a fraction of the risk.
From the shop
Wood Wall Panel Decor, Backlit Oval with Shelf and Bud Vase, 150 cm
A 59 x 19.7 in laser-cut panel with a hand-finished sand-plaster texture, 2.4 in deep and about 6 lb. Hidden warm dimmable LED backlight with multiple modes, a slim wood shelf, and a jute-wrapped tempered glass tube. Mains adapter included.
See the productThe option that removes the problem
A battery-powered piece has no cable to hide, which is why battery versions exist on panels intended for walls with no socket behind furniture.
The Houseland oval panel is a mains piece with the adapter in the box, so it belongs above furniture where the cord can drop out of sight. Where the wall genuinely has nowhere to hide a cable — a chimney breast, a stairwell, a wall opposite the seating — a battery model is the better buy from the start.
Choosing the power type by the wall rather than by preference saves the whole problem. Battery against plug-in covers the brightness and run-time side of that decision.
Slack, strain and the connection that fails first
Whatever route you choose, the cable's weakest point is where it enters the panel.
Leave a small loop of slack near the exit so the cable's own weight is not hanging on the connector. Over a couple of years, a cable pulled straight down with no slack works the joint loose, and the symptom is a light that flickers when someone sits heavily on the sofa.
Do not run a cable under a rug or behind a radiator. Under a rug it gets stood on; behind a radiator it gets warm, and neither is good for insulation that was designed for open air.
And keep the adapter itself where air can reach it. Tucked between a sofa back and a wall is the most common place for it, and it is the worst.
What I would do
Above a sofa: hang it so the cable drops behind, leave a loop of slack, and stop thinking about it. That covers most installations and takes no extra work.
On open wall in a house you own: paint a slim cover the wall colour, run it vertically to the skirting, and accept that from two paces it is invisible.
In-wall routing only where the wall is plasterboard, you have scanned it properly, and you use a rated kit with no adapter inside the cavity. It is the best-looking result and it is the one with real consequences if done badly.
And if the wall has nowhere to hide a cable at all, buy the battery version rather than fighting it. Reading the adapter label is worth two minutes either way.