How to Hide Cables in a Living Room Full of Devices

Working out how to hide cables in living room spaces is easier once the cables are sorted into 3 groups: permanent runs that can go in a wall, semi-permanent runs that want trunking or a route behind furniture, and temporary ones that should simply be shorter.

Most rooms treat all three the same way and end up with a compromise that suits none of them. The permanent ones stay visible and the temporary ones get taped down.

The fourth answer is to remove the cable at source. A hardwired fitting has none at all, which is why a wall light beats a plug-in lamp in any corner where the cord would cross a walkway — Houseland's up-down sconce is hardwired and stands only 3.1 in from the wall.

How do I hide cables in living room walls and floors?

Sort them by permanence first, then pick the route for each group.

1. List every cable and mark it permanent or temporary. A television feed is permanent; a phone charger is not.
2. Route permanent cables inside the wall where the wall is plasterboard and the cable is low voltage, or behind trunking where it is not.
3. Group semi-permanent runs into one channel behind furniture, using a single sleeve rather than 5 loose cables.
4. Move the socket rather than the cable where possible. One added socket removes several long runs at once.
5. Shorten temporary cables to the length needed, since most of the visual mess is slack rather than cable.

The slack point is the one that changes a room fastest. A 6 ft cable serving a device 18 in from the socket contributes four and a half feet of visible loop, and a shorter cable removes it entirely for a few pounds.

Which route suits which cable?

The choice is between wall cavity, surface trunking and behind-furniture routing.

Painted trunking is underrated. A run of trunking finished in the wall colour reads as a shadow line at 3 ft and disappears entirely at conversational distance, which is a far better result than the bare white plastic people imagine.

Mains cable inside a wall is the one place to stop and get an electrician, since routing and depth rules exist for good reasons.

What about the router and the devices themselves?

Position them for signal first and appearance second, then hide the box rather than the cable.

A router hidden inside a metal cabinet or behind a television loses a significant part of its range, so the honest answer is a shelf at 40 in or higher in the open, with the cables managed rather than the unit buried.

Shallow shelving works well for this because it holds the box and the slack without projecting into the room. A shelf at 3.5 in deep takes a router, a hub and a charging cable while leaving the walkway intact.

Speakers and consoles are the opposite case. Both can be enclosed as long as ventilation exists, so a closed unit works for them and not for the router.

Chargers are the third group and the messiest. A single multi-port charger with short cables replaces 3 or 4 plug adapters and their slack, which usually removes a third of what is visible in a living room.

A shallow ledge is often the neatest home for the whole cluster. At 3.5 in deep it takes a router, a hub and a speaker at 40 in or higher, keeps the slack behind rather than beneath, and leaves the floor clear — what fits on that depth is set out in what to display on a 3.5 inch deep shelf.

Is hardwired lighting worth the electrician?

Where a lamp would need a cable crossing a walkway, yes, and it is a one-off cost.

A plug-in wall light means a cord running from the fitting down to a socket, which is the single most visible cable in most rooms because it is at eye level rather than at the floor. Hardwiring removes it permanently.

It also removes the switch problem. A hardwired fitting can go on a wall switch or a pull cord, where a plug-in lamp is switched at the fitting or at the socket — which is why plug-in wall lights are often left off.

Cost is a single visit rather than an ongoing one, and one visit usually covers several fittings. Where that is not possible, routing the cord deliberately is second best and is covered in how to hide a wall light power cord that is too long.

Houseland's fluted sconce is hardwired with two G9 sockets and a body 6.5 in tall and 5.5 in wide, open at top and bottom so it washes the wall in both directions — a cable-free mid-height source in a room otherwise full of them.

From the shop

Fluted Resin Hallway Sconce, Up Down Wall Light in 4 Colors, Two G9 Bulbs

A molded resin body 6.5 in tall and 5.5 in wide that stands only 3.1 in from the wall, open at the top and bottom so it washes light both ways. Two G9 sockets, hardwired, so there is no cord at all.

View the fluted up-down sconce — 4 colours & current price

What can be done in a rental?

Everything except cutting into walls, which still leaves most of the options.

Adhesive cable clips along a skirting line are removable and hold a run of 10 ft or more tidily. Painted trunking is also removable if it is fixed with adhesive pads rather than screws.

Furniture routing costs nothing and works well in a rental, since it uses the room's own layout. A sofa 4 in off the wall creates a channel that will take every lamp and charger cable on that side of the room.

The other rental answer is battery and rechargeable fittings, which have improved enough to be a genuine option for accent lighting. They trade a charging routine for the absence of any cable at all.

What to avoid is running anything under a rug. A cable crossing a walkway under a rug is a trip hazard and a wear point, and it is the one common solution that is actually worse than the visible cable.

Velcro ties beat cable clips for anything that changes. A bundle of 4 chargers tied every 8 in stays tidy and can be opened in seconds when a device is replaced, where adhesive clips have to be pulled off the wall and re-stuck each time.

What I'd do

Shorten every temporary cable, group the semi-permanent ones, and hardwire the lighting if there is a chance to.

Most visible mess is slack rather than cable, so replacing 6 ft leads with 2 ft ones removes a surprising share of it for very little. Grouping the rest into a single sleeve behind furniture handles most of what remains.

Then take the cable out of the lighting altogether where the budget allows. Houseland's sconce is hardwired and sits 3.1 in from the wall, which means a mid-height light source with no cord, no floor lamp base and nothing crossing a walkway — and that is the layer most living rooms are missing anyway.

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