Decorating/organizing: I need something to hide a bunch of unsightly cables

I have, next to my television and entertainment equipment, a mess of unsightly crap in a giant bunch; coax cable coming out of the wall and going into a modem, the modem spewing ethernet cable to a wireless router. These two devices are plugged into a power strip that’s loaded down with a bunch of other cables coming out from behind the little stand that the TV is on.

How, from a decorating and organizing point of view, do I attractively and functionally conceal this crap?

I was thinking of just putting a book shelf there and hiding all the junk behind it, but it’s enough equipment that I kind of need to put it IN something.

What do humans do in this situation?

You can’t beat this $2 solution

Yeah, not to be a dick about it but that solution looks like garbage. There’s still a big, visible pile of shit in the corner.

I found this info on Lifehacker: Top 10 ways to get cables under control. I don’t like the look of some of the ideas, but others are alright.

Use fake vines to make it look like a jungle.

But now its a big HIDEABLE pile of shit that you can decorate around. Put an end table over the box and drape it with a cloth, and a plant on the table - voila, gone.

When I set up my living room I put my “entertainment center” (microwave cart, I think) in the corner, but it’s not a corner piece. So there’s a huge triangular space behind it in which to store all of my cables and power strips.

I recently got a bigger armoire-type entertainment from my folks, along with their analog TV. Now there’s an even bigger piece of furniture in the corner hiding all my wires, and a cabinet in which to store my DVDs and other doo-dads.

Could you possibly move your TV stand to the corner? And if it’s not a solid design, could you maybe drape something over the back of it so you can’t see through to the cables?

I like the Ikea basket solution on that link. Very clean-looking and easy to tear apart if you need to. I bought plastic tubing that split from end to end on one side, but it’s still pretty ugly if slightly neater. If I was up to it, I’d switch to the under-desk basket and cable ties.