# I'm ashamed of my box. Help me hide it. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125 "2008-03-20T19:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/1 "2008-03-20T19:50:50Z")
The phone box in my office, that is. When we moved into this office, we did a build-out that didn’t include a separate room or space for the phone box, the cable crap, the network-y things that blink, the wireless router, etc. They were just slapped up on the wall at the end of our only hallway. This looks like crap, and is basically a bunch of wires and boxes and modem-y things attached to a wall up by the ceiling with wires and cables running down to the floor. There have been discussions about building a closet at the end of the hall, and basically “walling” this stuff in. Except our wireless router would then end up in a closet. I need a way to hide this stuff and still have accessibility and connectivity. I’ve thought of putting up a curtain rod as high up to the ceiling as I can and hanging a curtain. Or if we build an actual closet of having a “window” built in above the door that’s just plastic in order for the router to still work. Hell, I dunno. It’s not like I’m either a tech person or an interior designer. Moving this stuff isn’t really an option. We’re ashamed of our box and it’s tentacles. Help us hide it. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/2 "2008-03-20T20:13:21Z")
Can you take a picture of it? I think we can be more helpful if we can see “what we’re working with.” ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/3 "2008-03-20T20:19:39Z")
Unless you’re building walls with corrugated steel, being in a closet should not have a significant effect on the router. Mine’s in the garage, so there’s always any number of walls, floors, staircases, and furnace ducts between it and the laptops, and it works just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/4 "2008-03-20T20:21:52Z")
An easy DIY solution would be to build a frame around it, consisting of a few wooden beams about one-inch square thick. Then close the sides with these cheap and pre-fab [louvre doors.](http://www.lotuswood.co.za/images/products/Louvres.jpg) Those allow for ventilation, and the whole thing doesn’t need to be painted. A wooden cabinet allows you to install nails and hooks and shelves on the inside on which to hang/stand the different electronic thingies. You could ask your office manager to hire a handyman for it. It would be quite costly if someone tripped over those wires or if the cleaning lady ripped out a crucial wire and no-one in the office knew how to reconnect it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/5 "2008-03-20T21:31:10Z")
[QUOTE=niblet\_head] The phone box in my office, that is. [/QUOTE] Glad you clarified that. I thought for a moment Britney Spears had signed up for The Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/6 "2008-03-20T22:59:22Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] Unless you’re building walls with corrugated steel, being in a closet should not have a significant effect on the router. Mine’s in the garage, so there’s always any number of walls, floors, staircases, and furnace ducts between it and the laptops, and it works just fine. [/QUOTE] Honestly, that is my biggest concern. Our router only has one antenna, would that make a difference? > [@elfkin477](#): > > Can you take a picture of it? I think we can be more helpful if we can see “what we’re working with.” I can try, but in the meantime, imagine that my office is an L. The door is at the foot of the L and the four offices are all along the long-side of the L. All the technical crap is attached to the wall (at the top of the L), about a foot down from the ceiling, with wires connecting one to the other, to the power strip that’s also attached to the wall, down to the network jack closer to the floor… It’s a mess. The hallway itself is no more than 5 feet across, and all this stuff extends about 3/4 of the way across the wall, and it’s all attached at a height on the wall of more than 5 feet. The biggest piece of equipment looks like a really big fuse box. The simplest thing may be to simply build a wall with doors in front of it, turning it into a “closet”. I just want to make sure that anyone who needs to can still get to all these blinky-lighty things, since they’d go higher up on the wall than a closet door. > [@maastricht](#): > > You could ask your office manager to hire a handyman for it. That would be me. 🙂 Office manager, accounting clerk, web master, receptionist, travel agent, and secretary (when I have time!). Actually, that’s pretty much what I’d looked into very briefly last year. I just wanted to check with the Great Minds of The Dope to see if there were any obvious problems with that plan. I really don’t know what I’m doing with this project. (Thanks for the door link.) > [@sunrazor](#): > > Glad you clarified that. I thought for a moment Britney Spears had signed up for The Dope. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/7 "2008-03-21T02:17:37Z")
What you’re looking for is a [room divider.](http://www.roomdividerstore.com/) These are fairly easy to make, and can actually be quite decorative. Plus they don’t have to be attached to any walls, and they’re easy to move if/when you need to access the various wires. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/8 "2008-03-21T03:20:25Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] What you’re looking for is a [room divider.](http://www.roomdividerstore.com/) These are fairly easy to make, and can actually be quite decorative. Plus they don’t have to be attached to any walls, and they’re easy to move if/when you need to access the various wires. [/QUOTE] As a bonus, you can backlight it and parade around behind it naked so everyone can see what your shadow looks like when you’re nude. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/9 "2008-03-21T09:46:04Z")
“Then close the sides with these cheap and pre-fab louvre doors.” The louvre doors would be a good idea. I’ve seen mold grow inside plexiglass router encasements. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/10 "2008-03-21T12:42:39Z")
Build a phone booth around it and post a sign saying “Reserved for Clark Kent”? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/11 "2008-03-21T15:29:32Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Build a phone booth around it and post a sign saying “Reserved for Clark Kent”? [/QUOTE] I like that idea! Scout around on eBay and local antique stores for a wood phone booth, and you can probably hide most of the equipment on top of or behind the booth, which is quite an eye-catching conversation piece in its own right. They are, unfortunately getting scarce and expensive. What’s the overal decor like? Would a freestanding [floor screen](http://www.orientalfurniture.com/oriental-furniture/Room-Divider-Folding-Screens.html?gclid=CIvP_avBnpICFQ58PAoddmk-nQ) be too badly out of place? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/12 "2008-03-21T16:40:36Z")
If it was my aesthetic, probably not. Except that the stuff is much closer to the ceiling than I thought. Not a foot, more like three inches. On a 10-12 foot ceiling. I don’t think, unfortunately, that a floor screen would be tall enough. Too bad. Lots more color choices that way. Have I mentioned that I work for guys that say they don’t care and then criticize later? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/13 "2008-03-21T16:48:01Z")
[QUOTE=niblet\_head] If it was my aesthetic, probably not. Except that the stuff is much closer to the ceiling than I thought. Not a foot, more like three inches. On a 10-12 foot ceiling. I don’t think, unfortunately, that a floor screen would be tall enough. Too bad. Lots more color choices that way. Have I mentioned that I work for guys that say they don’t care and then criticize later? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Sounds like a curtain of sorts might be the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ashamed-of-my-box-help-me-hide-it/442125/14 "2008-03-21T17:14:59Z")
Man, if it was up to me… I see something in a dark, dark color in satin… I’ve been watching too much HGTV.