Lamp cords + furniture have long stumped me. Many years ago I read an article that exposed decorating magazine tricks, like taping lamp cords to furniture for photos or photoshopping them out completed. I felt cheated! And deflated. If the design experts and interior decorators of the world couldn't show us how to actually deal with unsightly cords, I figured it was impossible. After we welded Hubby's desk, a genius reader asked if we could our fit lamp cords through the hollow square tube legs. We couldn't, but that's when it dawned on me: if we were making/DIYing our own furniture, why weren't we creating secret spots for lamp cords?!? If we had chosen wider tubing, the reader's suggestion would have been totally feasible. It definitely got me thinking. The dining room credenza was our first opportunity to create a cord solution. As you already saw, we drilled holes through our DIY wood top and threaded the lamp cords down into the unit, and out of sight.
What you didn't see was the inside of the cabinet:
Honestly, I stop and admire our floating credenza daily, because it just looks so polished. Normally I nitpick and eventually find fault with our projects, but the credenza is still in my good books. Recently we added furniture grommets to complete the look! Furniture grommets are just little caps that slide into a hole and make it look tidy, similar to the function of fabric grommets. The grommets we bought (from Lowe's) were so easy to install: we just pushed them into the hole. Done.
When Hubby and I build a desk for the office, we're going to do something similar and cut holes for all of our cords and hide them somewhere inside. Next time, though, I'm going to order the grommets before we make holes. It seemed like 1.5" was a common size for grommets, so we made the holes that size. When I went to actually order them, weeks after putting the top on the credenza, I realized that many of the available 1.5" grommets looked more appropriate for an office conference table. The sleek, metal ones I wanted were all a different size. (You know, for someone with a PhD, sometimes I really bomb in the areas of research and preparation). I was thrilled when I finally tracked down these silver plastic ones at Lowe's. They were $17.00 for the pair, which I thought was a bit steep for two plastic rings (and they're not even turquoise!), but they look great and don't feel cheap, so I think they were worth the price. And the six hour drive to Minneapolis, MN to pick them up.
If you're going to add furniture grommets, find the ones you want before you drill the holes. The styles and sizes really vary, but there is an abundance online. This pair is cute and so is this one.
Do dangling lamp cords ever bother you? Do you have any fabulous suggestions? I'm on the hunt for more ideas!
