Practical ways to hide wires in your apartment

What is cable management and why is it needed?

Cable management is a system for organising cables so that they do not get in the way or spoil the look of a room, whilst remaining easily accessible for maintenance or replacement.

Why do you need cable management at home if it’s not a server room? There are several reasons: neatly concealed wiring looks tidier, collects less dust, doesn’t get tangled underfoot and, importantly, reduces the risk of accidentally snagging or damaging a cable whilst cleaning.

Versatile solutions for any room

Before moving on to specific areas of the flat, it’s worth familiarising yourself with the basic set — these original solutions for concealing cables are used in virtually every scenario:

• Cable ducts. A plastic channel with a cover, into which the cable is tucked. They can be fixed to walls, ceilings or floors practically anywhere, and the choice of colours and shapes is now so wide that you can find a decorative cable duct to suit any interior — from minimalist to loft-style. These ducts are also known as cable organisers: the principle is the same — to conceal the cable beneath a neat outer casing.
• Special skirting boards with a cable duct for wiring. Many modern skirting boards have a hollow space inside specifically for wiring — essentially, the very same cable duct, but disguised as a standard floor finishing element.
• Decorative cable ducts. Unlike a slim cable duct, a cable duct is a more substantial structure that can conceal several cables at once, or even an entire extension lead, whilst looking like part of the furniture or décor.
• Cable clips and dowel clamps. Small clips that attach to the back of a piece of furniture or to the wall, preventing cables from hanging down or becoming tangled. Wall plugs with clamps are their «bigger brother»: they are fixed directly into the wall or floor with a screw and can hold even thicker cable bundles.
• Furniture and decor. A wardrobe, chest of drawers or sofa pushed right up against the wall perfectly conceals the cable running behind them — there’s no need to buy anything extra. A tall flower stand, plant pot or other decorative item placed against a wall can also discreetly «hide» a section of cable as it runs from the socket to the device in question.
• Photo wallpaper or a decorative panel. Another creative way to decorate walls: if the cable runs vertically from the ceiling to the socket, a narrow strip of photo wallpaper or a decorative panel in the same colour as the wall, stuck over it, will visually «blend» the cable into the background — this works particularly well behind a TV or in an area where an accent wall is already planned.

Router and internet cable

The simplest way to avoid problems with the internet cable is to plan the router’s position carefully before connecting it: where possible, place it closer to where the cable enters the property (near the front door or a window), rather than running the cable across the whole flat to the «most convenient» corner. If the Wi-Fi signal does become weaker in any of the rooms as a result, it’s easier and cheaper to add a repeater or a Mesh access point than to re-route the entire cable.

If you do need to run a cable to a computer or another room, the same cable ducts or routing behind the skirting board will come in handy. And the cable coming directly out of the router can easily be secured with a special stand — some models even have neat cable recesses on the underside.

How to hide TV cables on the wall

A TV mounted on a bracket looks stylish — until you look down and see a «tail» of cables hanging down: the power cable, the set-top box cable and the speaker cables. There are two practical ways to hide TV cables on the wall:

1. Decorative rails with a cabinet underneath. Small rails along the edges of the TV form a channel through which all the cables run down to a cabinet or chest of drawers — where the extension lead with sockets is hidden.
2. A cable duct running to the skirting board. The extension lead is mounted behind the TV on a bracket, and the cable from it is concealed in the cable duct and routed directly into the skirting board.

If the wall is made of plasterboard, there’s an even neater option: run the cable inside the wall through small access holes at the top and bottom. This is a little more complicated technically, but the result looks as though the wires aren’t there at all.

Cable organiser for a computer desk

A computer desk is not just a surface for a monitor and keyboard, but also a practical design for concealing cables. If the desk has a back panel or solid, wide legs, you can attach an extension lead directly to them using clips, and run the cable down to the floor and into the skirting board. If, however, the desk has standard thin legs without a back panel, the solution is slightly more complicated: you can attach a small, homemade cable organiser for a computer desk (made from plywood or plastic) underneath the worktop, and neatly route the speaker cables using special floor stands for speakers, which also have an internal cable channel.

Ready-made desk organisers are now sold separately — under-desk trays, monitor cable clips, and stands with a hidden channel for chargers.

What to avoid

Social media is full of life hacks that look impressive in photos but are actually a bad idea in practice:

• A cardboard box to conceal extension leads. Hiding several extension leads plugged into a socket inside an ordinary shoe box is dangerous: cardboard is highly flammable, and cut or spliced wires inside such a box constitute a direct breach of electrical safety regulations, especially when dealing with high-power equipment. If you really want to hide extension leads «in a box», buy a ready-made plastic or metal box rather than a homemade cardboard version.
• Wire patterns on the wall. Another popular but dubious trick is to secure wires directly to the wall with cable clips to form some sort of pattern. It doesn’t look as neat as in the photos online, it spoils the wall with dozens of little holes from the fixings, and it certainly doesn’t hide the wires from view — they simply move from the floor to the wall.
• Homemade cable extensions without proper insulation. If a cable isn’t long enough, it’s important to know how to connect the wires securely: the correct method is to use special terminal blocks or connection terminals. Heat-shrink tubing or high-quality insulating tape should be used to insulate the cable, not ordinary sticky tape. A simple twist, wrapped haphazardly — especially on high-power appliances — poses a risk of a short circuit, rather than being a mere cosmetic issue.

How Maxnet tackles the issue of concealing cables

Sometimes the problem isn’t how to hide cables without carrying out building work, but rather that there is simply too much excess cable in the flat due to an ill-chosen connection method. If the provider runs the cable right across the flat to a distant room instead of taking the shortest and neatest route, this is no longer a matter of interior design, but of the quality of the connection itself.

At Maxnet, internet connections are always agreed with the customer in advance: our specialists route the cable along the most optimal path and advise on the best place to position the router, ensuring both a stable signal in all rooms and no excess cables left in plain sight. And if the flat is large or has a complex layout, you can opt for a Mesh system or an additional access point straight away, so you don’t have to run a cable into every room separately.

Hiding cables in your interior isn’t about a major refurbishment, but about a few well-thought-out details: the correct positioning of equipment, cable ducts that match the interior, and a bit of creativity with furniture and décor. The key is to avoid dubious «life hacks» designed solely to look good in photos, which in practice can end up costing considerably more than a neat cable duct.