This is how you hide ugly radiators

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There are some aspects of your house that are no doubt less attractive than you would like them to be, but without serious financial commitment, will see you having to put up with them. One such aspect is radiators.

Not usually a beautiful style statement, radiators, especially dated incarnations, can be a blight on an otherwise beautiful and well put together space, so what can you do about them? We think that covering them is your best solution, obviously not to such an extent that they can't let heat into the room, but there are ways of disguising them.

Take a look at our solutions for hiding radiators and see is your ugly installation could be easily and cheaply improved.

Built-in camouflage

Could this solution to hiding radiators be any more stylish and gorgeous? We are utterly in love with this fabulous built-in cover from Cool Radiators and think that it actually makes a stunning feature of what was once just a perfunctory and usually ugly item!

Adding an organic charm and sophistication to what looks to be an already stylishly finished room, radiator cupboards such as this one allow for fashion and function to blend in perfect harmony to create a living space that is totally unimpaired by unsightly additions. Amazing!

Decorative screen

If you have smaller radiators or don't like the idea of fully encasing them in a large built-in unit, how about something a little more delicate, like this small Indian-inspired screen?

With cut outs and frilled edges, this is a lovely, almost shabby chic piece that will effortlessly disguise even the most ugly radiators and help to make your home that little bit more cohesive and beautiful. We think this would be ideal for a hallway that needs open access to heat sources for drying shoes and coats in winter but is keen on hiding radiators at other times of the year.

Put a sofa in front

We know that you need to be careful when hiding radiators, not least because the heat they give out won't be able to circulate efficiently if you have boxed them in too tightly, but we think that for a cheap and easy solution, placing a sofa in front of them is an absolute winner.

If you have a bright and bold sofa, such as the one featured here, it will be even easier to detract attention from your ugly radiator, but for a living room space that seeks to be free of unappealing perfunctory items, any long settee will be perfectly up to the task!

Behind a table

Unless you have a sofa in every room of your house, there is a good chance that you will need to think of something else to utilise for hiding radiators and we think that a well placed table is a hard to beat option.

Looking natural wherever they are placed, a functional table is the perfect camouflage for ugly radiators, especially in your hallway, bedroom or bathroom. They also have the added benefit of offering additional storage capacity in rooms that are perhaps lacking in enough. Easy to move in case of a plumbing problem, we think small tables have a myriad of fab uses and that this is one of our favourites.

Create a shelf

If totally obscuring your radiators is not quite what you are hoping to achieve, but you still want to disguise their styling somewhat, why not think about actually making them part of a wider feature? 

We like the idea of installing a floating shelf above radiators, so as to draw the eye up and away from them, while making good use of their size and shape to dictate how the shelf should be situated. You could even look to create a boxed in shelf unit, that works around the item itself, so rather than hiding radiators, you can integrate them into your design scheme.

A lick of paint

If you can't beat them, paint them! Hiding radiators is a tricky business that depends on location, size and style so if you can't settle on a method that works for you, why not think about just brightening them up and making a real feature of them instead?

This violet pop of colour adds a fun dimension to an otherwise neutral room and allows for other similarly coloured pieces to be brought in seamlessly. You could even paint your own radiators with patterned designs, to really make a feature of them. Leopard print anyone?

For more hot radiator ideas, take a look at this Ideabook: Stylish Bathroom Radiators.

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