Here at Apartment Therapy, we can't get enough of clever ideas for hiding thermostats, air conditioners or circuit boxes when they aren't in use and here's a simple idea from Richard & Julie's Pawtucket loft. Can you spot a thermostat anywhere in this picture?
A picture frame hinged to a small piece of wood that has been painted the same color as the wall is as straightforward a solution as there is, but it gets bonus points for being totally unnoticeable, even up close. And though the single framed image, hung low to cover the thermostat, might seem a bit awkward and out-of-place, they've balanced it by hanging the second painting above. Check out the full tour for more images of Richard & Julie's Elegant Industrial Loft.
Images: Sarah Rainwater, Dog Painting by Jennifer French
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It seems like you could just use a box frame and avoid the wood thing altogether.
Yes, yes, Genius. Enough with pushing this idea already. We got it the first 5 times.
that's one steep staircase.
unlike a circuit breaker panel, not having a thermostat open/free to the outside air has an effect on its function -- sometimes in a big way. in this case, it will be more in-tune with the temp of that wall behind it -- and depending on a lot of factors that might/might not matter much... but if there were HVAC running though that wall (and looks like there is) the radiating heat from the duct could effect the temp of the wallboard.
i find it funny how people find small bits of infrastructure visually distracting. it's not like thermostats are huge and they make them pretty simple/unobtrusive (albeit not in color). seems to me that it's kind of like worrying about your nostrils (you need something to breathe through, right?), but i guess the plastic surgery biz is booming, so...
perhaps the next million-dollar-idea is to have a working thermostat with a paintable cover. it wouldn't be that hard -- in fact, you might find an existing one that is more paintable than another. our current honeywell is a pretty paintable design, but i seem to recall on older lux model being even more so.
So should I now suddenly be self conscious about my naked and exposed thermostat...?
Those stairs are seriously scary.
Love this idea for the six months out of the year when I don't need access to it.
I was going to say that I would imagine that covering the thermostat would interfere with its ability to function properly, but someone beat me to it.
I have never, not even once in my life, looked at my thermostat and thought, "My dining room would be so much better if I didn't have to look at that thing!" :)
I don't know, kinda seems cumbersome. It's just a thermostat.
I don't want to cover my thermostat, function or no. I'm proud of it! I succesfully installed it myself (in two houses), and I like being reminded of that.
Very neat - I like this. Although would love ideas on ways to conceal (or at least distract from) the apartment intercom which is placed smack bang in the middle of a wall that otherwise just cries out for a picture (and you kind of use the intercom too much to put a big thing in front of it!).
While I've never thought of hiding my thermostat in the past, the home I'm currently living in happens to have a series of ugly plastic things all lumped together in the same space, with no concern at all for symmetry. My OCD self is being driven nuts by it, and I've thought more than once about painting something on a stretched canvas to hang over the whole mess of discoloured, non-matching plastic boxes.
If my "thermostat wall" looked like the one above, with one simple and small, decent looking box, I'd likely leave it as-is. But trust me, my mess of heating/cooling contraptions is begging to be covered! Will it really screw with things if I hang a canvas frame over it? =/
A thermostat normally is pretty small - people can't just deal with it? Ours is right next to the light switch for the kitchen (not sure why...but that's another story) and to me it more or less just blends in.
Great idea! In my house the thermostat for the entire upstairs is in my bedroom?? On top of that it is in the middle of a nice size wall. No matter what i put up on the wall all i see is the thermostat.
Unless you seal your thermostat off in an insulated, airtight box, covering it isn't likely to make much of a difference. It might be a little slower to react to sudden changes in room temperature, but that's about it. Most thermostats are mounted to interior walls deep within the home, so wall temperature is generally fairly constant. In this particular case, it looks like the picture just sits over the front of the thermostat, with the sides left completely open, so it's not blocking air circulation at all (the fronts of most thermostats don't have any air vents to block).
You could surround all four sides and the front with some kind of frame, provided it doesn't fit too snugly, and you'd probably be alright in most situations. If you're worried, try leaving the top and bottom open, so that room air can flow through vertically as it heats or cools (rising and falling in the process). You could also try putting vents into the cover itself, either on the sides or in front if that works out.