I just saw a This Old House that showed these new covers you can put on them to give them a different look.

http://www.pexsupply.com/Baseboard-Heater-Covers-BB001-72-6-DIY-Baseboard-Heater-Cover-10815000-p

But, if you want your apt. to have heat, you're pretty much stuck with having the baseboard heaters taking up space. I have put non-flammable items in front of baseboard heaters - like a desk or table. You could also put in wall-mounted shelves above them to be able to use that wall space.

I currently have in-wall radiators in my house all mounted underneath windows, and the ideal place for the sofa was in front of one stretch of windows. Our solution: in the winter, we just pull the sofa into the room a foot or so. You might consider some furniture layouts that don't have your furniture up against the walls/baseboards where possible.

Doomed -- if you want effective heating. Move on to other design issues.

Paint the baseboard and heater the same color as the wall and they will "disappear."

Just did it yesterday in my own home:

http://tinyurl.com/ye7kdlq

I second Raina's suggestion. I have the same type of heaters throughout my house, and I painted mine to match the wall and they pretty much disappear. If you used acrylic on the wall, you can use the same paint, and you can unhook the front panel of the heater for easier access.

I painted all the surfaces that show as white in your photo with wall color (in my case, pale grey), and everything that's in shadow I left its original color (tan), and you can't see where the paint stops from normal human height.

You can stick regular furniture in front of them, but the larger the piece, the less effective the heating from that unit will be. I would be careful of putting any curtains or fabrics in front of them, but that's about it.

I felt the same way about my heaters when I first moved in, but you really do just get used to them once they're not overtly visible.

I have a baseboard heater question that someone maaaaay be able to answer.

I recently installed some fruit crate shelving above a baseboard heater as seen here...

http://makergo.com/shutup/?p=1934

When my Dad came over for a visit, he said that this was a bad idea because baseboard heaters use radiant heat traveling up the wall in order to effectively heat the room. This seems logical but I wanted to see if anyone had any input on this before I go ahead and remove the crates...

Any ideas?

I had baseboard heaters for 4 years before we installed a furnace and duct work. Do not put anything over them- the heat rises. Don't put curtains over them or let anything touch the top or you might have a possible fire danger. Tables and desks are fine in front of them, but sofas, bookcases etc.. aren't. If you want them to heat the room you have to let them do their job. If you have kids watch them to make sure they don't touch them.

Sorry, they are ugly. Not much you can do about it.

@MattRennick - The crates definitely are going to make your heater much less effective since they are only a few inches above it and keep the heat from rising as easily as it should (and thus not allowing cold air from the floor to be sucked into the heat fins - the way the system works.) Why don't you just switch your small, open-backed table with the crates?

These suck up so much floor space in our already-postage-stamp-sized house. I've maximized our use of vertical space by mounting a LOT on the wall (while giving the heaters enough headspace). If I were to try & avoid the baseboard heaters altogether, all of our furniture would be stacked in the center of the room. Sometimes there's no other way... I hate them. Welcome to design-flaw world. I agree w/Mid-C Frank: move on. It's not worth the headache to work around it.

There are low-profile baseboard heaters that resemble or can be made to resemble actual wood baseboards. They are sold under different names such as slimline, etc. however due to their small size and design, you have to be willing to replace your existing baseboard heaters.

It may be something worth investigating if you're disgusted enough and are willing to invest the money in a replacement.

Since you own you could always remove them completely, rip up the floors and install radiant heat, then reinstall the floors.

Baseboard heating is a crime against good decorating. However, there are ways around it. First, don't worry about putting flammable materials against it. They never even get hot enough to harm your hands. In trying to make our furniture work, we did make a bookcase with stepped back legs to accommodate the baseboards. We also have hung a small cabinet on the wall, above the heating and no one has noticed. Finally, you can paint them, as long as the heat is turned off. They tend to get pretty crummy looking after a while, even sometimes developing rust. I've used BM paint quite successfully.

Eh, we just put things where we wanted them regardless of the baseboard. If they're slightly less efficient that way, oh well; I throw on a sweater and slippers to warm up.

We're planning to rip up our floor and baseboards and install radiant heat instead.

A note about baseboard heat: If your heat is hot water or steam, these won't get hot enough to start a fire, let alone burn you if you touch them. So you can put your furniture wherever you please, and while it can reduce effeciency somewhat, it is safe and you will have an easier time living with these things! However, if what you have is ELECTRIC baseboard heat (no water) DO NOT PUT ANYTHING NEAR IT, or you are seriously risking a fire.

We have a similar problem and are going to try some wall-mounted electric panel heaters in the bedrooms. These are common in South Africa but so far we can only find one company in the US that makes them and the reviews for this company are mixed. (we will try them but keep our old heaters in case we need to re-install them). There are also a few companies who make 'baseboard heater covers' that are for safety and looks but the prices seem really steep for what you are getting and you still have the problem of not having that stretch of wall. In the meantime we have shortened all our floor-length curtains and have a little buffer block that keeps the couch away from the heater in the winter months. not pretty, but safe...

We had them in a condo we rented for a year. They were expensive to operate, and not that effective. The heat rose up the wall instead of heating the room. Maybe if you have a ceiling fan to mix the air that might help. One caution, I had a Christmas wreath made with glue (from a glue gun) hanging above the heater, and the heat melted the glue, causing items to fall off the wreath.

@thirteensocks, please tell us more about your "buffer block" you use with your sofa. Our microfiber sleeper sofa sits about 5 inches in front of the baseboard heater in the living room.

Ugh. I HATE baseboard heaters. The one in my bedroom is along the freezing cold outside wall and there's no bloody place to put the bed except right smack in front of it: the room is 8'x10' and I've got a queen bed. I get a pocket of warm air behind the head of my bed but nothing else really circulates. Luckily, my bed frame is an open faux-iron style.

I love this timely post & look forward to anyone's advice that has lived w/ these heaters!!! Between what I call "heater headaches" caused by dry heat & furniture arrangement dilemmas ... grrr!!! Our heaters juusst happen to be on the BEST/longest wall of every room! I have heard that electronic equipment & upholstered furniture shouldn't be in front of these heaters.

The owners (who also built this duplex) have assured us that it's safe to put the sofa in front of the heater (they did it when they lived here with no incident). So, I finally gave in thinking "That's prime real estate! Something has to live in front of the heater: either sofa side tables or TV solid-wood book shelves (abt same height & width as the sofa!" ... but, only if it's not a fire hazard!

Any thoughts, suggestions, advice? Any warnings from firefighters or electricians? ;-D

@thirteensocks - Try amazon for wall-mounted electric heat panels - I saw them there not too long ago when I was looking for solutions to my sucko inefficient radient heating system (sorry, no link).

Hello All. I read this post with some interest as I am struggling with the same baseboards in my house in the mountains (where heat is a necessity) and am ready to rip the ugly things out!!! Laura E is right - they are a CRIME against design! I do appreciate the solution suggestions (slimline sounds like somethint to look into). One thing to remember with these panels is to keep a humidifier in the bedroom, and refill every night. Along with drinking your daily allotment of water, the single easiest thing to do for your health is to humidify the room! I realize we are all about design, but intelligent design includes rooms that are healthy while we are in them!

I have these same ugly things and they are baseboard steam/hot water. They run along every long wall in my long narrow space. My plan is to buy long narrow (horizontal) bookshelves - max one foot deep, build them up on MCM legs from Ikea & run them at window sill height all along the wall. If all else fails, I'll use Ikea Expedit singles, but I'd prefer adjustable shelves.

This will (I hope) disappear the baseboards, give display space for pix and ornaments, add storage for books, and force me to arrange furniture off the walls. Haven't done it yet b/c we remodeled just last year & I'm still stony.

be careful. I can only speak for the electric baseboard heaters, but in cold climates they certainly do get hot enough to melt if not burn. In our first month in a new place with these, we destroyed plastic laundry baskets and toasted/browned some pillows before the whole family learned this lesson (child clutter, small bedrooms, and baseboard heaters don't mix). If you wouldn't put it in your toaster, it shouldn't be within inches of your heater.

I live in a cold climate (Massachusetts) and have been cursed by these things for most of my years here. And to think these were invented to replace charming radiators (though we hated those, too). I have found that the biggest problem with these things is that in the bathroom they will rust. I solved that by purchasing decorative tape, 2" wide, and covered the tops with it. When that isn't enough we'll go to contac paper the fronts as well.

And no - in my 30 years of living with baseboard heating (not plug ins - forced water) they have not melted or burned anything. I'm not even convinced they heat much.