I live in a rental rowhome in South Philadelphia and if you've ever had the pleasure of stepping foot in one — you know how narrow they can be. My home is very narrow and my fiance and I entertain quite often. We're always running out of seating for our guests, so we decided to fix up a discontinued IKEA cabinet into a bench and cover up our unsightly thermostat.
I didn't have a picture of the seating area before I made the cushion, but it looked very bare with too much unused space
To cover the thermostat, we took one of our prints from our favorite local shop, Awesome Dudes Printing and framed it in a simple IKEA RIBBA frame and picked up small hinges from our local Lowe's. We drilled the hinges onto the back side of the frame and then drilled the hinged frame onto the wall so the frame would then swing open. We were nervous about the weight pulling the hinges from the wall — so we attached a small piece of wood to the wall so the frame would be supported when closed over the thermostat.
With two small hinges from our local Lowe's, we were able to cover up our unsightly thermostat!
Next, we needed to tackle the seating so we picked up a piece of thin plywood with the same dimensions as the IKEA cabinet, SOFIA fabric, spray mount and cushion foam. We sprayed the top of the plywood and the bottom of the cushion foam with spray mount and attached the two, allowing them to sit for 20 minutes to ensure a secure bond. Then we wrapped the cushion and plywood much like we would a present, stapling the fabric on the underside of the wood.
To paint the discontinued IKEA cabinet, we used Valspar Interior-Exterior Bonding Primer and then finished the job with several coats of Valspar Interior Semi-Gloss Finish Standard Paint.
All in all, the process was extremely simple and could easily have been completed in a weekend or even a day!
Images: Kristen Lubbe
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Comments (39)
Would love to see the arrangement of the whole room. Do you have a TV in there? I have my TV on the wall with the steps
Genius! I'm doing that to my fugly thermostat, stat. Thanks for sharing.
That hinged picture is so brilliant. The whole area looks great. I love the cushion (and my cats would love it too).
Nice!!! I was just thinking to do the same over the past weekend about hiding the ugly thermostat in our house.... but wasnt sure if the thermostat would work correctly if covered by a frame...
The hinged frame over unsightly things on the wall is a pretty brilliant idea!
I'm sooooo stealing the hinged picture over the thermostat trick. Really... GENIUS!
At first I didn't catch the changes and thought that all you had done to fix up the place was put a put a cat on it. How very Portlandia.
P.S. the changes are very nice.
Always better with 'added cat'. Nice job.
I thought I was doomed to the ugly exposed thermostat greeting my guests, but now I know how to hide it! Thanks so much for the tip.
And ... the feline greeter is the best entryway touch :)
Where's the thermostat in the before picture?
WTH???
love the hinged photo idea. i think i am going to use that one to hide my fusebox!
Love the hinge idea...but I wouldn't really call this a before and after based on those photos.
Yes, where's the thermostat in the "before" picture?
I must be the only person not bothered by the thermostat. Even worse, I thought my new thermostat looks great, what with the nice screen that tells me the time and the temperature in the house, and all the programming options...you know, the reasons why it's there. I'll...leave now.
The thermostat hadn't been installed in that location yet, which is why it doesn't appear in the first photo. Once the thermostat was installed there, that's when we knew we needed to hang a picture to cover it :)
@wally3 unfortunately, I'm a renter so I had no say in the selection of the thermostat. It's a bottom of the line honeywell that to us, isn't very attractive. Maybe when we're future home owners & purchase a thermostat we love, we won't cover it up. :)
Won't the frame over the thermostat block air from circulating around it, creating an artificial reading?
@subwayknitter I don't believe hanging a frame over the thermostat creates an air-tight seal ;). we haven't had any problems with readings and our energy bill hasn't changed since we hung the picture.
Love the lamp!
I think that just about any piece of furniture with a cat perched on it will DEFINITELY be much nicer/more attractive than a piece of furniture without a cat perched on it!
What a great idea!
Aren't there hinges that don't stick out like that? I feel like they could be hidden better. Aside from that it's a brilliant idea.
You arent supposed to cover up your thermostat because it can not properly regulate the temperature of the house if it is not getting direct air. If it really bothers you, just pick up a new one you like better at home depot. They take about 5 mins to install.
Love the hinge idea!
The hinges were genius. I love this little seating area, especially the use of the cat pillow...its so life like. ;-p
I'd love to be your cat. This is a smart and beautiful solution.
Where did you get the lamp?
my favorite thing about this is that the print is Lucero, which happens to be one of my favorite bands (and they're really some of the most fun guys ever). nice choice!
Love this idea!!!
If the thermostat hadn't been installed wouldn't it have been easier to install it in a location that you didn't need to cover up?
Love this idea!
I might use it to cover my fuse box, which was there when I bought the house and doesn't need air around it - I see that this is very important.
Oh, and that is such a cute kitty!
Love Philly and very cute cat! I have to agree with the others about covering the thermostat though. Location of the thermostat is important so if that was the best place, it was the best place, but to do its job it needs airflow. If it's a 180 hinge, I'd probably keep the picture flipped the other way unless I had guests. Maybe use a dual sided concert picture? Creative idea overall and nicely adaptable for covering other things too, like the fusebox.
Well, heck. My witty remark about "how do you plan to make the cat stay in the vignette" is kind of redundant after all those other remarks!
Thanks for the info on making the cushion. I'm going to do something similar for a toy box. By the way... I 2nd loving the lamp! where is it from?
ooh, slick! This is how I covered my thermostat, which unfortunately is smack dab in the middle of a large wall.
http://coolmelon.com/house/201010/IMG_1818a.JPG
http://coolmelon.com/house/201010/IMG_1816a.JPG
I just glued some wooden dowels to the back of a plaque mounted poster and hung it from the top.
LOVE.IT! Trying to figure out something similar to cover our ugly, enormous fuse box. Right now we have art hanging from magnetic hooks. Maybe painting the fuse box the wall color??
Awesome. Even when we were renting we bought programmables for every space (SO easy to install, if you have the power shutoff) and we saved a ton. We took them with us to our new home, after replacing them again. I think we got a 7 pack for under 200$...
I love Lucero!
I am surprised this idea hasn't caught on like wildfire. It is brilliant
I hung a mirror over my fuse box (found one with some depth to the frame) and I love it! For some reason the condo builder put the fuse box smack dab across from the front door- yuck!