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AC units are a must in virtually every home. It’s not just to regulate room temperature, it is also to clean the indoor air supply and keep your environment as comfortable as possible. However, this comes with a huge drawback, and that is fitting those devices into your home.
In fact, AC units interfere with the building design so much that they are actually banned in some places in the world. For instance, building standards regulations in Switzerland prohibit the use of air-conditioning all together, while in Germany there are some old buildings in old parts of cities that prohibit messing with the facade in any way. This naturally includes mounting ACs there.
However, if we are talking about ordinary homes, they might not fall under such strict regulations. But, we also don’t want to mess up a perfectly good wall or ceiling because of an AC unit. On the other hand, we also can’t hide these devices so to make air conditioning repair impossible.
So, what are some clever ways to hide an AC unit but still make it easily accessible for maintenance? Read to learn about some interesting design hacks! We hope you enjoy this inspiring information.
Need a Design Hack for Hiding Your AC Unit? Read This!
⎆ Indoor Units
The most commonly used method of concealing indoor AC units are cabinets. It is used for hiding the indoor portion of the device and people have taken it quite far. Online sources show people doing cabinet refacing to make them not only look beautiful but serve an additional purpose.
If you have an indoor AC unit or a vent exhaust placed at knee level, you are in luck. This is an excellent starting point. Indoor AC units do not heat up much, even if you are using them for heating, and you can make all sorts of wood cabinets for them.
Naturally, they must have an open pattern on the doors, which will cover over 70% of the front side of the cabinet, and the size and number of holes much be sufficient to enable uninterrupted airflow. When determining this, it is best to consult with a professional air conditioning repair expert.
But, once you do this right, the magic can begin. This knee level wood cabinet may or may not be fixed to a wall behind it, but it definitely should be using its own leggings to stand on the floor below it. If so, you can use it as a basis for more cabinets or shelves above it built in all kinds of shapes, serving all possible purposes.
Some people order custom-designed cabinets tailored for their needs, like bookshelves, entertainment centers, headboards, etc… They are predetermined to stand in front of air vents or ACs so they still have sufficient holes and patterns in proper places. But, when doing this, you must think about maintenance also, meaning you should be able to move the whole structure when need be.
⎆ AC Unit Makeover
However, many indoor ACs and vents are mounted higher up on walls. It may not be too practical to design a whole new piece of a wooden cabinet, larger than the unit itself, to try and hide it. You may end up with more problems then when starting.
When faced with this problem, some people attempted to make the AC unit’s own case look better. This has to lead to some hacks using stickers, spray paints, and even cleverly designed patterned wallpaper.
Using stickers on an indoor AC unit is challenging if you want to do it right and you need to check if they are safe to be used on a heating unit. But, painting air vents is pretty much safe and simple. You just need to pick the right color type depending if your vents are metal, plastic, or otherwise, and you need to match your wall color.
You may need to contact the wallpaper designer directly to create a custom-designed cover for your walls that will match your needs, but some people have gotten away with just making cleverly placed holes on a piece of cloth that covers the vent, so…to each their own.
⎆ Outdoor Units
When attempting to hide your outdoor portion of the AC system, there are more things to factor in compared to the same problem indoors. While you still need to think about design, looks, accessibility, and functionality, there is one additional factor and that is – SECURITY.
This is where the problems begin for those that want to make their yard or outdoor walls look good because steel cages are often not that pretty. But, While wood is not safe, there is a way to make it work.
First of all, you can use nice wood boards for steel cabinet refacing. Just find a way to build your wood cabinet over the steel one, whether it’s by handing the boards on bars, or building a larger wooden cabinet over it. Just make sure it is accessible for air conditioning repair, but still safe enough.
Some people have taken this to a whole new level and built AC “houses” from wood, lattice AC screens, all kinds of cleverly designed walls made of wood or other materials. But, the simplest, low tech way is to build a mini fence over your outdoor AC unit and maybe add some flower boxes or lanterns to add some charm to it.
Author’s Bio
James Watson is a part of the Content and Marketing team at Eliteheatingandac.com.
Images Courtesy of Canva.
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