I've moved into a new house and have a lot of things planned and decorating to do! One of the first things I've wanted to get to is the mantle. Above it is a recessed box with the cable, power, and other outlets. I guess in newer builds the cable outlets aren't necessarily finished so this is the only place to plug in the modem and therefore the router. The modem is small and just hidden behind stuff on the other end of the mantle but the router was more of a challenge.
This is what I started with:
The art canvas was sort of hollow due to the frame, so it works great to just hang over the box with all the outlets. We had a lot of clutter on the mantle to try and hide the wires but hopefully this DIY makes it look more polished for now. I saw similar hide-away boxes on Amazon and Etsy in the $50+ range, and at least on Amazon, you didn't have total control over the way the finished product looked.
So, first I went to Tuesday Morning and found a whole shelving unit of fake books. I bought two, which cost me $11. I had this project in mind for awhile so I had the measurements of the router in my phone and picked a book slightly wider and taller. Depth wasn't as much of a concern since I'd be cutting the back off and because the antennas will still stick out of the back. Then I went home and grabbed a hand saw from the garage and cut off the "back" part of the book that would go over the router:
In my case I just had to cut the two corners and then by bending that piece down I was able to just tear it off. So now once you swing the lid closed again, you've got a box with an open back slot to slip a router inside...
As you can see, the box is still going to be away from the wall a bit due to the antenna. This also is a plus if you're worried about the router getting hot. When I tried this with real books it absolutely got hotter, but as this is more of a box around the router and lighter than a normal book it doesn't seem to get hot so far. If you're really concerned you could also cut out the sides of your fake book for more air flow. The smaller book is also a fake hollow book to keep things light. I stuck a cute flower pot I got at Hobby Lobby ages ago on top but the antennas were still bothering me.
Well, luckily the antennas are flexible, so I just aimed them all more towards the center to hide them. So far I haven't noticed any signal loss, but if I did I'd first re-position the antennas and if I had to I'd remove this box except when company comes over.
I hope this helps someone out! My favorite part of DIY stuff is being able to recreate something I want, have it be exactly to my tastes (and/or size if that's a concern), and do it cheaper.
