How to Hide Your AC Unit

My daughter and son-in-law moved into an apartment building which was built in the 1960’s. The building was lovely from the outside, but when we walked into the apartment the main focal wall had a huge air conditioning unit smack dab in the middle of the wall. At that moment, we knew what our next project would be; hiding the AC unit.

Since the AC unit was in the main room, which was also a long and narrow space (check out our blog post, Tricks to Decorating Long and Narrow Spaces), my daughter was frustrated with how to personalize the room and asked, “Mom, what can you do to fix this?”

The main problem is that you need to cover the unit without restricting airflow. Also, the unit protrudes about 8 inches from the wall. Here’s how we fixed it.

Alyce and I were shopping one afternoon where we found a beautiful, square basket. It had an open design in the center and was about 12″ in depth. Would it cover the air conditioning unit?

We got to the apartment excited to see if it would work and it was perfect! The only dilemma was it wouldn’t stay on the unit and kept sliding off, but that was an easy fix. We hammered a long nail on each side of the air conditioning unit and then hung the basket on the nails and voila – it worked!

Next, we searched for all the things that had not been hung up in their apartment yet. We decorated around the basket and the wall was complete.

Problem solved.

Another idea, which would take a little more work, is a box. Build a box the dimensions of the air conditioning unit. Instead of using wood for the bottom of the box, purchase lattice material. The lattice may be wood or metal. Paint the box and hang it just like the basket.  Finally, surround the box with pictures and items you love!

Just remember design solutions are around you. Your turn: how did you disguise your air conditioner? Leave your ideas below!

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