mid-century modern remodel: unsightly cables

After Albert's miraculous installation of the bedroom TV that allows us to see the living room cable DVR in the remodeled bedroom (See Part 1 and Part 2), we were left with a nasty cable problem.

Boxee and Cables

Boo. Come to think of it, cable messes are pretty common place in our house. We have the usual 2-5 cell phones, 3-4 laptops, 2-3 ipads, a tower, a few servers, and who knows how many wireless connections. That is pretty normal, right?

When I was out buying new hampers (due to remodeled bathrooms and master bedroom) at The Container Store, I spotted something really interesting.

BlueLounge CableBox

What have we here? An over priced box ($29.95) designed specifically to store a power strip and all the plugs and wires? Count me in.

BlueLounge CableBox Installed

Now I had a new problem. Although my cables were less unsightly, I still had the unsightly box. I started looking for pieces of furniture to put on top of it. I searched for "modern bench" on Google and came up with this classic little mid-century gem:

Nelson Platform Bench @ HermanMiller.com

At $849, it was just a tiny bit steep. So I searched for "Nelson Platform Bench" and discovered kock-offs for like $240 or so. The Amazon comments indicated the finish was poor, but over all does the trick and fools the eye fairly well. I ordered one immediately, very anxious to take care of this latest stumbling block to decorator perfection. When the bench came, it had been packaged so poorly that a huge noticeable ding had been taken out of one corner by Parcel Post.

Amazon knock-off Nelson Platform Bench

Amazon has an incredible return policy and procedure. You simply print out a parcel post return slip and Parcel Post is scheduled to come back and get the offending item, at no cost and no hassle to you. I am now stalking "modern benches" on eBay and CraigsList. Let me know if you find anything. Meanwhile, I am busy hiding the rest of our cords.