2 posts tagged “wire management”
Wire Management and Wardrobes
We wanted to get away from the normal white switches for Reiki Sanctuary. Legrand was our first choice. We just love the silvery plate. However, we had problem to match the silver face plate with its white base. All base came in white colour. Matching them together, silver and white, looked not right to us.
Though we managed to get the color code from Legrand for its silver colour and gotten the electrician to spray paint the base, we didn't want to employ too many of it in the house. With the base, the switches looked awkwardly bulky [just as picture below].
We had more than fifty switches and sockets, all around the house including for the down lights, and wanted a subtle presence of them [as in picture below] on the walls. At the same time, we didn't want to have too many wire trunks exposed all around the house.
With your floor plan, go through each room and locate the number of socket points/SCV/Telephone line. Advice the electrician about cornices and/or false ceilings, if you are intending to do them. Make sure the routing of wires/cables is done before the installation of cornice/false ceiling.
How we hide wires/cables for electrical sockets and rear speaker in living room
To minimise trunkings exposed in living room, the electrician fished the wires and cables from an accessible space through another wall, which in our case from the guest room.
The wires/cables were routed to far end [near window] pulled from electrical distribution box/amplifier from the living room inside and through wall.
How we hide wires/cables with wardrobes
You need to tell your carpenter that the sides of the wardrobes/cabinets are to act as a wall for switches/sockets. He will have to construct additional layer of wood to box-in the wires.
Our switches and sockets at different part of the house:
Dining Cabinet
Interior - Box for Wires
An additional wood panel was built to hide the wires
Shoe Cabinet
A boxed panel to act as wall and to hide the wires:
This ceiling fan is fixed directly to the ceiling. A hole had to be made at the false ceiling.
The Switch and Regulator:
Wire Management for TV Console
Our renovation journey had been educational and, thanks to our meticulous ID - Chiauw, we picked up lots of valuable insight. Her motto in serving to educate her clients, let us to become well informed with market products, brands, quality and useful renovation know-how. Of course, this comes with a price but, looking back, it will be a lifelong lesson.
We were not an easy client too. We expected quality in workmanship; superiority yet affordable products and a result that exudes elegant aura of stylish home. Reiki Sanctuary is an old HDB with lots of restrictions. From the limited air conditioning electrical consumption and condensor weight to the height floor-ceiling limit.
One fastidious aspect that we needed her to propose was for the wiring management system that must be functional, affordable and provided an attractive solution. We wanted a seamless installation. To accomplish result where wires and cables 'disappear' into the walls and ceilings. We wanted an aesthetically appealing wire management that will integrate well with our home decor.
Where we used to stay, in Hertford, we were able to conceal the wires. Most of them were embedded into the wall. With such wired definition, it made the mess for electrical wired trunks less visible and, needless to say, is more pleasing to the eyes. However, the setback of not having a proper floor plan and a good drawing for the electrical chart, it can be a nightmarish shortfall. It would be a guessing game to point how those circuitry electrical wires were run.
HDB, on the other hand - particularly old flats, has strict regulations. Electrical wires are not to be concealed into the wall. The whole circuitry is exposed. Therefore, In designing Reiki Sanctuary, it became a challenge.
In my previous entry Timeline - In Perspective, I wrote that life is beautiful. In a reciprocal respect, with all the days brainstorming to minimise the exposure of wires and to manage clutter in a workstation/tv console in Reiki Sanctuary, she turned HDB's restriction towards an acceptable trimmed and undiluted 'wired' sanctuary. We managed to conceal, probably, ninety percent of the design of an effective electric circuit around the house.
Achieving Hidden Wire Management System for TV Console
The First Step - Circuitry Routing
Identify your desirable lifestyle for each room and the electrical gadgets/devices that will be housed therein. With your floor plan, go through each room and plot the number of socket points/SCV/Telephone line. Get the electrician to fix them before the commencement of carpentry works.
Example of Wire Management in Living Room:
Work out a systematic and functional carpentry design and decide whether the electrical gadgets/devices will either be hidden or exposed. It is good to know the dimensions for these gadgets/devices and, importantly, to provide allowances for the connecting cables.
Go through with the carpenter on the exact location of power points/SCV/Telephone line sockets and the gadgets/devices. Indicate to him that you want these sockets to be concealed inside the cabinet.
The carpenter needs to know the exact location of the sockets to ensure right cutting for socket mounting. It is good to have a good drawing to show the configuration and routing as how the cables will run.
For the top of the console, design a subtle 'opening'. This opening is meant for easy routing of wires/cables. You may want to have a hole [inside] at the bottom of the console for cables to subwoofer.
Example of TV Console [or rather, pictures say thousand words]:
Exterior - Opening for Wires and Cables:
