This $50 Product Solved My Biggest Living Room Pet Peeve

The one thing my apartment has in common with many celebrity homes? Cords — and lots of them — strewn about each of my rooms, pretty much with reckless abandon. Remember Timothée Chalamet’s utter cable chaos that he shared on Instagram earlier this year? I never felt more seen, but I wanted more for both of us — for all of us. Is it so hard to hide these things? From a raceway in the bedroom to hide a television plug (which I no longer need, thanks to my screenless projector) to a media rack that holds gaming and streaming hardware in the living room (spray-painted black for extra camouflaging and placed inside the firebox as shown above), I’ve truly tried to get a handle on my cord situation but often to no real avail.

The straw that broke the camel’s back though, at least for me, when it comes to cords? Seeing a mess of wires just hanging out in a closer-up photo of my living room from my house tour, which is pictured below. Magazines would photoshop that jumble in the left-hand bottom corner right out or maybe even cut the shot entirely, but I’m glad we ran it. This is my real home on its best day, which is still not perfect and never will be. Seeing this made me notice it on a daily basis when sitting on my sofa or walking in from the door, and I decided I could do a little better here. That’s where the Legrand Wiremold Powered Cable Management Box comes in.

You might have heard of Legrand before from the chic, streamlined switch plates and outlet covers that they make, but turns out the brand is also into cable management big time. A lot of the solutions they have seem a little more commercial in scope and application — think cord cover kits and in-ground cable managers — but not this box. What I love most about it is that it’s a 2-in-1. Obviously, the “box” itself conceals your tangle of wires, but upon opening it up, you can see that it has a built-in, surge-protected power strip with eight outlets, four of which rotate to house larger plugs and bulky adapters. So it’s not just a place to hide your cords; it can also help you eliminate excess separate power strips, too. All you have to do is plug the entire thing into a wall outlet for juice and turn the handy external switch on (you can also power everything off at night or when not in use, too). There’s even a locking mechanism on the front of the box to keep pets or children out for added safety.

If you think you have a lot of cords, you’ll be happy to know that this cable management box is expandable. At its smallest, the footprint’s about nine inches, but you can open it up to around 14 inches to accommodate more wires inside. I was able to fit my Apple laptop charger in there, though admittedly, I do have the smaller of the two brick models. Either way, the box’s still a pretty slick, simple design that blends in well with its surroundings.

I chose the black colorway so it would visually recede into my dark fireplace area when you’re standing at the front door or sitting on the sofa, but the box is also available in white, too, which might be better for an under-desk application.

Either way, cable boxes themselves require cords and plugs, so it’s always a game of attempting to make things look as visually streamlined as possible. Of course, the white coaxial cable still annoys me a little (though I could paint it and may one day), and a few of the exposed cords might benefit from being taped down with gaffer’s tape. On the whole though, my eye doesn’t go straight to this spot anymore (even in my poorly lit, bad iPhone photos).

At $50, it’s not the cheapest cable management box on the market (a slightly cheaper option would be Yamazaki Home’s), but it’s the only one I’ve seen with a built-in power strip (there may be others). When you think about it, power strips can be just as big of eyesores as the cords and cables plugged into them. The only improvement I’d suggest to Legrand? A paintable — or wallpaper-able — finish. That just might make me want one of these in every room!

This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: This $50 Cable Organizer Solved One of My Biggest Living Room Pet Peeves