Routers are the modern equivalent of TV antennas — essential eyesores that don’t really fit in with the rest of your home decor. Here’s a decorative tip from IKEA Hackers that will keep your router hidden from view while also extending your Wi-Fi coverage.
To make a discreet router placement, all you need is an IKEA Ribba picture frame, which retail for $5.99. This has a deep frame which should fit most routers. You’ll need to make some openings in the back for ventilation and to allow the cables to come through but otherwise no DIY work is required. For a cleaner look, you can also add plastic ducts/trunking to hide any protruding cables.
As an added bonus, you should also be able to get better Wi-Fi coverage by placing the frame closer to the centre of your home, as opposed to being tucked away in a corner. The only downside to this solution is that you’ll need to pull the frame off the wall and fiddle with the back whenever you want to switch it off.
Discreet Router Placement in Ribba Frame [IKEA Hackers]
Comments
17 responses to “Hide Your Wireless Router Inside A $5.99 IKEA Picture Frame”
Our just whack it in a bookshelf behind some books…
This is genius.
Personally I don’t think the router looks all that bad. But that picture frame looks like a terrible half assed office fit-out. Especially with the power cords running through the extrusion. Plus routers notoriously need resetting and this would make that process unbelievably hard…..
I’ve always gone with a high up cupboard. Easy to reach and distributes the signal evenly throughout the house. Apparently in the roof is even better.
In all seriousness, do they really need resetting a lot?
My netgear (DGND3700) router has been reset by my hand less than 10 times in nearly 3 years.
Failing that [your.ip_address.here.1/admin] and reset it via the backend.
I agree though, the roof is better, unless like us you have pressed metal ceilings. So I haven’t bothered.
Maybe it’s a case by case think but for us our Netgear router needs to be rebooted nearly every week, possibly due to the large amount of console gaming…
Most routers are fickle and have issues with memory management or garbage collection that is solved with a reboot. So just set the router to reboot everyday, sometime early in the morning say at 5:30am. Never need to deal with a reset again. I run a hospitality business, this move alone solved the daily reboot problem.
Cheers! I’ll turn that feature on!
Doesn’t look very hidden with that ugly conduit running down the wall and into the back of the picture frame..
Agreed. Much better off punching a hole in the plaster behind the frame, and/or getting a more aesthetically pleasing ceiling mounted unit.
Hidden™
Nice idea but they need to hide that cabling away perhaps inside the wall cavity and maybe use a square photo in the frame. I hid an ugly 4:3 format digital frame in a not so ugly IKEA Ribba square frame a few years back, its still kicking along today and gets lots of nice comments from anyone that spots it on my wall. http://www.framebug.com/digital_photo_frame_square_frame_mod.htm
Sadly, IKEA no longer seem to be making those frames out of real timber like the one I used.
hide your sleek incognito access point with a photo frame with ugly photo.
Good idea though, I’d just pick a better photo.
Put a QR code with the guest password there instead
or get a sleek looking one from Cisco.
Geez I prefer the look of the router.
I must be the only one who likes the look. Right now I’ve got my router (plus Raspberry Pi, Hue hub and 56k modem (for caller ID with my home automation)) stuffed in a large, ugly pink and green box (the only one I could find at my local $2 store), so after work I might stop by the store and pick up a large box frame.
Where did it go?
Heating/ventilation issues?