Yesterday, Melissa shared our new TV stand.

See how neat and tidy the inside of the box looks? So much nicer than if there were cords and cables and such running everywhere.

I made a small cord hideaway for the new entertainment center with leftover wood from the kitchen project and the floor. The basic idea is that I could create a shelf underneath it to put the power strip and power brick for the Xbox 360.

To start, I sat on the couch and got an idea for how low the shelf could be, which was about to the top of the trim. With that, I took some measurements for length and height. I thought I could gain some additional space for the cords if the front side of the shelf was angled back to the wall. So I set it a 45 degrees.

I ended up with a 5- inch ledge for the power strip and XBox brick.

I flipped the entertainment center over and drilled a hole in the bottom where the cords would pass through using a 2.5 inch hole saw attachment for my drill.

I attached the shelf to the bottom of the entertainment center with screws. Al of this stuff was already on hand in our garage so this little project was totally free. Except the new TV stand itself of course, but even that was pretty cheap considering it was from Target and thus not very expensive.

Then, it was time to start running cords through the hole.

We know it’s not a huge upgrade, as if we had built something from scratch or invested in something larger or more expensive, but it suited our needs for our small living room and we like it better than what we had before.

Plus, you can barely see the shelf when you’re sitting on the couch watching TV. And even though I can see it a little bit if I look for it, we notice it a LOT less than we would notice a bunch of messy cords on the floor piled up into messy knots.

And with a couple hours of work, I was able to customize it to hide all the cord clutter Melissa hates. Plus, since I was able to use some flooring scraps that were prefinished, this project didn’t require any painting or staining, but since the floors match this piece so well, it worked out great.

We do see a 2 cords in the corner since there isn’t an outlet directly behind where the TV is. I may add one to avoid that in the future. Right now, the reindeer are hiding it, but they are going back to the North Pole this weekend.

And there’s plenty of storage in the drawer for other random cords Melissa complains about all the time.

Ever build a similar cord cubby? I’ve seen ideas online for how to hack similar boxes for the cords behind desks and have been meaning to do that in Melissa’s office for awhile. Any suggestions for how to handle that project?

P.S. Melissa is laughing at seeing her reflection on the couch in the photo directly across the TV. Did you spot her?