Hide Your Wires In Plain Sight with FlatWire’s Flat Wire
I think we all know that a ballin home theater system must be on display sans unsightly furniture. The problem is that usually means punching holes in your wall to hide the wires, which your landlord may not like, or not hiding the wires in which case you are no longer ballin. Well until we have wireless power, FlatWire is your solution to smash that catch 22. FlatWire is… flat wire that you mount on the surface of your wall then paint over.
FlatWire cover any type of wire you’d need including high-voltage electrical, low-voltage lighting, Cat5, 5e & 6 data cables, voice/data lines, coaxial cable, speaker wire, component video, HDMI & DVI. They are currently working on Fiber Optic and outdoor products.
These wires are very flexible allowing you to fold them over on themselves to make and degree turns you want. They then connect to your existing outlets or AV hookups via the FlatWire adapters.
The wires range from 4/1000 of an inch to 13/1000 of an inch, about the thickness of a cheap business card. You can install it yourself using their spray on adhesive. After you paint over it they would be "virtually" invisible, but I think you can image if you stuck a business card to your wall and painted over it, if your looking for it you’ll be able to see it. If you want to get really fancy you can use compound or drywall mud and taper the edges so they would be as undetectable as the joints in your walls.
The draw back is these wires are expensive… $37 for 25 ft of speaker cable, $110 for 20 ft of Cat 5 cable, and $130 for 20 ft of component video cable. Depending on your situation, the high cost could still be much less than a professional installation where they are cutting holes in your walls and rewiring your system, plus hard installs are not an option for some people who don’t own their pad.
For more details check out their installation guide.
32 Comments, Comment or Ping
dog the bounty hunter
its tape!
Apr 12th, 2008
CHRIS
Errm, it is less hassle just fishing the wires down the back of a drywall - you only have to fill a few holes then - imagine pulling the tape off the wall when you move and you have a big decoration job….
Apr 12th, 2008
E F Benson, Elmhurst, IL
and ugly tape at that
Apr 12th, 2008
Fernando
Yeah this idea sucks. If you have a landlord, you shouldn’t be messing with home theater systems. Get your priorities straight and buy a house so you can do whatever you want…
Apr 12th, 2008
Simply
Turn your home into a Faraday Cage!
Apr 12th, 2008
Moes
@Chris - Good Point!
@E F Benson - it doesn’t matter what the tape looks like, you paint over it and can’t see it knuckle head!
Apr 12th, 2008
jack
This guys an idiot LOL
Apr 12th, 2008
Samantha
I think this idea is great. Although my husband seems to think it will be horribly easy to break.
Would it be impossible to make the coating a simple color, like black or white, therefore to avoid having to re-decorate after you move out? As it is, my cables are strewn about my living room, as if the floor were made out of them, and even though it’s ugly, I would much prefer this to what I have now.
Apr 12th, 2008
true
@Samantha
There are no girls on the internet
Apr 12th, 2008
Mike
@SIMPLY: YES!
Apr 12th, 2008
Jean
Chris, Ef Benson, Fernando, Moes, you all sound like Samantha. On the other hand she is authentic…..
So you suck and this is a good idea.
Salut, bilouts.
Apr 12th, 2008
fenderflip
I ate poop once that had tape and wire in it.
Apr 12th, 2008
peggy
wow this is a pretty smart idea
Apr 12th, 2008
Emma
So, the landlord might not like you punching holes in the wall to hide the wires, but they’ll be ok with the holes left when you remove the drywall mud, in order to get at the expensive cables, which are essentially stickytaped to the wall?
I think I’m ok with them on the floor.
Apr 12th, 2008
linuxamp
This is a bad idea for any kind of signal cable such as DVI, HDMI, speaker or especially Ethernet cables. Those cables are TWISTED for a reason, to reduce the effect of electromagnetic interference (noise).
If you untwist the cable the noise from microwaves, florescent lighting, cordless and mobile phones etc. may become noticeable. The noise is seen or heard on video and audio cabling. In Ethernet, this basically leads to data corruption which means that shorter cables that work will appear to be slower (higher ecc rates). Longer distances may not work at all.
Apr 13th, 2008
seps1816
I dont know why everyone here is pretty much complaining about someting tht was made to make things easier for ya. Either way if you like it or your dont its still a step ahead which is the whole point anyways. And to the dumb ass who left that comment about how he once ate poop with wire and tape stick a gun in your mouth and do us all a favor cause someone like you shouldnt be allowed to have kids.
Apr 13th, 2008
Shawn C
I understand the wire and tape poop. I think it is meant to be funny, no? I mean, what else can you gather from that. I find your hostility to be unwarranted and ugly.
Apr 13th, 2008
Jach
@TRUE http://xkcd.com/322/
If you’ve got the kind of wires that ought to be out of sight and behind the wall, shouldn’t they stay that way? Neat idea though.
Apr 13th, 2008
Anon
AllEN! (String Theory) Sucks so bad.
Apr 13th, 2008
Philip
Looks interesting. It seems too expensive though and it isn’t braided. If there could be a flat, braided version that might work better.
Apr 13th, 2008
BasicSense
ok, aesthetics?
Apr 13th, 2008
Joe
Shawn C - you suck! Tape and poop was funny.
Apr 13th, 2008
lamess
I feel into the wall while drunk as a sailor and electrocuted my self on this exposted wire and am not writing from the grave. Beware living beings, there is danger everywhere.
Apr 13th, 2008
Liz
to Fenderflip: you can eat my poo! But seriously… I’m not kidding.
On a lighter note everyone here that is saying the tape is ulgy are idiots. You paint over it and you can’t see it!!! It is clear that natural selection is dead, long live the morons!
Apr 13th, 2008
monn
c’mon guys you don’t know jack!
that’s a great idea!
I’d install that right away to my home if possible.
Apr 14th, 2008
will
I would be worried about if it would stick out at all and when you paint over it when it meets a 90 degree angle if it will bend enough and not be rounded.
Apr 15th, 2008
That one guy
i dont know about you guys, but installing a new tv shouldnt have to involve paint
also, what if you install it, then decide to rearange everything because you buy a new bed?, or you have to move (like if you owned a house) and therefore ripped the tape off the walls (its expensive, im not leaving it behind) and have to repaint your walls because of the paint removed in the process.
overall i think its a neat idea, but it just doesnt work out so well
Apr 15th, 2008
Atomic Shrimp
It does seem to radically increase the chance of accidentally drilling into a wire (It’s only for signals, not power supply, right?) Also, isn’t it going to be better (well, worse - you know) at picking up interference?
I’d make it part of the decor, personally - leave all that lovely copper showing - make it a feature.
Apr 16th, 2008
Ghostworks
Hmm. It is kind of a cool idea.
Re: One demanding house ownership be a priority, get real. There’s no such thing as ownership in the US, just the illusion there of. Don’t assume your priorities should be everyone’s. I’d rather live more a nomad than be stuck at a place I bought.
Apr 18th, 2008
johnnyB
To be fair it would be easier to replace the skirting board with a higher one with the back of it routed out with the cables in, ps I’m an electrical engineer pmsl.
Apr 22nd, 2008
Austin
@ Chirs Just don’t move….ever
May 15th, 2008
Poop eater
I too ate poop with wire in it. Kind of hard to chew but not bad at all.
May 16th, 2008
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