Call it cyber clutter. Or messy Web weaving. Or just plain ugly-wire networking. The wires from computer monitors, keyboards, speakers, printers, faxes, scanners and phones that swoop around rooms, dangle under desks, and loop along desktops in an all-out scramble to get to the nearest electrical outlet are, for some, a visual nightmare.
There’s no uniform color or girth to them, and they are as prone to tangling as a mop of wet hair. They also seem to multiply overnight. There are the big, fat, hose-like ones from the monitor; the skinnier, more flexible ones from the keyboard and mouse; the tangled mass of them to and from the CPU (computer power unit); and the strays from the printer, fax and surge protector. There are silver ones, white and gray ones, and black.
Somehow, this mess is mysteriously absent from photographs of computer stations in catalogs, and wires never snake along the rugs or dangle from desks in furniture showrooms. They seem only to lurk and lurch around private homes and apartments like a veritable cyber invasion.
Eben Scanlon, 25, a graduate student at Harvard Business School, is trying to make his new apartment as wireless as possible.
“In other apartments, I’ve hidden wires under sofas and rugs, but I’m planning to be pretty wireless this time by using LAN [local area network] cards and a Linux box [a piece of computer equipment] that serves as a [wireless] bridge between my computers,” says Scanlon.
Although he has five computers, Scanlon is planning to use only two in his new digs. What he’s most excited about, he says, are the wireless homes that some friends are building.
“Most people I know who are building new houses are putting in ethernet drops,” he says. “That means all the wires are in the walls and the drop is like a phone jack.”
For those still with old-fashioned exposed wires, however, help is available. With 60 percent of American homes now equipped with computers and 70 percent of all home computers purchased by first-time buyers, according to a recent Microsoft survey, the furniture, interior-design, and industrial-design industries are tackling wire management and techno-clutter problems.
According to SoHo Today magazine, an industry trade publication based in Greensboro, N.C., today’s residential computer furniture industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the business.
“The combination of falling PC prices, ongoing corporate downsizing, and the growing number of Americans spending time in their home offices proved to be key ingredients in the recipe for success enjoyed by the small office/home office segment in 1999,” according to a recent issue of the magazine. “Last year, the Business Industry Furniture Manufacturers Association indicated that the wholesale demand for domestic office furniture is at approximately $12.7 billion. [In 2000], the group says it expects that number to reach between $13 billion and $13.5 billion, which would represent an increase of between 4 percent and 6 percent.”
Designers say that although many clients seem willing to spend money on space planning and decorating for his, hers, theirs, and the children’s computers, there are still the holdouts who’ll pay thousands for a little-used dining room set but a pittance on computer stations. This, even though a recent Harris poll found that of the 63 percent of adults who use computers, 26 percent use one both at work and at home and the average weekly use is 15 hours, six of which are spent on the Internet.
One need not hire a decorator or buy an expensive wall unit to achieve solutions to the wire mess. A few dollars buys a handful of large cup hooks at the hardware store. Screw them into the back of the computer desk or table, gather the wires in a bunch and string them through the hooks, then bring them all straight down to the outlet. Alternatively, buy a roll of duct tape and tape the bunched wires along the underside or back of the desk. Or, create neat bundles by grouping wires together and binding them with nylon ties or Velcro wraps or “twisties” from bread wrappers. Then herd them toward an inexpensive power strip with four or five outlets.
To hide the wires, try plastic corrugated tubing from a store such as Hold Everything (roughly $16 for 8 feet of flexible tubing). The tubing comes split down the middle so it can be opened and wrapped around a set of wires. This gives a one-lane, all-inclusive, covered-bridge route to an outlet.
Mitchell Klein, president and chief executive officer of Media Systems, based in the Boston Design Center, says that when it comes to wires, “it’s a matter of detail, not budgetry. It’s about dressing and creating harnesses with your wires so that there is one single run of cable.”
He also emphasizes planning, planning, and more planning when branching into more expensive home-office setups, armoires, and high-end desks.
“Don’t be fooled by the lovely photos in the catalogs,” he says. “There are never any wires in the pictures. So be careful. However, most cabinets and desks can be modified to a person’s needs. A home office should have, and can have, the functionality of a business office.”
Klein’s company works on the big picture of prewiring new homes with the most sophisticated communications systems available. He also assures that eventually, these wires (and this article) will be obsolete. The wireless computer is on the horizon.
Bruce Kasrel, senior analyst at Forrester Research, agrees.
“What is going to happen is that networking technology will allow scanners and printers to communicate with a computer without being in the same room,” says Kasrel. “There will be just one power cord. Ultimately, there may be no need for even a power cord. A technology called Bluetooth may someday allow a printer to talk to a computer without the need for a cable.”
Wirelessness, however, will not be available in the next year or two.
“If I were building a new home and I was a high-tech person, I would special-wire the house because that’s going to be the best solution for the next two to five years,” says Kasrel. “Within 10 years, we won’t need special wiring.”
For now, cleverly housing computers and their wires and accessories in various rooms has become a top priority in the design industry, mainly because computers are not relegated to just one room anymore. A recent Microsoft poll found 33 percent of home computers are in the playroom, den or family room; 28 percent are in the office, library or study; and 16 percent are in the master bedroom, followed by the living room, child’s bedroom,and other rooms set aside for cyber working.
Robin Pelissier, an interior designer and owner of Robin’s Nest in Hingham, Mass., custom designs armoires and wall units for clients but also takes far less expensive routes.
“You can get decent armoires or desk units in catalogs like Pottery Barn,” says Pelissier. “An armoire is great because it’s a good-looking piece in a room and you can close it up and hide the computer when you’re not using it. Just be careful about the measurements and that there’s a roll-out piece for the keyboard and spaces below for a fax and speakers.”
Kitchens are becoming an increasingly popular place for a computer, designers say, as it tends to be the hub of the house. This is usually the wife’s computer. The husband’s, they say, often remains in the den or library.
“Men like their desks facing the door, they don’t like their backs to the door,” says Pelissier. “So I’ll put the computer along the wall behind the desk because you don’t want to see a bunch of wires falling off a desk as you enter a room. A swivel chair makes everything accessible.”
For children, Pelissier likes to convert a small bedroom closet into a computer center. She upholsters the inside of the door and hangs a bulletin board on it, puts a wide piece of wood or a formica-topped piece on two sawhorses as a desktop for the monitor, keyboard, and printer, and places the computer in a cabinet underneath.
“You can get an inexpensive cabinet from Home Depot and drill holes in the back for the wiring,” says Pelissier. “If you don’t want a cabinet, drill holes in the formica top, snake the wires through the holes, and then put them in tubing for a clean look. You can add bookshelves on the facing wall or put up another bulletin board. When the child is not using the computer, just close the door.”
Pelissier does not always try to hide a computer or large-screen television, however.
“Sometimes, the computer or television is the most expensive thing in the room and people want to show off their techiness,” she says.
For a more luxurious look, Charles Spada of Charles Spada Interiors, also in the Design Center, has custom-built commodes and buffets with pull-out drawers for monitors, keyboards, and faxes. Increasingly, clients are asking for “his and her” work stations.
“Husbands really don’t care what their computer station looks like,” says Spada. “They just want leg room and surface space. Women want their work space pretty and practical. They don’t want to see a lot of electronics. They want their space free and clean. They are neatniks. Men are more comfortable with everything at their fingertips. They don’t care if everything is out in the open. They want to see their toys.”
There are plenty of toys in the Fish house in Weston, Mass. Ellen Fish said her husband, Ted, who works with Peabody Construction, “sometimes works out of the house and needed a room for a computer, fax, and copy machines, but I didn’t want the room to be a total office. I wanted to be able to sit in there, watch TV with my son, Eddie, and just relax. I hate the way wires and things hang off desks. They’re so ugly. Some of them are just huge, especially those big black ones that MediaOne puts in. They make for a visual disaster. So we tried to hide the wires as much as possible by putting in plenty of strip outlets placed high enough off the floor so you don’t see them.”
It works. Sitting in the office Spada designed, a few wires are visible snaking across the desk area to the wall, but no wires dangle beneath the desk. They are bunched together and plugged into the above-knee-level outlet.
Pamela Glossmann-Smith of Design Creations Inc. in Boston has made a specialty of custom office design, both residential and commercial, and often uses inexpensive materials to keep costs down.
She uses plywood covered with laminate, for example, and attaches the desktop to the wall by anchoring it on a 2-by-4. To further support the desktop, she puts filing cabinets underneath. As for the wire problem, she drills holes or grommets in the laminate, groups and tapes wires underneath the desktops, then drops them down behind the filing cabinets to an outlet.
Pelissier says she urges her clients to pick up magazines and decorating books, and to go on house tours and to show houses.
“That’s where I get my ideas,” she says. “So why shouldn’t my clients?”
