Whenever you do any building in your home, you want to hide evidence of that construction once you have the finished product. Tuck all the wires into their own little boxes, strategically place furniture over the walls that aren’t quite painted yet, and make sure that any growing pains from the construction are covered up.
However, in the bathrooms and kitchens, sometimes you can have exposed plumbing causing all sorts of problems for your style, even if they functionally work well. If you’ve got some exposed piping working as an eyesore for your home, then you don’t need to worry about it. With a little know-how and some work, you can ensure that your exposed piping actually becomes a design choice!
Why Are Some Pipes Exposed?
For many people, exposing the piping is considered a design feature, especially if you have something like copper piping where the pipes actually look beautiful! Additionally, some pipes are exposed simply because of how they are built and where both endpoints of the pipes are going to end up. Sometimes in order for water to get from one end to the other, the piping can’t be placed against the walls.
Additionally, exposed piping can also make it much easier to find and fix plumbing problems rather than someone needing to hunt through the walls for leaks. If you can see the leak with your own eyes and determine where it is coming from and how it happened, then you can more easily get it fixed.
Exposed piping happens, and the best thing you can do is to try and make the most of it.
Blend The Pipes Into The Room
One of the best things that you can do is to simply embrace the pipes. You need the pipes for a successful kitchen and bathroom, and they are going to be here to stay no matter what you do. So you might as well focus on making them work inside of your room. Many people have started to embrace the pipes and have decided to paint over the exposed piping.
You can either paint them the same color of the room to help them blend in and add a nice bit of pop and texture to the room, or you can use completely different colors and really embrace the usage of the pipes!
Depending on how much piping is exposed and where it is exposed in your bathroom or kitchen, you can focus on different colors for different sections depending on what people see.
Use The Pipes For Their Twists and Turns
While you might think of piping as one long straight line, it actually isn’t locked into being that way. You can add twists, turns, and other joints to the piping to make it look more like art. Making sharp angles with these 90 degree joints isn’t too bad, and you can even have them be functional. Just hang your towels on the joints for a makeshift rack!
There are quite a lot of piping shapes, patterns, and configurations that you can put your pipes in, so don’t be afraid to explore what your pipes can do! Just make sure that you work with a plumbing professional from Iron Mountain Plumbing so your shapes don’t mess up the flow rate or the working of the pipes so you get the water flowing in the way that you want.
Put Storage Under Your Sink
Not only are you covering up the pipes that go into the floor from under your sink, you are also getting some much needed bathroom storage at the same time! So don’t be afraid to get a cabinet or vanity unit to not only conceal the pipework but give you a storage space. You will need to do some measuring to make sure that the cabinet can cover your pipes completely and that you have enough space under the sink.
If you really want to make it look like the cabinet under the sink belongs there and isn’t just a storage attempt, you can integrate the sink into the vanity unit with a bit of extra construction skills.
You can also place shelving units or cabinets on the vertical section of piping as well to conceal the pipework. It can actually be pretty fun to increase the storage space of your bathroom, while also directing the attention of people who are in the bathroom to the items on your shelves instead of the pipes you are trying to hide.
Cover The Pipes With Storage Baskets
Finally, don’t be afraid to just focus on keeping it simple and covering the pipes with storage baskets. A good sized laundry basket is going to make sure that you can cover the taller pipes, and there are plenty of other smaller baskets that can be used for smaller coverage. Additionally, you have the extra storage options and places to put your clothes and dirty towels when you are done with them, so it all works out.
Plus, there are dozens upon dozens of storage basket types that will allow you to store items while also keeping to the theme and color palette of your bathroom. So you can easily find baskets that look like they have belonged in your bathroom all along!
Don’t Be Defeated By Exposed Piping
It can be easy to see the exposed piping behind your dream home and just feel like you are looking behind the curtain. You might think it shouldn’t be there, but you don’t need to lay down and surrender just because the inner workings of your house are on the outside. Instead, don’t be afraid to embrace it and allow it to become a feature of your kitchen and bathroom.
That will make sure that you have a unique home that will work for you and your needs, and will also be able to have some serious fun working around the new design elements that the exposed piping will bring!
