Covering Those Ugly Radiators

I remember my parents old kitchen when I was a kid... Dark red wallpaper with a white polka dot design. Little thin blacks vines encompassing the dots as they flowed to the ceiling.  Red linoleum covered the floor with a brick-like design.  It had a closed in feel at times due to the dark colors of the interior.  The one thing I remember distinctively is the wooden radiator cover.  It had a solid composition and was dressed in a very dark stain and shiny poly.  A perforated aluminum screen enclosed the front for ventilation.  When my parents redid their kitchen years after moving in, they installed baseboard heating and the radiator cover was history.

When we moved into our house last September, one of the things that was an immediate eye sore was the exposed radiators in each room - and I mean each and every room!  We had spoken to a plumber friend of ours about replacing them with baseboards and he looked at us like we were insane. He explained how much heat they retain when off and how they are the most efficient source of heat that is no longer made - so we decided to keep them and address the aesthetic issue instead.

I was noodling around Pinterest to gain some inspiration that matched our style but I was continuously striking out. A large majority of them had the aluminum grate in the front which we didn't feel would fit in well with our 85 year old home and our style.  I then saw a cover that was made entirely out of wood with these beautiful slats in the front to allow proper airflow.  I really liked the boldness of the wood than the understated grating.  The Craftsman style also meshed well with our aesthetic taste and would fit in perfectly in the living room... so I got to work.

Here is our latest and greatest! We are so happy how these came out. We used Minwax Natural stain and since these covers will be exposed to temperature changes, we applied three coats of Minwax's Helmsman Spar Urethane (in semi-gloss). I can't wait to make more of these!

BEFORE

AFTER

Below is the first cover I completed for our living room. Since we spend most of our time in this room, we wanted to be sure we tackled this cover first to protect Avery. Here is the cover unfinished - I would have left it natural since the grain was beautiful but it didn't match the room - we painted it white semi-gloss to match the molding in the room.

Check out the images below for some of our recent projects.

We are currently offering our custom radiators through Etsy. Since these are custom pieces, please email us for pricing details. Be sure to include the radiator dimensions, preferred style, stain/paint/unfinished and anything else we should be aware of.