Read on for DIY radiator cover ideas that can turn steaming eyesores into sizzling eye candy.
How Can You Make Your Own Radiator Cover?
Instead of purchasing pre-built radiator covers, you can make your own radiator cover. Many do-it-yourself homeowners create inexpensive radiator covers that look beautiful. To build a radiator cover, you only need a few materials like wood and aluminum, but sometimes soft materials such as a cane, fabric, and string, depending on the style. Some builders offer DIY radiator cover plans and recommend using medium-density fiberboard (MDF). MDF is one of the best woods for radiator covers. This dense, synthetic wood composite is more stable when subjected to the radiator’s heat spikes. Pine, popular, and birch are solid woods commonly used. If you want to go another route, repurpose a bench, console, or shelf instead of a radiator cover and place it on top of your radiator. You can also transform a radiator cover into art. Furniture designer Jason Muteham turns sleek laminated cherry, ash, and oak wood into a radiator cover that is a modern masterpiece. Based in Bekesbourne, Kent, Muteham makes other versions where he applies primary color Formica-type laminates atop the wood for an even more contemporary look. Begin with a tall, narrow table called a console table, ensuring it is high and deep enough to cover the radiator. Many console tables are sturdy enough that lower braces are not necessary. If the table has a lower leg brace, notch it back deep enough for a radiator covering. You can bring this look into your home by creating a wall-length built-in shelving unit incorporating the radiator. Just provide generous buffer room on all sides of the radiator to allow the heat to escape. You can find wood pallets alongside the road in industrial areas (be sure to ask the business if you can take them). Be cautious of pallets that formerly held food, chemicals, or petroleum-based products. Spills can be hard to remove from the pallet wood. If not thoroughly removed, these spills may emit noxious smells when the radiator heats up. If you don’t want to go up, like if you have a window in the way but want to go side to side, make it a horizontal bookshelf with book cubbies on each side of the radiator.
