Hide Utility Boxes in Your Yard: 5 Ideas

Written by Justin Stewart
on Sep 18, 2009

To ensure our content is always up-to-date with current information, best practices, and professional advice, articles are routinely reviewed by industry experts with years of hands-on experience.

Reviewed by
H.R. Helm
on Jun 22, 2022

While air conditioners, electricity, and cable TV add to your quality of life, the utility boxes they require can defy your landscaping efforts. Consider these suggestions to disguise these unsightly boxes in style.

1. Screen It

Put a trellis in front of the utility box or air conditioner, and train your favorite flowers up it. Fold it carefully out of the way to reach the device. Cover the cable box completely with a removable trellis box, painted whichever shade of green predominates in your garden.

2. Camouflage It

Invest in an easy-to-move artificial rock, sized to fit over the cable box or utility access. Artificial rocks look much more natural now than those used on movie sets decades ago.

3. Conceal It

Plant slow-growing flowering shrubs in a precise hedge around the box. Leave a gap for access on the least visible side.

4. Divert Attention

Create a water sculpture on the far side of your garden away from the utility box. Add a path from the patio, bordered by the bright summer flowers you love.

5. Hide It in Plain Sight

Turn the utility or cable box into art: center it in a mosaic of multi-colored geometric paving stones. Create a quiet meditation zone by adding benches on opposite sides.