How to Hide Your Ugly Water Heater

by Woodshop Diaries

Compliments are always so nice, right? They can totally change everything. I mean you’re going along having the worst day ever and someone tells you that they think you are having a good hair day and suddenly the world is right again. “Who, me? My hair? *flips it around shoulders* Why…thank you! It is great hair, isn’t it?”

So, let me ask you something. Has anyone ever complimented your hot water heater?

No? Really? I wonder why? Is it possibly because it’s maybe just a little bit slightly kind of possibly…um….UGLY?

how to hide your ugly water heater, home maintenance repairs, how to, hvac, painting

Don’t be offended, you really can’t help it. It’s just the nature of the beast…water heaters are just not pretty appliances. I don’t have a pretty one, you don’t have a pretty one. No one has a “pretty” water heater. It’s just not a thing. (Although, the tankless ones are much more attractive than the large ones with tanks…they just cost a lot more. And, hello, my middle name is cheap. Well, not really. It’s Beth. But it might as well be cheap.)

Despite their atrocious appearance, we do have to take a minute to appreciate what a water heater does. I mean…it heats our water. That’s kind of a big deal.

Our water heaters serve an important purpose. We can’t just toss them because they are ugly. But we CAN cover them up. And guess what? IT’S AN EASY FIX!

I can’t tell you exact measurements on this, because it will all be based on your own personal application. You will have to take in to consideration the space you have around your heater, and the size of your heater.

Find all the building details in the blog post below!

That’s much better than looking in and seeing ugly pipes and warning labels all over a big metal tank, right?

PS if you like what you see here, be sure to check out my whole laundry room remodel 🙂 It’s seriously one of my favorite rooms in the house now!

So what are you waiting for?! Get to building–you have a water heater to hide!

More details on the build can be found at the link below.

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3 of 6 questions

Robin on Jul 30, 2016
Gas water heaters are not supposed to have anything within 3 feet of the heater...the flame could ignite it, so I am assuming this is for an electric water heater ONLY?

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Rita.gindi on Jul 30, 2016
Great idea, thanks! I also love those doors, can you go into details? Where, how much and materials? Are the inserts glass? Thanks!!

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Phyllis Darling on Sep 26, 2016
What if the water heater is Gas heated --can it be enclosed?

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Aiokersonalicea1 on Jul 04, 2018

You want cheap. Invest in that tankless water heater, when your Old,Ugly Behemoth one dies. It is worth every penny. The first electric bill we had after installing our tankless one, was $50 cheaper. Which was in the middle of the cycle reading. It was one of the best investments we have ever made in our home.

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MahtaMouse on Apr 19, 2020

I love what you did here! My husband boxed ours in years ago, but he just used pieces of scrap press board and boy is it ugly! I love that you added molding to yours... it's so much nicer looking than mine! Now I'll have to add molding to my WH box to smarten it up as well, lol... thanks for the great idea :)

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