27 Clever Landscaping Ideas To Hide Utility Boxes

Let’s brainstorm the best ways to hide those ugly utility boxes in our yards. They’re essential but can be real eyesores. Luckily, some creative landscaping can transform them into an attractive part of your yard’s design. Ready to explore some ideas? Let’s dive in!

Is It Okay To Cover a Utility Box?

Before you hide a utility box with landscaping, check local regulations and ensure it’s safe. Some boxes, like gas, water, and cable, can be covered if they remain accessible for maintenance. However, electrical boxes usually need clearance and shouldn’t be obstructed.

Always confirm with your local utility company or building code department to follow guidelines. With proper planning and permission, you can hide those eyesores safely and effectively.

Here’s how to start.

15 Landscaping Ideas To Hide Utility Boxes

Let’s look at our favorite imaginative landscaping ideas to hide utility boxes and give your yard a more polished and attractive makeover!

1. Gorgeous Plant Combination by Backyard Neophyte

Incorporating an attractive plant combination can effectively hide utility boxes in your yard. A great mix includes Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass, Iris sibirica (Siberian Iris), Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (purple coneflower), and Aster novae-angliae ‘Purple Dome’.

Although this combination dies back in winter, evergreen shrubs can provide year-round coverage. For more inspiration and tips, visit the original blog post here.

2. Hide Those Utility Boxes with a Gorgeous Garden

Make your utility boxes disappear with a pretty garden! This setup uses tall grasses and bright flowers like peonies and irises to hide the boxes. The dense foliage provides even more coverage. Add a few garden ornaments for extra charm. This way, your utility boxes blend right into your beautiful yard!

3. Rustic Garden Hideaway for Utility Boxes

This charming garden corner hides a utility box behind a wooden fence, complemented by tall grasses and a barrel planter filled with flowers. The fence and planter add rustic charm, while the grasses and flowers provide a natural look. Decorative elements like hanging pots and garden ornaments complete the scene, making it a delightful part of the landscape.

4. Bright and Fun Utility Box Cover

Turn your utility box into a vibrant garden feature! Use painted wooden pallets in bright colors like blue, green, and orange to create a fun backdrop. Surround the area with cheerful plants like daisies, petunias, and evergreens to add lush greenery and pops of color. This creative solution not only hides the utility box but also adds a lively touch to your garden. It’s an easy, affordable way to enhance your outdoor space with a playful, DIY vibe!

5. Hide It With Hydrangeas and Wood

Found at Start at Home decor.

6. DIY Lattice Screen for Utility Boxes

This wooden lattice screen was originally built to hide an outdoor air conditioner. It’s made from simple lattice panels, making it a straightforward DIY project. Besides hiding the air conditioner, it can also work well to cover up utility boxes in your yard. This screen blends nicely with the surrounding plants, keeping your outdoor space looking neat and tidy.

7. Hiding Utility Boxes With Plants by This Old House

If you’re considering planting shrubs around your utility box, figuring out where to start is daunting! This video features many great tips, including managing potential hazards such as underground cables and ideas for creating an attractive landscaping style.

You could also plant tall grass in addition to native shrubs. Filling a simple garden bed with tall grasses will hide the box from view but ensure adequate space around the access door for utility workers.

8. Using Fake Rocks To Hide a Utility Unit by Creekside Outdoor Living

This idea is oh so simple, but I love it! Smaller household utility units are often in the most inconvenient places, but many can get safely disguised by covering them with faux rocks. We love this as a great backyard landscaping option that requires minimal effort, a definite win-win situation!

9. Repurpose Wooden Shutters

This DIY project uses old shutters to create a simple screen that hides utility boxes. Originally made as an outdoor screen, it’s a clever way to recycle materials. Just arrange the shutters to form a barrier that blends into your garden, adding charm while keeping utility boxes out of sight. It’s an easy and creative solution for a tidier yard.

10. Cute Picket Fence and Utility Post Disguise by Favorite Hobby Gardener

Planting larger shrubs around utility boxes is not always a safe option, as the roots can cause problems with underground wiring systems. A great alternative is to establish a simple picket fence in front of the box, which can get easily removed should any maintenance be required. 

11. Disguise Your Utility Box with a Birdhouse Cover

This creative solution turns an unsightly utility box into a charming garden feature. A simple slipcover made of beadboard hides the box, topped with a decorative birdhouse. This not only camouflages the utility box but also adds a touch of nature to your yard. It’s an easy and effective way to keep your garden looking beautiful and neat.

12. Hiding Utility Boxes by Using Vinyl Utility Box Vinyl Wraps

Utility boxes were getting vandalized in Lee’s neighborhood. After research, Lee decided that decorating the utility boxes with succulent photography might help to deter graffiti artists. It seemed to work!

Lee’s covers are beautiful and vibrant and feature geometric succulent designs. Lee’s utility box designs have also caught on – big time! Lee has experience covering over 100 utility boxes with elegant and sleek artwork. 

Each new utility box cover design looks more brilliant than the last. Check out Lee’s utility box artwork gallery for tons more examples.

13. Vibrant Fence Panel Cover

Turn an old picket fence into a fun, colorful cover for your utility boxes! This creative project uses reclaimed wood painted with cheerful daisies to hide the unsightly view. The simple structure keeps the boxes accessible while adding a splash of personality to your garden. Pair it with a couple of decorative planters for extra charm.

14. Beautiful Hydrangea Hideaway

Hydrangeas are a great way to hide those unsightly utility boxes while adding a touch of beauty to your street. Their large, colorful blooms create a natural screen that’s both effective and easy on the eyes. This idea was found on Pinterest.

15. Utility Box Trellis Privacy Screen by My Perpetual Project

Electrical transformer boxes can be tricky to hide, as most utility companies will not permit permanent garden constructions around them. Erecting a temporary wooden trellis is an excellent solution to this problem, as it can be shifted out of the way whenever access is required. I love the clever way this trellis is fixed in place using buckets, but for an optional upgrade, consider switching them to planters filled with gorgeous climbing plants!

16. Using Ornamental Grasses To Hide Utility Boxes by This Better Home

Finding taller plants to grow around utility boxes can be a problem, as many will not survive being trampled by maintenance teams. Tall ornamental grasses are the ideal solution to this problem, as they can get cut down if necessary and will regrow even if squashed by heavy-footed workers.

17. DIY Cover For Utility Boxes by Jesse and Company

Here is a great DIY tutorial for a temporary wooden cover for transformer boxes, turning your utility unit into a more appealing garden feature. The wood lattice screen design can be adapted to fit all types of transformer boxes, and you could incorporate decorative elements by painting colorful blooms or adding some twinkling fairy lights.

18. Tips for Landscaping Around Utility Boxes by Miss Mustard Seed

I love a gardening blog that doesn’t make it all look super simple and easy but shows us the real-life problems of a landscaping project. This post contains some great tips about where to start when landscaping around utility boxes. And also common pitfalls and things to avoid along the way.

19. DIY Utility Box Covers by Francesco Pollaccia

Shrubs may seem like the ideal solution to screen an unsightly green transformer box, but get it wrong, and you’ll find your efforts have gotten wasted! For example, shrubs that obstruct access to the utility box can legitimately get removed by utility companies, even if they flourish on your land. So we want to share another utility box cover you can make. This DIY utility box is easy to remove – and won’t annoy the utility crew workers if they decide they need access.

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20. Wall Mounted Utility Box Cover by Kaleidoscope Living

Utility boxes aren’t always in the middle of our yards and can look just as unsightly when located on a house wall! This simple wooden barrier is an excellent option for hiding wall-mounted units. It could likely work for a variety of utility box styles. But remember that air conditioning units need adequate airflow around them to function effectively.

21. Hiding A Utility Box Eyesore by Home Made by Carmona

This project contains so many delightful and exquisite details that I don’t know where to start! From the rustic wooden screen to the bell jars and colorful flowers, the entire creation hides a wall-mounted unit and turns it into a beautiful garden feature too! This utility-hiding idea looks like the perfect place to relax with friends, and no one will suspect it only exists to hide the unsightly unit behind it.

22. DIY Outdoor Shelf To Disguise Ugly Utility Boxes by Young House Love

This outdoor shelf is another great option for wall-mounted utility units, and it could also get adapted for boxes near a tall fence. A simple outdoor shelf design provides a location for potted plants that trail downwards, providing an effective camouflage and a beautiful garden feature.

23. Top 5 Shrubs To Grow In Pots Around Utility Boxes by PlantDo Home And Garden

If you are worried about the hazards of underground wires, a simple but highly effective solution is to grow shrubs in large pots as a screen for that hideous green transformer box. Then, if maintenance workers require access, it’s no big deal. All you need to do is lift the pots out of the way!

24. How to Hide Outdoor Eye Sores by Shara Woodshop Diaries

If a full-scale homestead fencing project is too ambitious for your DIY skills, and if you want to avoid digging, try this super-effective wellhead cover box screen instead! Shara used it to cover a massive wellhead – but we think it could also work for utility boxes. These relatively light and open-design boxes make it easy to set up. And they also help allow air to circulate freely, helping to prevent overheating in the transformer box.

25. Clever Wooden Slat Screen for Utility Box

This simple wooden slat screen hides a large utility box while adding a stylish touch to your yard. Inspired by HGTV, it allows for airflow and easy access. Climbing plants add a touch of greenery, blending the screen into the garden seamlessly. It’s a practical and attractive way to conceal those unsightly utility boxes.

26. Lattice Screen With Mini Herb Garden

This clever idea uses a lattice screen to hide a utility box while providing a spot for growing herbs. Small mason jars filled with soil and herbs are attached to the lattice, creating a practical and attractive mini herb garden.

27. Smart Planting Around Utility Boxes

Here’s a smart way to hide utility boxes. Use a variety of shrubs and ornamental grasses to create a beautiful garden around the box. This method ensures the box is camouflaged while still accessible for maintenance. The plants add color and texture to your yard, making the utility box blend seamlessly into your landscaping. The small rock and defined mulch area add extra visual appeal.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our guide about landscaping ideas to hide utility boxes.

We tried sharing various clever methods to help conceal your unsightly utility box once and for all!

Let us know which utility-box-disappearing act you like the most.

Or maybe you have a clever utility box concealment method we haven’t thought of yet.

We’d love to hear from you in any event.

Thanks again for reading.

And have a beautiful day!

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