Recently, I moved into my new apartment--and the drilling began! I had to snake my audio cords, and RJ-45 cables through walls. This was preferable to actually seeing bundles of cables running along the baseboards. Of course, the question came up from friends and family about what I'll do when the time comes to selling. Well, I might be patching up a lot of holes!

An alternative is DeCorp America's FlatWire, which is a company that produces truly flat cables that run along the side of the wall or under carpeting. These wires are ideal for major installation jobs and serve as a good alternative to running wires inside of walls. Of course, to hide the wires effectively you'll need to paint the room, but that's still a lot easier than tearing open a wall or trying to snake cables through sheetrock.

In addition to stereo wires, the company has solutions for Cat-5 and RJ-45, as well as component video and even low voltage electrical wires. The latter is really impressive if you want to add mood lighting but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on an electrician. There are even plans to roll out a flat HDMI cable, which will make mounting an HDTV on the wall a lot easier.

Post by Peter Suciu