Most people are simply satisfied with hiding the wires on top of their desk. But you’re not like most people!
It’s hard to look at a table that has a ton of wires on the floor and against the wall under your table. In this article, we’re going to focus on the mess underneath your desk instead of on top of your desk.
Organizing and hiding all those wires under your desk results in a desk that looks good from absolutely every angle. Speaking of every angle, here’s how to manage cables for desks in the middle of a room. It’s a really satisfying result once you reach the end.
So hang in there, it will be worth all the awkward posturing under your desk to hide those wires. Let’s get started.
How To Manage Cables Under Your Desk
Use Cable Management Trays
The core item that I recommend most people get to start organizing and hiding cables underneath their desk is a cable management tray.
Cable management trays hold power strips and all of the extra cable lengths from your devices. When done properly, you should only see your power strip cable coming out of your tray and plug into the wall. Everything else can be contained and organized in the tray.
These come in all shapes and sizes. Some are wireframe designs that allow you to use a lot of ties to attach cables and such. The wireframe designs are not my favorite as they still look messy from below.
It’s a wireframe tray with a bunch of wires. Not a perfect way to hide wires.
However, the small wireframe management trays will be more budget friendly. This one below doesn’t even require you to drill into your desk. Simply use the affixed clamps.
The trays that I would actually recommend are made from bent sheet metal or concealed plastic designs. These are actually aesthetically pleasing as they can completely cover up your power adapters and excess cables.
If you have a setup with a ton of wires and need more space to tie down wires and hide adapters, this option below is perfect for this purpose. As long as the width is less than that of your desk.
Use Cable Raceways
Cable management trays are perfect for hiding most of the bulky stuff. But sometimes you need cables to travel from one spot to another under your desk.
Instead of having a huge dangling cable sweeping across the bottom of your desk, use cable channels or raceways!
These are not made to hold power strips or anything very big. They pretty much just route cables along the underside of your desk in a very clean way.
There are two main raceways that I would recommend. Both of these are able to hold a lot of cables for a very adaptable solution. I would avoid getting super skinny raceways, as you might grow out of it quickly as you add more electronics to your desk.
The first recommendation is a simple J channel raceway. This is a large channel that has a small slot opening along the entire length. Your cables will be resting below the exit so they wont fall out. But if you need a cable to exit, just pull it out at any point in the raceway.
They adhesively mount for a very simple installation. This is what I use for my desk. Here’s an image of what the underside of my desk looks like with the raceways installed.
This way you only see a black plastic bar under my table, the rest us concealed behind my ALEX drawers.
This easy-to-install cable organizer has a sleek design and strong adhesive tape, holding up to 10 power cords or 16 Cat-5 ethernet cables. It is a must-have for every home or office, providing a simple solution for cable management under the desk.
The second recommendation here is a slotted raceway. These are great for those looking for more precise cable exits. This is a long channel that has vertical slots across the entire length.
When you route a cable here, you can exit the cable by slotting it within any of these vertical cutouts. Instead of having room to exit anywhere like the J channel above, this one is fixed in that slot exit.
You have more control here, but it is more cumbersome to install and set up. You have to organize and slot all your cables, and then apply the top cover when you are done.
Either of these methods do a great job at hiding cables under your desk. I use the J channel myself.
Mount Power Strip To Your Desk
If you don’t want to invest in a cable management rack, a cheaper option would be to mount your power strip to your desk.
We have a dedicated article on mounting a power strip under your desk if you need assistance. Basically this removes the need for a management rack. Although you won’t have the space to hide excess cable bunches.
Those will have to be dealt with. A large raceway that we touched on earlier can solve that issue.
When done correctly, you can only have a power strip reaching up behind your table without even using a cable management tray.
Don’t stop at just mounting the power strip. I like to use strong double sided tape to mount power bricks and even USB hubs! As long as it hugs the under side of your desk, those cables will be out of sight!
Use Furniture To Your Advantage
Another tip that will make your life easier is to work around your furniture. I use a desk with two drawers on either side. You don’t see any cables when looking under my desk. If you look behind those drawers, you will see a horde’s nest of wires.
I basically tie up the cable bunches and just let them hang because nobody can see them behind my furniture. They are more or less organized just so it’s easy for me to do any maintenance.
This is a reminder that you can lessen the workload and management products needed if you just work around your existing furniture.
Don’t Want To Desk Mount Your Power Strip? Use This.
If you don’t want to mount your power strip or use a cable management tray, or just want to solve a big mess of cables at the floor of your table, consider a cable management box.
A common question with these boxes is if they are safe or not. After all, we have a bunch of electronics enclosed. We have a dedicated article on if they are safe or not.
These are large boxes that can house power strips as well as excess cables. They sit on your floor, so all your cables will have to run from your table down to the floor. This is the disadvantage of not using a desk-mounted power strip or cable management tray.
I recommend using some split cable sheathing to cover up large groups of cables. It makes them more bearable to look at compared to a bunch of loose cables.
Take Cable Management Further!
If you want to minimize how much cable management you have to do down the line, check out our article on desks that can hide cables themselves!
Now that you got the whole underside of your desk all cleaned up with no wires in sight, let’s manage the other cables at our desk! Here are some related articles on desk cable management that can take hiding wires to the next level.
7 Ways To Hide Your Computer Tower
Hide Your Keyboard And Mouse Cables