Heat up your Decor

The Boston Globe: When it comes to your home’s interior, few things are as aesthetically offensive as radiators. Radiators clash with decor schemes and, if they’re old enough, they hiss and clang to boot, especially these days when it’s frigid out. Moving them is rarely an option and some radiator covers do little to help the problem, seeming only to emphasize what’s underneath. What is a design-conscious, radiator-hating Bostonian to do?
If you’re looking to give your radiator cover some real personality, look to Sandcastle (210 N. Harvard St., Allston, 617-783-5100, www.webuildstuff.com) in Allston. Co-owners Sandi Castleman and Dan Gilbey use touches like decorative knobs, funky fabrics, and colored string to turn radiators into works of art.
“What I try to do with people is tell them, ‘If you were going to add a piece of furniture to the room, what would you like it to look like?’ ” Castleman says. “Then they get it.”
Customers might want the cover to match something specific, like a picture frame, or to just fit in with the color scheme of a room. Castleman and Gilbey, who have also designed custom displays for pushcarts, kiosks, and stores, use birch, maple, mahogany, cherry, ash, and oak. If they use fabric or string, they stretch it on a wooden frame inside of the front of the cover, “so people can get rid of it if they want.”
The covers start at around $250 or $275 and are guaranteed for life.
Heat up your decor [The Boston Globe]