I insisted on vintage-style outlets for my old house—now they're lost behind extension cords and wire tangles

When we renovated our apartment in a 1950s building, my nonnegotiable requirement was to have beautiful, old-style light switches and outlets on the walls. After all, it’s the details that truly make or break interior design. So we replaced the ordinary electrical fixtures with far pricier beauties, ditching the yellowed predecessors.

I still enjoy our light switches every single day, but the outlets mostly just make me laugh.

In our living room, the focal point is a large television with a Finnish-designed slatted bench underneath. On the bench, we keep high-quality speakers, books on interior design and art, and intriguing objects arranged with care. It all looks stylish—until you look just a bit lower.

Beneath the bench is the living room’s only outlet. It’s meant for the TV, speakers, router, the kids’ gaming console, and a floor lamp. Since there aren’t enough slots, we added a multi-outlet extension cord. You can’t even see the lovely outlet behind that huge tangle of cords.

Another tangle awaits at my workspace in the bedroom. The outlet is hidden behind the chair where I keep my clothes, but a very visible extension cord winds its way over to power my laptop, docking station, and desk lamp. The devices’ power adapters are scattered on the floor. It’s not pretty. And they sure do collect a lot of dust!

Wireless smart homes have been envisioned in interior design forecasts for the past couple of decades—maybe even thirty years. But I feel like things have actually moved in the opposite direction. Wherever there’s an outlet, there’s also at least a charging cable dangling.

I haven’t found any solution to this dilemma: in the living room, I hide the cord chaos behind a dog-toy basket; at my desk, I just look the other way.

Tytti Kontula is the Editor-in-Chief of Kotona.