1. Plastic cord covers that you can get away with in other rooms would look out of place here. Which brings up an often overlooked step in cord control: Use less equipment! Instead of trying to hide cords, eliminate them by restricting the equipment in the desk area to only what you absolutely need (and finding other, less sensitive locations for the rest). In this case, in the middle of a room, the setup was slimmed down to four wires: the laptop power cable, the answering-machine cord, the phone line, and the lamp cord.

2. Because a power strip can’t exactly hide beneath a clear Lucite desk, place it under the bed instead.

3. Because you sleep in that bed, fire precautions are crucial. First, keep excess wires tidy with a Cable Turtle (www.cableorganizer.com). Second, use Wiremold Corduct on the power-strip cord so it doesn’t become frayed by things that get shoved under the bed. For more safety tips, see "Electrical Cord Safety."

Get more advice about setting up a home office in your bedroom.