When we bought the house it had two of those large rectangular thermostats that were installed several decades ago. I knew I wanted to install newer versions that we can control from our phones and are supposed to be smart enough to be more energy efficient. In our last two houses, we had Nest and Ecobee models respectively.
I would have been happy with either from a performance standpoint, but I wanted something that would blend in, especially downstairs. Ecobee hasn’t made any significant design changes that I could see. Essentially, it is a black rounded square (somewhat similar to an app icon on a smartphone) hanging on the wall. Nest also hasn’t made any significant design changes, but they did add brass and copper options body color options.
Excellent. Brass it is.
The brass color is a good start, but overall it is still very modern and out of place. I performed some Google-fu and attempted to find a brass backplate that might help. Almost everything I found was very modern and didn’t solve the problem. (I did find one item on Etsy, but it wasn’t attractive, wasn’t brass colored, and wasn’t reasonably priced.
What to do?
I ran a Pinterest search to see what other people were doing with their Nest thermostats. Someone had put an ornate rectangular frame around theirs. Not the best, but I could see the vision.
Could I find a round picture frame that might work?
Yes. Yes, I could.
Unfortunately, there was nothing that worked as is. The Nest thermostat is 3.3 inches in diameter. The closest frame I could find that would fit without cutting was designed for a 5-inch circular photo. Maybe I could use that in some way, but it would likely look janky. The other option was a series of Victorian-style frames designed for 2.5-inch photos. That seemed more workable. I ordered two, so I could experiment with one and hopefully come up with a way to expand the center opening. They were made of resin. In my mind, I was thinking that would be easy to cut, drill, or sand down.
Nope.
None of the tools I thought I was going to use would fit into the hole and allow for detailed work. What I really needed was a Demel tool or something similar, but I don’t have one and I didn’t want the cost of this project to balloon to a point that I regretted it. I ended up using a drill hole cutter designed for installing deadbolts into doors, but it was only 2 1/8 inches in diameter. That meant I had to cut out little chunks at a time and then sand the interior to get it smooth and even.
My first attempt was a disaster. It looked like a donut someone had been eating from inside the hole out toward the edge. The second effort went much better. It came down to finding a good drill speed and spending a lot of time sanding by hand.
Overall, I am very pleased with the result. I am also wondering what the market for thermostat frames might be. If I ever get finished with the house, maybe I’ll look into that as a money-making venture.