10 Frequently Asked Questions About Decorative Vent Covers

Decorative vent covers are an elegant make to make a subtle impact in your home

Even the smallest of details in your home can bring big rewards. When looking to build your home, remodel, or need to make a simple update, don’t overlook the importance of decorative vent covers.

What You Should Know About Decorative Vent Covers

Vent covers are the gateway between your HVAC system and your living space. There will be two types of vents within your home — cold air return vents and supply register vents.  The cold air return will pull in air from your home and send it back to the HVAC to keep temperatures regulated.  Supply register vents are what most people think of when you mention vent covers; this is where the warm or cold air will be deposited into your living area. You may find these on the floor, the lower areas of your walls, or even on the ceiling of every room in your home.

Vent covers are the gateway between your HVAC system and your living space. There will be two types of vents within your home -- cold air return vents and supply register vents.

Designer: Christopher Scott Cabinetry & Design

Decorative vent covers aren’t just for looks. Vent covers become an important part of your HVAC system as they help properly regulate and direct airflow through the home.  It can also be a preventive measure to ensure large items aren’t dropped down floor vents. Since vent covers are a required part to ensure your HVAC system works at its best, then why not make the best of it?

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Designer: Christopher Scott Cabinetry & Design

10 Frequently Asked Questions About Decorative Vent Covers

Now that you know vent covers are a necessity, here are 10 frequently asked questions about vents and decorating your home.

How Can I Make My Air Vents Look Better?

Decorative vent covers are a simple and effective way to step up the look of vent covers.  There is a wide variety of artistic, modern, clean, simple, or elegant vent covers. What looks “better” is entirely up to you!

EXPLORE: Upgrade Your Home With Custom Vents

What Color Should Vent Covers Be?

The color of your vent cover really depends on the design aesthetic of your home. Most homeowners do not want to draw attention to a vent register, but if it has to be in the open and visible, then it’s worth making it beautiful and integral with your decor style.  Vent covers can be made from a wide variety of materials such as plastic, metal, high quality and high density fiberboard, and wood. Each type of material can be dyed, painted, or stained to match your style.

Return air vents are the larger vents, usually found on an interior wall, that pulls air into your HVAC system. It is crucial that your cold air return is not covered.

Is It Okay To Cover My Return Air Vents?

Return air vents are the larger vents, usually found on an interior wall, that pulls air into your HVAC system. It is crucial that your cold air return is not covered. Fully covering these returns could cause damage to your A/C unit such as freezing air conditioner coils and causing strain on your system.  If you want to “cover” your cold air return vent, you’ll want to use a decorative vent cover that allows airflow.

Can I Put Furniture Over My Floor Vents?

Covering your supply register vents (the ones seen in each room of your home) may cause your HVAC system to work harder to distribute air properly and could cause pressure to build up in your air ducts.  With that said, keep in mind that the airflow will follow the path of least resistance. For example, if you have a basement that stays really cold in the summer even without A/C, you may want to prevent the A/C from flowing into the basement so more air pressure can be sent to the other rooms in the house.  Just keep this in mind when you cover or close floor vents.

Should You Paint Vent Covers?

While you can paint your existing vent covers, it may be more impactful to simply upgrade to decorative vent covers that will add a touch of flavor to your design. Purchasing decorative vent covers that are unpainted will allow you to further customize them for your home so you can match them to your own paint color.

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Designer: Christopher Scott Cabinetry & Design

How Do You Paint A Decorative Vent Cover?

You’ll also need to know what your vent cover is made out of to ensure you choose the proper painting method. In all instances you will want to first clean your vents, sand for paint adhesion, prime, paint and let it completely dry before placing it back in the air duct.

Our custom vent covers come ready to prime and paint so there’s no need to clean and sand. You’re welcome. 

How Do You Measure For Vent Covers?

When measuring for a decorative vent cover, you will want to remove the vent cover that is currently in your home. Once the vent duct is exposed, measure the duct opening in your floor, wall, or ceiling.  Measurements are typically width by the length in inches. Use this measurement to select the proper vent cover. Remember that the cover size is the measurement of the actual air duct opening and does not include the overhang on your wall, carpet, or ceiling. It doesn’t hurt to verify the centerline distance from screw hole to screw hole. 

What’s The Difference Between A Register And A Cover?

An air register is the end of the air duct pathway that allows air to flow into your room.  The cover is the visible metal, plastic, or wood part that sits atop the air duct to direct and control airflow.  The cover is essentially the cap inserted at the end of the air duct in each room and helps to prevent things from falling down the air duct tunnel.

The register is a vent cover that has the ability to control and direct airflow into the room. A cover simply decorates an air duct opening into a room. Covers for both registers and room vents are typically metal, high density fiberboard, wood, or plastic. Christopher Scott Cabinetry provides high quality and high density fiberboard covers that come ready to paint or stain so they can blend seamlessly with your decor. 

Can I Put Furniture Over My Floor Vents?

You can place furniture over your floor vents as long as the furniture allows airflow.  Most chairs and couches are elevated on legs and should allow for airflow. Avoid covering floor vents with rugs, carpets, or heavy drapery that would prevent airflow. (You won’t necessarily hurt your HVAC system by covering your vents, but it will impact the heating and cooling ability of your HVAC system in that room. )

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Designer: Christopher Scott Cabinetry & Design

Is Plastic Better Than Wood For Vent Covers?

This really comes down to your desired aesthetic and durability.  While plastic is lightweight and can be made into a variety of colors, wood, and high density fiberboard is more durable and can blend in seamlessly with wood floors or wood-slatted ceilings. You will want to look at where the vent cover will be and what materials will surround the vent cover to make the best decision for your decor. Wood and high quality and high density fiberboard, is more durable and can be painted more effectively. 

Why Christopher Scott Cabinetry and Design For Your Decorative Vent Covers?

At Christopher Scott Cabinetry and Design we work to elevate your home decor and never overlook the fine details. Decorative vent covers can make a big impact on any space. We will take the time to ensure your choice of vent cover flows beautifully with your desired home accents. Vent covers should be functional and not draw attention from the other beautiful details of your home, but we don’t want to disregard their inevitable presence. We will work to bring you gorgeous vent covers to ensure your entire home is precisely the way you want. 

Some of the benefits of our decorative vent covers include:

  • Premium Home Upgrade: Christopher Scott Cabinetry’s Custom Decorative Air Vent Covers are designed to help you bring your distinctive sense of style into every room in the house. Our beautiful and functional designs will magnify what is already unique about yourself or remind everyone else just how stylish they really want their home living environment to be!
  • Meticulous Design: Vent covers are a great way to add design impact and improve the look of your home. With our custom vent cover designs, you can choose from different shapes for each room in order to get that perfect personalized feel! 
  • High-Quality Fabrication: The best way to ensure that your vent cover looks like it was always meant for the home is by using high-quality materials. We use premium machine board. Our vents are made from high-density machine board (HDM) which can be primed or painted any color of choice! All elements created through Christopher Scott Design will have intricate details and beauty without breaking budget constraints.
  • Versatile Performance: With its sleek design, our decorative vent covers offer a high-quality, primer-and-paint-ready product. Easy installation. Functional and aesthetic. These can be used as decorative ceiling vent covers, wall vent covers, toe kick air duct vent covers, return air vent covers, air supply vent covers, bathroom air vent covers, and more.   

>> Get Your Custom Decorative Vent Covers Here <<

At Christopher Scott Design, we only use high-quality materials we trust. That’s why our vent covers are made of premium, high-density machine board (HDM), ready to prime and paint to your exact specifications, and made to withstand temperature changes common to any HVAC system. Working with HDM also makes it possible to create the intricate and flawless decor grates you should expect from Christopher Scott Design, at a fraction of the cost of cast metal.

Contact Christopher Scott Cabinetry to see how we can bring impeccable details to even the smallest of moments like vent covers.

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