I finished dry walling my basement and need some suggestions for a access cover for a water shut off valve. Right now I just have a piece of painted dry wall in a frame made from casing. Im looking for other options.
Heres a pic of what it look like:
Big box stores sell plastic access panels in various sizes for exactly this purpose. They consist of a frame with removable panel. Ask in the plumbing department. You can paint them to match, and they blend in a little better because they are nearly flush with surface.
On larger Openings, I've covered the drywall edges with drywall J-channel, and used a piece of plywood as the panel, using the same J-channel on the plywood panel. If you do a neat job cutting and painting, it blends in pretty good. Of course you need a little framing exposed to fasten the panel to.
HTH,
Paul F.
Opinions will vary, but for my part, I think that what you have is good. When you try to blend something in, yet keep it accessible, I think it tends to look worse than just acknowledging that it is there. Once you have accessed the shutoff a few times, the tight fit of whatever other solution may not be as tight. On the other hand, it may be, so if someone has a truly invisible option, I'd like to see it.
I have a couple suggestions. One is to put a picture inside the "frame" you built. That may or may not work, depending on the location of the shutoff. Maybe a few other pictures in the area to camouflage it.
Another thought is to put cabinets in the area, withn the cutout in the back of one of them. Depending on the framing, a recessed cabinet between studs would be an option. Of course, all of this depends upon cabinets or pictures looking reasonable in the area.
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