I suspect I know the answer to this, but my new (old) house has a lot of surface wiring due to stone walls, oak beams and so on. The wiring is held in place with metal cable straps which are secured with a nail and then, rather like a belt, one end slots into the other and is pulled tight round the cable then the excess is folded back and tucked behind.
By now you're wondering where this is leading, but I much prefer the look of these old metal straps than modern plastic cable clips which have a raised profile to accomodate the captive nail along one side.
So assuming I can no longer get the metal straps, what else is there in the way of a surface fixing that is easy on the eye ?