This post will show you how to remove the outdated and pointless phone jack on your wall and patch the hole with drywall! This will instantly modernize your home!

Want to know how to remove a phone jack? Unless you bought a new construction house from within the last ten-ish years, the house you bought probably came complete with a sweet phone jack hookup for your land line telephone.

Awesome! That’ll come in handy when you have some “Back to the Future” ordeal and need to call your Liz Frank ’90s loving self while twirling a phone cord around your finger.

Home landlines are dead, but the ugly phone jack is still there.

Luckily, they are easy enough to remove and patch drywall over and you’ll never know it was there!

How to remove a phone jack from a wall

Raise your hand if your phone jack is painted over. That’s what most people have done, or hung a picture in front of it.

However, it’s really easy to actually just remove the jack from the wall and make the wall look as good as new.

Step one: remove phone jack plate

The first thing I did was remove the plate on the front of the jack, which exposes the wiring.

I needed to use an xacto knife to remove the dried paint and years of it being stuck to the wall, but it popped off easy with a little pressure.

Then, I cut off the power to the jack and popped out the power cords that were connecting it.

You shouldn’t really have any worry about electricity when removing the jack plate, but it’s always best to be safe than sorry.

Step two: cap power

If you’re like most of us, you can’t eliminate power without an electrician removing and capping off the wire at its base power.

So instead, I used electrical tape to thoroughly wrap up each of the two cords just to make sure they didn’t touch anything and pushed them into the electrical box in the wall. Out of sight, out of mind.

The wires are completely wrapped up and secure and not touching anything and are within the properly coded electrical box. There should be no issues with storing these inside the box as this is the same idea as wrapping unused wires and capping off a recessed light mount in the middle of a room.

Step three: How to patch a drywall hole

Next came patching the wall. This awesome drywall patch kit comes with a 4″x4″ steel mesh patch, lightweight spackle and a putty knife.

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The reason to use a kit like this with mesh for a small job like this is for simplicity. You can also buy a piece of drywall, screw studs into the wall and attach the drywall, but that’s much more difficult. Plus you’d have to work around (or remove entirely) the phone box inside.

Click here to learn more about when to use spackle vs. caulk vs. wood filler!

This kit is perfect for this type of job. The patch sticks to the wall with a built-in adhesive and is very beginner friendly.

Here are the best drywall patch kits!

Next, lather up your spackle on the spackle spreader and press it onto and around the mesh patch and smooth it out over the edges and let dry.

It will take a few layers to get the spackle properly adhered to the mesh in a solid way, so you can even do two thin coats. You want to try to keep it smooth, so thin coats is better.

This kit even came with a nice sanding pad to smooth everything out once dry.

Make sure you sand smooth but also taper out the edges completely smooth and even into the existing wall. You don’t want to have a bump on the wall

It’s a lot tougher when you’re enclosing an entire doorway with drywall!

Step four: paint

Finally, paint over the newly spackled area and voila you can’t even tell that the ’90s existed.

If possible, paint beyond the area you patched and taper it off to ensure the most seamless look.

Patching drywall over an old phone socket is simple and easy and can be done quickly.

It’s a quick and easy upgrade that makes your home look much more up to the times.

What to do with old phone jacks in house

Not sure what to do with your old phone jack? You can use our tutorial here to remove it, but if you’re not confident in that process, here are a few other ideas:

• Remove and patch them following the above tutorial
• Hang a piece of art, such as a canvas, over it
• Replace it with a flat outlet cover blank wall plate
• Move a piece of furniture in front of it

How to remove phone jack from wall

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Medium

Estimated Cost: $0-10

Hate the old phone jacks in your wall? If you don't want a landline ever again, here is how to remove it and patch the drywall.

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Materials

• Electrical tape
• Drywall patch kit
• Paint

Tools

• Exacto knife or blade
• Screwdriver or drill

Instructions

1. Use a razor blade to score the paint around the panel.
2. Unscrew the panel and pull from the wall.
3. Pull out the cords and cover the ends with electrical tape.
4. Push the cords into the hole in the wall.
5. Use the drywall patch kit to patch the hole. Attach the mesh, and then spackle over the patch.
6. Sand and wipe clean.
7. Paint to match your walls.

Recommended Products

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  3M Large Hole Wall Repair Kit

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Sean

Hey there, I’m Sean, the woodworking enthusiast and builder behind CharlestonCrafted.com! Since 2012, I’ve been sharing the magic of turning raw materials into beautiful creations. I love teaching others the art and satisfaction of woodworking and DIY. I try to inspire fellow crafters to make something extraordinary out of nothing at all.