DM, thanks for the input!!! Your suggestions are excellent-o and muchly appreciated! 

I love the corner shelving unit, but placing one in the corner will interfere with opening the closet door. Anyway, what I decided to do was reorganize the said closet and throw out as much as I possibly could. It took a whole day to do and a lot of motivation, but I managed to make enough space in there to put a mini-shelving unit, on which the fax machine now sits. Since I don't have an electrical outlet INSIDE the closet, the problem now is the grotesque electrical cord and telephone line that lead into the closet. Currently, the wires are bound together in a plastic tube. Still ugly, but not uglier than a fax machine. I'm happy (for the moment).

Not sure if the fax machine you got there is placed on top of a desk or not - if so you could always get a rolling file cabinet and just place the fax on top of that under the desk.

Otherwise, here are a few ideas:

The Proportion Shelf from Crate & Barrel
On sale for $39.95
-place this on top of your desk or table and hide your fax on a shelf

Kenton Double Cube with two doors
$99.99
-same idea as the shelves, only this has doors! no more fax machine!

From Target:
Corner Spacesaver Bookcase
$34.99
- looks like you have a corner by the fax there. why not hang this baby up and stow away the fax.

Thank you for giving my question some thought....I like these ideas, and I'll definitely consider them. I like the drawer idea, but as malleron pointed out, I'd need to pull it out of the drawer every time I use it because the machine spits out from the bottom. I like the "hide in plain sight" idea, too, but I do my best to keep materials, tools, etc., from view, so no matter where I put this beast, it will still uglify the room. (Way to go, Panasonic--you've made a product that stands out... in a bad way). 

Anyway, do sleeker fax machines really exist? If so, I'm obviously not in the know. I must investigate this. Hmm...perhaps my best option is to rethink my reliance on this technology..or at least find a closet, drawer, or other home for it. 'Tis the only way this technology and I can coexist. 

More to my previous comment --

I have kinda the same problem in my small apartment. My office area is essentially a vertical workstation in my living/dining area, and I have a rather large photo printer/flatbed scanner monster. Since I have the vertical space, I've put the printer/scanner on the topmost shelf, which happens to be well above the line of sight of most people (the top feeder tray brushes the 8-foot ceiling). I mean, most people don't look up at the ceiling when they walk into a room, so unless they're surveying my space from a distance, they don't see this great black shiny office machine that I have...at least not right away.
I haven't covered it up and I haven't put it somewhere where I can't easily get to it. I've just put it elsewhere. All I have to do is stand up to retrieve printouts or insert things I want to scan (I'm 5'10" with a long reach, btw). And too, my vertical workstation is also where I keep all my little office supplies (like paper clips, pen refills, post-its, etc.), in/out baskets, etc. So, when people look in that direction, all they see is "office", so my printer doesn't look out of place even if they do look up.

Hope this helps,

Jenny

I like the drawer suggestion. However, this machine looks like it might spit out incoming faxes as well as originals at the bottom. If the machine is in a drawer, the paper might get wadded up. True, one could simply lift out the machine, but then you're essentially maintaining two areas -- one for storage and one for use. Ordinarily, I'd suggest either looking for a smaller, sleeker machine (if they exist) or switching to sending faxes through a modem on the computer. But if those things aren't options, I'd suggest figuring out a way to make it look as if it is simply an integral part of the office landscape. That is, hide it in plain sight. Draping fabric over it just calls attention to it. But if it was installed in a configuration where one also stores magazine files, in/out papers, and a tickler file for example (i.e., other things that are naturally out on display), the fax machine doesn't look so much like an eyesore and it's able to blend in with the environment.