[Mr. Wilby]

We moved into a new(ish) house last autumn, but due to the arrival of our little baby girl, we had no time to do any significant improvements in advance of moving in.

I had always wanted to wall mount my plasma (Pio 50MXE1 display), but due to the windows in our lounge and the fact that we have an open plan kitchen there really wasn't any good location.

As you can see from some of the photos, we have a quarter hight wall that floats up in front of our stair case. This was the only suitable place to locate the TV (on a stand - I wasn't convinced the wall was strong enough to support the plasma so in-wall mounting was quickly dismissed) - but due to the low hight of the wall, it meant that the TV towered over the height of the wall itself. It looked pretty bad - and it had always been my intention to make the wall higher and surface-mount the speakers (whatever they may be - I hadn't purchased any small wife-friendly speakers at this point - I just knew I wanted them to be wall mounted and look smart).

After following the 8th gen pioneer threads I purchased a LX608. This was even taller than the previous 50" pio so now I really needed to get a move on and sort out this wall.

About 10 days ago, the project began.. but in my haste, I forgot to take any pictures of the "Before" (however, you can make out most of the old wall from the initial photos I will post below).

Firstly, I prepared a google sketchup image to try and visualise the construction:

I purchased the wood and with the assistance of my next door neighbour Jukka (who is an electrician, and general DIY guru) we quickly had the frame assembled.

The above image shows the original quarter-height wall - you can really see how low it is compared with the LX608. Jukka and I drilled holes in the old wall (plastboard) for the electrical fittings and ran cabling.

I planned to have about 14 sockets in all of which:

2 x dual ethernet
1 x front speaker ports
1 x rear speaker ports
1 x TV aerial cable

and the rest are either dual or single 230v power points.

[I also found somebody that was selling 3 x B&W M1 speakers (black) at a good price, so after demoing them, I decided to get them as my fronts. You can see them in the photos].

Another motivating factor for doing all of this was to re-work the cabling. Look at this mess!:

Here's a front view:

You can see that we are utilising the existing power and aerial points to the left of the TV. We fed power through the left wall, to the inside of the old floating wall and along to power the new sockets etc. The old sockets we utilised for the source feed were blocked off with blank face plates. In the bottom left corner of that photo you can see a hole I drilled - which contains the cat5e feed from downstairs. This means that I can have ethernet ports behind the TV - a new feature in our home

After making the initial frame, I decided that the wall wasn't quite tall enough, so I added a couple of extra levels of 45mm x 21mm wood on top of the initial frame to increase the height by about another 4 cms over all. As a bonus, this also made the frame even stronger:

You can also see the wooden plank (170mm x 20mm x 2600mm) that I purchased to top-off the new floating wall. I used a metal L-bracket to secure the newly extended frame to the wall (inside the frame, so its obviously not visible when finished).

At this point, I made a couple of changes/additions.

CHANGE 1: The first was to more carefully consider the lighting. I originally was going to go with LED-based lights (such as are available in the power buy on this site), but I decided that because the wall would be visible from the side, these might not look so good, and also, I'm not sure I like the effect that these produce. I wanted the final appearance to be quite subtle and warm, and some of the LED lights I've seen seem to harsh. Then I stubmled upon Groove's thread and my search was over That thread was really a great inspiration and I loved the overall effect... so it had to be rope lighting

However, I didn't want to use it in quite the same way - I decided on making a floating panel that would be hidden behind the TV. I would then attach the rope lighting to this panel - this would provide a very subtle effect to the back of the screen. Of course, I wanted it to be dimmable. 5m of rope lighting was purchased from our local "fancy lighting" store.

I also figured that since we'd have such a large horizontal platform on the top of the wall, we might as well make use of it for additional lighting, so I purchased 4 x 20w dimmable spots (and transformer) which Jukka and I then wired.

The dimmers available here in Finland are really ugly and basic. I decided to get a Lutron Rania dimmer from the UK which I then had posted out here. I would've liked the dark mica finish, but the place I purchased from only did a stainless steel dual IR dimmer... but still, it looks pretty smart (Jukka loves the dimming action!):

CHANGE2: I knew I needed a switch somewhere on the wall behind the TV due to the number of ethernet ports I wanted to support plus the addition of a WiFI AP. I was originally thinking to mount them both on the floor, but after Jukka and I discussed it a bit, we decided that we could fit both inside the wall - even the wifi. With the floating panel to house the rope light on top, we could leave part of the new wall open so that the wifi signal would be able to reach the outside world.

Here's a blurry shot of us prototyping the switch on the wall (you can also see the horizontal battons for wall mounting the speakers):

Initially, I just planned how I would build the wooden structure to increase the height of the floating wall, but with all these changes I decided I needed further mock-ups to try and visualise the final outcome, so I made skeches of the TV, including the new floating back panel (with the rope lights):

I also made a sketch with lighting around the TV (like Groove's) but on my small wall, I wasn't sure I'd like the effect:

... so I went with the hidden back-board idea in the end.

Anyway, these gave me a good feel for the final setup so I decided to plough on with the implementation.

First we wired in the dimmer and lighting and then started on fitting the plastboard (gyproc)

Here you can see the switch and WiFi box fitted in place:

I also started work on the back-board for the TV (in my other half's study, which is soon to be my Cinema room):

Construction was just a piece of MDF with wooden battons fitted around the edge (4cm clearance as per Groove's thread):

I decided just to glue the battons on - and thought I'd re-enfoce with screws if needed, but it turned out the wood glue was plenty strong enough on its own.

As Groove confirmed to me in his thread, the rope lighting can only be cut in 1m lengths, so somewhere I'd have to hide some spill-over. I planned on making an internal channel which I could route the left-overs through, thereby not concentrating too much light on one corner of the panel:

[Mr. Wilby]

Here's the first test with the lights on:

And in the dark:

[Even though the lighting looked great, I thought that the rope lights still could've been a little bit stronger, therefore I reworked the back board (later in the week) so that the lights were mounted about 1cm from the edge]

On Tuesday this week, we finished the plastboard and made a quick test of the lights & dimming:

On Wednesday, we started putting down the tape for the plasterboard and mudding it in. This continued Thursday night (I had to do the back of the wall as well, not just the front part that I am showing you) as well as the sides. On thing is for sure, plastering is a messy job!

Jukka came around to help on Friday night, and we did a final sand and touch-up of the plastering. Then we started cleaning in preparation for painting. My GF snapped this one of us cleaning the back wall:

I forgot to mention at the start that my other half set a hard deadline of 12noon on Saturday 27th (yesterday) because our daugher was to have her 1st birthday party. Jukka and I worked quite late on Friday and also then on Saturday morning to fit the final wiring and also do all the painting. After one scare with the lutron (the top lights weren't working, but Jukka had forgotten to connect the transformer ) everything was working well.

We painted the back board (visible side) and the wall with chocolate coloured textured paint. I'm not convinced its as nice as the stuff you have in the UK, but its the only type our DIY stores stock, so we had to make do. I'm reasonably happy with it though.

In hindsight, I'd probably make the backboard a bit bigger - perhaps just one or two cm smaller than the TV frame (I actually made it 8cm smaller all around). This really makes the rope light effect quite subtle, but still, it is effective, particularly in the dark.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. The WiFi works really well, even with the back-board blocking it.

Last things remaining are:

1) order & fit female speaker sockets to a blank plate
2) fit skirting
3) paint the top plank (which holds the uplights)
4) tidy all my cables
5) I think I'm going to replace my ikea TV stand with two of the type that Groove has in his install. They look very smart.

Afterwards, Jukka tells me that he reckons the wall we built is plenty strong enough to support the weight of the plasma... now he tells me! Perhaps a V2 project later on... but don't tell the other half!

[albriscoe]

Hi Mr W

thats a very nice improvement to your lounge I must say, Groove has something to answer to, I`ll bet theirs more lounges all over the place being "Grooved" as I type this.

Very well done and don`t forget pics of the new cinema room

Cheers Allan

[Mr. Wilby]

Thanks Allan. A tiny effort that pales in comparison with your entire house, but still, it was a good first major DIY test for me and I think I pulled it off.

Groove definitely does have a lot to answer for His thread was definitely a major (the major) inspiration for mine. Thanks Groove!

I will start a thread for the cinema. Not sure whether I will do a running thread or then post pics at the end.... maybe a thread would keep me motivated though

[suniil]

Excellent build! nice TV too

[Kenny Glasgow]

very nice job indeed

[inzaman]

Excellent build and a very well described thread

[Mr. Wilby]

Cheers guys! I'm just sitting down to relax and enjoy it now Good stuff!

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wilby

Cheers guys! I'm just sitting down to relax and enjoy it now Good stuff!

Dont blame you, you have earned it

[cjmilner]

Looking really good, and that TV looks huge!

[Mr. Wilby]

Well, I suppose it is quite large ... but it suits our room quite well - and, well, whenever I upgrade I can't resist getting bigger and better... so it had to be the 60"

Its a great display though - just waiting for the sammy dual format HiDef player to really see what it can do...

Thanks for all your comments!

[groove]

Sorry to drag up an old thread , but im just having a look around to see what others have come up with similar to my install.....and found plenty of blame coming my way for new installs ......LOL

Mr Wilby , that looks fantastic , really liking your take on the floating wall......and may have just given me an idea for another room im thinking of doing.

Great work.