[cusimar9]

Hi all. This is a modest living room setup which is nearing completion. I thought I would post progress pics since I've taken so much inspiration from other threads on here.

Previous owners had plastered some wiring into the wall for a flat screen TV but this was before the days of HDMI... so all the wiring had to be ripped out and replaced with new wiring.

This is what the wiring looked like for the TV:

Upon removing all the wallpaper we realised we had to get all the walls completely replastered because the place was an absolute mess:

This was my main area of concern:

The kit I've bought is very basic stuff but it'll have to do for the moment, this living room has cost quite enough already!

Samsung R87BDX 37" LCD
Pioneer VSX-C301 A/V Receiver
Philips DVP 5980 DVD Player
Eltax Atomic A-8.2 120w Subwoofer
Mark Grant Power and HDMI cables
And some very cheap n cheerful Philips sorround sound speakers

Its been an 'interesting' couple of months. Ordered a sofa and carpet which should be arriving shortly. Sofa is absolutely huge and would only fit if we moved the radiator, which proved slightly more tricky than first thought:

And electricals proved slightly problematic but its mostly all worked out now

As well as all the obvious we've also repainted all the doors in the house and replaced all the handles. One door still needs replacing completely and there's still a bit more to paint. I've been at it since the New Year and its been an absolute pain but the end is finally in sight.

I'm also building a cabinet to house all the equipment and dvd's, the cabinet has already begun and I'll post some pictures of that as well if anyone's interested.

More pics to come shortly

[sbowler]

Good luck, keep them piccies coming.

[inzaman]

Looking forward to seeing more pics, and all the best with the project

[cusimar9]

The most time consuming thing I think is the attention to detail. We could probably have had this up and finished in just a couple of weeks if we weren't bothered about the finish. Instead every time I painted a wall I could see the plaster wasn't quite smooth and I'd sand it down and paint it again until it was perfect. Also painting the edges has taken ages to get absolutely straight.

I think in the end we've decided to not to be so picky about some things which are less obvious because otherwise we'll be here for another 2 months.

Just got the entrance hall to paint now and we'll be finished! Sofa and carpet will be another 3 weeks so I'll just post a couple more shots then wait until its all finished.

[cusimar9]

Right well at least the TV is back up now

I know its a bit high up but our budget didn't extend to changing the fireplace and we had it there for a few weeks before going ahead with the renovation and its actually fine for us.

This is probably the worst bit of the whole build, a mass of wires coming out of the wall:

If you look back to the original pictures its a massive improvement to what was there but ideally the wires should be coming out near the floor. Unfortunately I'd already spent £150+ on new wires when I thought of that and the current wires wont stretch down and back up again.

Its irrelevent to be honest because I'm building a 6ft cabinet to go there and always planned to.

I'll post the finished pics in a few weeks when we've finished everything, should look quite nice

[cusimar9]

Cabinet should, all being well, look a little like this, only made of pine:

[cusimar9]

Well the cabinet's finally finished! Added the lights last night and its ready to come home tomorrow when my dad's free with the people carrier.

Looked absolutely gorgeous in natural pine

Crazy 'false' back to hide the wires and plugs, was a nightmare to do but I think its come up well

Decided to stain it the same colour as the new door we've had in the living room.

So there you go!

Its been good fun but I'm not in a hurry to build another one

New carpet has now been laid and the new sofa has arrived. Cabinet should be going up home tomorrow and I'll take some final pics.

[cjmilner]

Thats a fantastic cabinet, I'm having a really hard time finding a HiFi stand that will match my doors in gloss white and have contemplated building my own but I just don't have the tools to do so sadly.

[cusimar9]

Thanks

Used my grandad's garage, he has loads of tools in there and i've made little things out of wood before but nothing like this.

Most trouble was probably just me being so picky! If a piece I cut wasn't quite right I just remade it. Made the back, bottom and middle shelf twice. I nearly had a fit last night because as I was finishing up I noticed the doors didn't quite line up and I spent a good hour and a half tweaking the hinges.

A lot of the wood had a natural twist or bend to it. The front right 'strip' was really bad and required some re-thinking to get it to stay in place at the bottom. You just assume all the wood is going to be straight and when it isn't it complicates it.

It also contributed (though this was my fault I guess) to the cabinet being about 3mm wider in the middle than it is at the bottom. You can't tell, but it required me to cut the doors at a slight angle to suit, otherwise it'd be obvious.

The back was an absolute nightmare to do. Because it sits inside the sides rather than just sitting proud at the back it had to be cut perfectly. Was a proper pain in the arse but the end result is very good.

Also was a pain making the shelves. They had to be cut slightly too big and sanded down rather than risk cutting them too short and then needing to buy more wood. Even though its a softwood its still a bloody nightmare trying to sand 2 mm off the edge of an already smooth panel of wood using only sandpaper. I did have an orbital sander which I used occasionally but couldn't really use it on edges because it rounded off the wood too much.

I also glued two strips of wood down which I then realised where too long and had to be removed, nearly ****ed it up good and proper. Used the glue very sparingly after that!

So there you go!

Also thanks to some clever design it doesn't use dowels anywhere... its all screwed together. No visible screw holes anywhere, they're all countersunk into the back, top and bottom.