[indus]

Hi guys.

Below is a pic of my install. On the right hand side you can just see the entrance into my kitchen (the two rooms are semi open plan). There is a pic of the kitchen aswell (if that helps?)

In the room it self there is a black leather sofa.

Now the problem is the install looks soooooooooo boring compared to so many I've seen on here.

Can anybody help with some ideas to add some wow factor? I'm happy to do anything ie add cabinets/shelves, repaint the TV wall another colour etc an AV cabinet with door needs to stay though as I have small kids with sticky fingers.

The only idea I already have is to add led lights behind the TV and beneath the AV cabinet (after raising it a few inches).

All ideas welcomed

In this photo the double doors the seem to overlook the garden are gone and thats where the TV room has now been built and so is semi open plan

[EddyHorn]

I think the biggest and easiest improvement would be to paint the TV wall. I personally think chocolate suede effect works very well for this purpose.

[t1m103]

nice looking kitchen btw.

[bsuttie]

I'd agree, repaint the wall, the LED lights is a nice idea too. I think your speakers would be helped by "framing" them, and totally losing the cables (pet hate)

regards

Brian

[cronemeister]

Not really much you could do with that space with those 2 rads either side ! I've seen a floating wall that a few people have done in rooms in other threads on here which seem to give off a nice effect....you can then backlight the floating wall rather than your TV ! Not sure if its possible to have it across the whole wall with the rads still behind it...but if not then you could do it in the space between the rads and have your floating wall a different colour to the rest of the wall with some downlighters above it just for added effect !

This will be ideal for hiding your wires behind as well. Its something I'm seriously considering for when I hopefully move house soon as the missus has said I can have to garage to do with what I want....so of course having seen some of the self builds etc on here I've decided on a home entertainment/chill out room....can't wait to get started !

Is it not possible to move the rads to another wall and just make do with the one that way giving you a whole wall to play with ?

[jolly]

Originally Posted by bsuttie

I'd agree, repaint the wall, the LED lights is a nice idea too. I think your speakers would be helped by "framing" them, and totally losing the cables (pet hate)

regards

Brian

My Kef TDM's give a me the same effect

[Alun]

how about not painting the entire wall, and just shuffling your speakers a bit so it doesnt look as cluttered.

maybe a couple of shelves either side for dvd's?

tried to put some shelves up, but pretty limited as to what I can do at work.

Cheers,
Alun

[chrispeters]

TBH....i aint a lover of speakers so close to the sides of the tv...
I would get a little 3 foot corner unit with glass door for AV gear(put it under the dimmer) i know u would cover a little of the rad .
Move the left and right speakers maybe put them right up into the left and right corners of room ,then maybe get a floor stand for the center speaker...or frame it into the wall (similar to where it is now).
More ideas you get the better
Good luck with it though.
Your kitchen is FAB !!! love it )

[MSW]

Love the Kitchen

I would go for two floating shelves from Ikease and, sit the speakers underneath and, two wall lights.

Attached is a picture of my lounge (Taken from my remote control).

It will give you a sense of how your set-up would look with wall lights, lights behind the tv and putting your speakers underneath.

I'm not saying the my set up is right for you, it's a personal choice, just giving you a flavour of how it could like

Have to say it again, thats is a great kitchen.

[MSW]

wrong attachement - see this one

http://www.avforums.com/forums/attac...0&d=1202674922

[ballyg]

completely off topic ! That is a sweeet looking kitchen Indus, love those cabinets, and that unusal cooker hob, where's that from?
And is that roti on the side :D

[MSW]

Possibly hiding all you eqipment (cupboard, underneath stairs) and getting rid of the AV stand may help with the type of look you might want to achieve.

Mark

[chrispeters]

Mark..i love wot u done with your living room...it looks excellent !!! wow

[Franco50]

Originally Posted by ballyg

completely off topic ! That is a sweeet looking kitchen Indus, love those cabinets, and that unusal cooker hob, where's that from?
And is that roti on the side :D

I'm another one who is going to rave about your kitchen and offer absolutely no help to your AV problem - sorry.

[dclayton]

I think something like this would work really well on that wall:

A floating in-wall system like this would enable you to keep the radiators where they are. Though I think you'd have to upgrade to larger speakers to get the best effect.

See the full thread by stevelup here

[indus]

Thanks for all the replies and thanks for the compliments on the kitchen. Its made by a German company called Hacker.

1) The frame idea looks good. Never seen them before, where can you get them or how are they made?

2) Can't relocate everything as that would mean ripping bits of the kitchen up and I'd rather not

3) People commented on the speaker positions, but I thought they were meant to be as close to the TV as possible?

4) Floating wall looks nice, but how does one ever get to the back of the TV if needed? How would my cabinet integrate into that, or would it have to go?

Please keep any other ideas coming, and many thanks

[suniil]

Nice kitchen!

that radiators need a relocation. It won't cost a lot to replace it with a nice designer radiator. Also that gives enough room to play around with feature wall.

Single alphason AV cabinet feeling isolated in that state. would be nice to have another one put together in full length. Feature wall painting is also a nice idea

[indus]

Hi Sunil

Relocating the rads I fear would be a major problem. The extension was built with a solid concrete floor (ie no sub floor) with the plastic hot water pipes buried in this concrete and the wood laid on top
So to relocate the rads I would have to rip up the wood and then smash the concrete to locate the pipe work!

I could always get nice radiator covers (which could even be painted a certain colour to enhance the look). That obviuosly wouldn't help with space though.

Your idea of putting another identical AV cabinet next to the one I've got (I think thats what you mean?) to fill the space out seems like a good idea but won't work without relocating the rads which as mentioned is a problem


More ideas please!

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

dclayton's suggestion of the floating wall would be the best soloution imo or build out a false chimney breast so your radiators are in two alcoves. You could place shelves in the alcoves above the radiators and your AV cabinet would look more in proportion with the false wall/chimmney breast.

Or just paint the wall and buy a longer AV cabinet as it looks out of proportion with the tv.

[albriscoe]

Originally Posted by chrispeters

TBH....i aint a lover of speakers so close to the sides of the tv...
I would get a little 3 foot corner unit with glass door for AV gear(put it under the dimmer) i know u would cover a little of the rad .
Move the left and right speakers maybe put them right up into the left and right corners of room ,then maybe get a floor stand for the center speaker...or frame it into the wall (similar to where it is now).
More ideas you get the better
Good luck with it though.
Your kitchen is FAB !!! love it )

I have to agree with Chris regarding the speaker position I think they need to be wider apart. Also you have to get rid of the rads either move them or cover them.

I think it would be nice to build a floating wall and sink everything into it and back light it with led`s. I wish I had done this in my basement.

Could the wall come infront of the rads with detachable fronts so you can get at them and made to let the heat out as rad covers do. this would kill 2 birds as they say.

Plenty of ideas for you in the thread so I look forward to see what you come up with

cheers and good luck


Allan

PS. the kitchen loooks crap

[bsimmer3000]

Originally Posted by bsuttie

I'd agree, repaint the wall, the LED lights is a nice idea too. I think your speakers would be helped by "framing" them, and totally losing the cables (pet hate)

regards

Brian

My mate has that same cabinet as that and we tinted the glass on it and it looks a lot smarter and cleaner looking. But you can still see the displays through the tint. That would be a start.

[dUnKle]

I would agree with most of comments above - the rear wall needs to eb a different colour - make it even more of a "feature" wall

Also maybe doing something to disguise the radiators

Also I think a bigger unit would look better - that one seems lost against the space

[suniil]

Can't you live with one radiator? Take out the radiator on the right side, cut the pipe at floor level and put a cap (even you can do it yourself)

Radiator on the left side can be relocated & replaced with a slim designer one to the wall on (corner) left

Or easiest way, floating wall! That can cover radiator as well (make a mesh where radiators are) Make sure you have enough room for air circulation!

Originally Posted by indus

The extension was built with a solid concrete floor (ie no sub floor) with the plastic hot water pipes buried in this concrete and the wood laid on top
So to relocate the rads I would have to rip up the wood and then smash the concrete to locate the pipe work!
!

[dunks517]

Why not use MDF radiator covers?

[Jasonjo]

Originally Posted by bsimmer3000

My mate has that same cabinet as that and we tinted the glass on it and it looks a lot smarter and cleaner looking. But you can still see the displays through the tint. That would be a start.

Me too...piccies here:

Opinion needed on Alphason ABR 1100-B please

Cheers

JJ

[snellfish]

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80117534

[Ross82]

very rough and rushed but you get the idea

[indus]

Thanks for that Ross, looks nice

I think I've decided to go the whole hog. I want a set up that looks like Groove's design.

Groove's new lounge with floating wall build

I'm going to have the floating wall with the row of cabinets that extend the entire length of the wall.
The rads will go behind the floating wall ( which as its open from the top should allow heat flow)

Then there is the problem of how the cabinets will sit against the radiators. The solution I think is to cut into the back of the cabinet to allow it to slot onto the radiator so its still flush against the wall. In these cabinets I won't keep hardware just DVDs and bits so it doesn't matter if they get hot.

I also have another large radiator in the room (about the size of the two you see put together) so I could keep those two samll rads you see switched off most of the time except when its REALLY cold.

When I have time I'll read through Grooves thread in detail and make a plan.

Wish me luck.

Many many thanks to all who have helped and especially those who have gone to the trouble of photo shopping my room for me (I must learn how to do that sometime!)

[Growler64]

Originally Posted by indus

Hi guys.

Below is a pic of my install. On the right hand side you can just see the entrance into my kitchen (the two rooms are semi open plan). There is a pic of the kitchen aswell (if that helps?)

In the room it self there is a black leather sofa.

Now the problem is the install looks soooooooooo boring compared to so many I've seen on here.

Can anybody help with some ideas to add some wow factor? I'm happy to do anything ie add cabinets/shelves, repaint the TV wall another colour etc an AV cabinet with door needs to stay though as I have small kids with sticky fingers.

The only idea I already have is to add led lights behind the TV and beneath the AV cabinet (after raising it a few inches).

All ideas welcomed

In this photo the double doors the seem to overlook the garden are gone and thats where the TV room has now been built and so is semi open plan

Hi Indus

A simple way would be to build a MDF cabinet around your TV / Speakers. Looking at your pictures there must be 7ft of wall space between the rads. Are your walls dry lined, and is your heating on 1/2" copper / plastic or microbore in plasterboard cavity. This could be painted with contrasting colour to the wall, and accentuate the Speakers as they are very small and get lost just placed on the wall.

You could make the cabinet house all you AV equipment, plus spce for a few DVDs / CD's / Books etc also it will hide all you cables behind it.

Just a thought, looking at your kitchen which looks fantastic, you dont strike me as a man without idea's

ATB

Woody

[indus]

Hi Woody,

When you say cabinet do you mean a false chimney breast that runs the entire height of the wall? If thats what you mean then I see a problem. The breast would have to protrude out from the wall enough to house the largest piece of AV. That would be my amp at over 45 inches, add another few inches for good measure and thats close to 50 inches.

Thats alot for a chimney breast and would look very odd. The solution could be to have the chimney breast protruding only 20 or so inches from the ceiling down until where you would come to the AV kit and then it comes out the 50 inches. Just not sure how this would look.

I'm not quite sure what drylined means.
The heating in the rest of the house is copper but in this room its plastic tubes. Again I'm not sure what plasterboard cavity you are referring to, in the floor? Afaik the pipes are just buried in the concrete

Thanks for your input