Europbaron's Cheapskate Lounge Install (big pics)

europbaron · 30-12-2008, 8:57 AM

Hi all,

I’ve just moved in with my lovely girlfriend, who is letting me smash up her living room to install my AV gear.

This is very much a budget project as I’m a student and my girlfriend a nurse, so our income isn’t that high. Most of my components are low end and I’ll be spending as little as possible on the room conversion, while still trying to keep it quite discreet. Eventually, I hope to have a smaller networked system in the bedroom too, but at the moment I’m delighted that my girlfriend is letting me do the lounge, so first things first! We live in one bedroom flat with solid brick walls and the ceiling rafters run the wrong way so cable hiding will be a problem – one I’m determined to work around with a minimum of disruption.

There have been some questions on this forum about build costs, so I’ll try to keep track of them here too. I’m hoping to do all the building work in the lounge for (preferably well) under £400, partially funded by flogging our unwanted hi-fi bits and bobs. As one of the many on here who love the high end custom build threads, but who knows they’ll never be able to afford to do one themselves, hopefully this thread might give those with lesser budgets some ideas.

The “install” will include a media PC, LCD TV and projector, with a modest 72” screen and 7.0 surround sound – no sub out of respect for neighbours. To be honest my system kicks out enough low end to be satisfying, although if we lived more remotely I’d add a sub for the physical experience.

Anyway, enough rambling and on with the pics…

Liam_G · 30-12-2008, 9:03 AM

Where are the pics lol

europbaron · 30-12-2008, 9:15 AM

Fireplace with back boiler removed. That 2" platform it sat on will be a minor problem later

And the cupboard half knocked out to remove the old pipework connected to it. One of the pipes was a live gas pipe so got a corgi plumber friend around to terminate it. Unfortunately, there are no floorboards in the alcove, so that's another job I hadn't planned for.

With the cupboard fully knocked out

These two are to give some idea of the final layout. As you can see from the plumb line the walls are very squint, but at least there is (just) enough width to fit the stand. I discovered the stand and a rather nice CD player stashed away in my girlfriend's junk cupboard! Obviously the front right floorstander will not be in the middle of the floor at the end!

As I said in my first post, I've just moved in so had to stop at this point yesterday as it took me 4 hours to find my drill bits!

Cost so far £40 to plumber and his assistant. They'd have done it for free, but knowing the weight of that back boiler that they removed and took to the dump, we couldn't not give them something for their work.

If people are interested there are more to come as the build progresses.

europbaron · 30-12-2008, 9:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liam_G

Where are the pics lol

Patience my friend!

europbaron · 30-12-2008, 12:30 PM

Floor supports in

Floor patched up and rack moved to where it will finally sit.

Cost to date £47.
£40 plumber
£7 for 2 floorboards

I'm off to the pub now to catch up with an old mate so there's little chance of updates for a few days.

Steve Laccer · 30-12-2008, 2:50 PM

Hi,

I've been in similar situations myself with budget and wanting to get the best possible result and finish. As opposed to finishing off the little ends with as little cost I would recommend having a little go at DIY shelves/stands etc, I tried and it was hopeless (I don't have the patience to sand down MDF for a week!)

but I know people who get really into it and find it quite therapeutic...not me though!

With regard to finishing off the wiring I and others a few months ago (been a while since I last came on

) wrote about a good trunking company called D-Line. They have some cheap and good standard products that fits well with modern TVs, stands etc. Only a few quid and you can get it in most places on the web. Some people don't want to go down this route but are glad when they do.
Hope this helps

30-12-2008, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by europbaron

Ooohhhh! Vinyl!

europbaron · 31-12-2008, 3:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Laccer

Hi,

I've been in similar situations myself with budget and wanting to get the best possible result and finish. As opposed to finishing off the little ends with as little cost I would recommend having a little go at DIY shelves/stands etc, I tried and it was hopeless (I don't have the patience to sand down MDF for a week!)

but I know people who get really into it and find it quite therapeutic...not me though!

With regard to finishing off the wiring I and others a few months ago (been a while since I last came on

) wrote about a good trunking company called D-Line. They have some cheap and good standard products that fits well with modern TVs, stands etc. Only a few quid and you can get it in most places on the web. Some people don't want to go down this route but are glad when they do.
Hope this helps

Cheers, I've heard of the D-line trunking and may consider it for the cable run to the projector. The rest of the trunking I need will be hidden so the standard ugly stuff will do for that. I need to build a false wall to install the fireplace if I want to avoid getting rid of that concrete shelf for the back boiler, so that will hide the cables to the TV and front speakers.

I only need to build one shelf (though may do two) in the alcove and am quite comfortable doing it. The rest of the AV gear will be housed in the stand in the pics.

europbaron · 03-01-2009, 7:24 PM

Not a lot of interest, but I'll post a couple more updates regardless

Today I've been building the framework for the alcove and putting some batons on the wall to hide those nasty cables (eventually).

Pic 1 - Will it fit?

Pic 2 - Phew - ready for panels soon!

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pics that are more cosmetically pleasing very soon.

Dony · 03-01-2009, 8:17 PM

Plenty of interest from me

It's gonna look great when finished. Keep the pics coming.

europbaron · 04-01-2009, 8:13 PM

Partially boarded out the wall today, but had to stop early because of the noise I was making - didn't want to annoy the drunken downstairs neighbour!

So here's how it stands now. The wire sticking out is for the centre speaker. The TV was a complete **** to rehang. I can't recommend Hitachi's supplied bracket and if I was doing this again would spend the money on an extendable bracket.

Cost to date

£135

£40 plumber
£7 for 2 floorboards
£88 on timber for batons, frame and panels (though I used plywood rather than MDF for ease of sanding and flexibility for those very uneven walls). Using MDF would proabaly have saved approx £25.

JMWS · 04-01-2009, 9:23 PM

Looking good

... Nice to see a 'cheaper' (down to earth) install ... although you're on a slippery slope to more expensive purchases once you've been bitten by this bug!

and ... "Excellent!" ... Just spotted that you're a fellow Tivo user

Bagpuss30 · 05-01-2009, 1:33 PM

Great to see how you go about this! Won't show my hubby will put him off as he is just not into this at all - thinks a TV is a TV and why would we need anything else, ie cinema system

craigoscott · 05-01-2009, 3:31 PM

looking good so far there mate, keep up the hard work! any pictures of the room as a whole so we can gain more appreciation of where you are going to be sitting?

europbaron · 06-01-2009, 11:49 AM

Thanks for all the comments.

Unfortunately I won't be able to post a pic of anymore of the room until the project is finished and we can empty the boxes of CDs that are stacked in the corner. It's about the only spot where I have a chance of getting a photo. Got a lot done yesterday so it shouldn't be too far away

Re: TiVo - wonderous beasts, especially with bigger HD and tivoweb installed!

thelegendofyrag · 06-01-2009, 2:41 PM

looking good so far im on a low budget myself too as im about to start my project.

A couple of questions how high is your screen? Looks alot higher than what eye level may be?

And is your plug socket round the corner in where the cupboard was?

europbaron · 10-01-2009, 10:26 AM

Thanks. The screen is a little high at 1.4m above the ground, but still makes for comfortable viewing. The power comes from a socket to the right of the CD storage in the next pics.

europbaron · 10-01-2009, 12:35 PM

We've had a couple of day's off now that the room is habitable again, but here's where we are up to.

The boarding is complete and painted.

I have modified the fireplace so that it sits flush to the wall and converted my old AV shelving here

into this new CD and DVD rack.

My workshop leaves a lot to be desired - especially with the heating!

The cables have been run around the room, ready to be covered in coving and the projector mounted on a shelf (and adjusted and needs to be further adjusted!)

Finally, I quickly built a pelmet to hide the screen mounts.

It's all coming together slowly, but there are still a lot of finishing touches needed. My biggest disappointment is that the one cable that I cannot pull through the panelling is faulty (the SVGA run to the projector). Luckily the HDMI works fine and I'm happy with the picture through that.