Mounting a screen on the chimney breast

[theboyfold]

Hello all

Would like a little advice, I'm looking at mounting a screen on the chimney breast and would like to know the best way to hide the cables.

I'm not working at the moment, so I'm not looking to spend too much money, also I'd like to get the screen up with as little repair work as possible.

I'm guessing some trunking is the easiest option, and look at it again when we come to redecorate.

Also will it look odd hanging over some of the fireplace, as otherwise it will be way too high to watch. Estimations are that about 15 - 20% of the fireplace will be covered.

I had planned to mount the kit in the fireplace, but it's not deep enough for the amp and the cables in the back. If there is a solution to allow me to put everything in the fireplace, I'd be interested in hearing suggestions.

The sky feeds come out in the far right of the photo I've attached.

At the moment, the plan is to place a centre surround speaker in the fireplace, with the front left and right either side of the chimney (the speakers I'm using aren't pictured)

Any thoughts?

[Sanders79]

Hello!

I'm presuming the fireplace will not be used?

You can get quite subtle trunking that sits on the surface of the wall ("d-line", I believe). I think you can paint over it too so it blends in better with the wall. Several people on here have used it with good results. If you do a search for "trunking" you will probably find a few examples

My guess is that it would look a bit odd if you have your TV covering some of the fireplace, but that's all it is - a guess. Any way you could set it up temporarily to see before you commit?

Regards to fitting all your kit in the fireplace... and assuming you don't want to hack out more of the back of the opening... you could build out the sides with some timber/MDF/plasterboard and put some shelves in, depending on your budget and DIY skills. Long term, some kind of floating wall might be effective if it's your cup of tea, there are some excellent examples on here, some real skills on show!!

I have never tried it, but personally I would be reluctant to have a speaker in there, wouldn't it get a bit "boomy"?

Probably not much help, but hopefully I have provoked the thought process a bit

Cheers!

[theboyfold]

The fire is certainly out of action, it's been blocked up ever since I've been at the house.

One school of thought I had last night was to build a box a couple of inches deep and mount it on the front of the chimney and reduced the size of the fireplace so the screen doesn't over lap the hole.

[theboyfold]

Done some measuring and a (very rough) mock up.

I'm still unsure on the look with the fireplace, it seems most people just have the TV higher to balance it all out, but I don't like that idea.

If I was to build a false part to the wall, would any lights work on it at all?

Thanks

[Sanders79]

I agree, it looks a bit odd floating over a bit of the fireplace. If you don't intend to use the fireplace for storing kit or anything else, you could just close it up with plasterboard etc, funds permitting.

I presume you will keep the kit in the alcove to the right of the chimney? If you're careful with the cabling that could look very good.

Do you mean a rope light type arrangement? Could look good if you plan it carefully. Lots of floating wall examples on here to get inspiration from. It might be nice to have a skinny floating wall behind the TV (full-ish height but only about half the width of the TV). You could then have ropelights down either side if you want bling . All funds-dependant of course, but might be one to think of for the future.

Regards the height of the TV, don't worry so much about how it looks but what height would it be most appropriate for viewing. If you are sat quite close then you don't want it way up the wall or you might get neck ache!

Cheers.

[theboyfold]

The current plan is to bring the breast out by a couple of inches and set the screen back in that. Not have it totally flush but just make it look a little less 'stuck on'

The plan with the fireplace is to box it in to house the centre speaker. So there is something between the bottom of the screen and the fireplace, and the fireplace can still serve its purpose of housing the centre speaker.

I'm going to have a look around to see what ideas I can borrow with regards to the lighting, but that might have to be dropped if it's going to cost too much or complicate the project too far.

[Steve E]

Funnily enough, this is pretty much exactly what I was thinking of doing. I was going to build a wooden frame out from the chimney and plasterboard it so that it appears that the tv is 'sunk' into the wall.

Few questions though:

1) Once you've opened up the fireplace, do you know how wide the hole is going to be? This'll have a big difference on the look. Going to plasterboard then skim inside the cavity?
2) Have you thought about ditching the skirting-board and taking the fireplace all the way down to floor-level and putting in a fake hearth? It'll depend on how much clearence you'll get between the bottom of the shelf where your centre-speaker is and the hearth as to whether you could create a sort-of 'feature' out of it (fake grate, logs and lighting sort of thing?).

Steve

[theboyfold]

Originally Posted by Steve E

1) Once you've opened up the fireplace, do you know how wide the hole is going to be? This'll have a big difference on the look. Going to plasterboard then skim inside the cavity?
2) Have you thought about ditching the skirting-board and taking the fireplace all the way down to floor-level and putting in a fake hearth? It'll depend on how much clearence you'll get between the bottom of the shelf where your centre-speaker is and the hearth as to whether you could create a sort-of 'feature' out of it (fake grate, logs and lighting sort of thing?).

Steve

In answer to your questions, the fireplace is already open, so I do know it's dimensions. It's about 53cm across. I'm not going to need to plasterboard inside the inside as it's in quite good condition, just a spot of filler and some paint.

I have thought about not replacing the skirting board, and just having it meet the floor, I'm not going to put in any fake surround or feature.

Need to find some nice examples of lights to see what I could use...

[theboyfold]

Here is a layout of how the wall should look, I just need to work out what to do with the top of the wall, if I stop short of the ceiling and do something with it or go flush to the ceiling.

[theboyfold]

At the very real risk of talking to myself on this thread, here is a mock up of how the wall will look. I've used SketchUp, which for a free programme isn't at all bad, but it's a dog to use if you understand 3d Studio Max.

Anyway, the current thinking is that the false wall won't go all the way to the ceiling and will have a trough at the top where we'll drop in some rope lights, I've not seen an example of this use around the chimney breast yet, so I'm a little nervous as to how it will turn out, but I think it should be ok.

Construction starts 14th Feb (an unconventional Valentines Day if ever there was one!)

Let me know if you have any thoughts about the plans.

[Steve E]

Hmm, not taking the false wall all-the-way up will definately make it look like it's a false wall rather than you having sunk your TV. Although the rope-light effect may work. I've seen plenty of rope-lights used around the tops of rooms, although they all seemed to be sunk in some sort of tray (which at a quick glance just looks like coving). Haven't seen it used only around a chimney though.

My thought was to take mine all the way up - although I've got coving all the way around my room already so I need to make it blend in. I'd love to do what some others on here have done and mount a drop-down projector screen at the top of the chimney and box it in - although I doubt funds will permit me at this stage. You could always take the false wall all the way up and put an extended boxing in (extending into room slightly) and put downlighters in?

Enjoy your valentines day

[Steve E]

This is the sort of thing I'd like to do (minus the media-centre bit) but with the tv dropped down a bit:

A Media Center House: from loft to lounge, kitchen, bedroom...

[theboyfold]

I know what you mean about it looking like a false wall, but on the other hand, with the screen being mounted at a height that makes it comfortable to watch means there is a lot of blank space above the screen, which I don't like the look of.

I can't and don't want to go the drop down screen, or boxed in downlighters either at the moment. So that's out of the window I'm afraid, if the room was bigger maybe, but it's just too small for that.

The one concern I do have about the fact that the wall doesn't reach the ceiling, is when the lights are off does it look like a mistake? When the lights are on, I'm sure it will look fine, but without the lights I'm not 100% sure. It's tricky as it's not something that you can easily add on or take once the wall is up.

The room doesn't have any coving (is that the right word?) between the top of the wall and ceiling, so if I was to add any detail to the top, it would have to be something a bit different, which is why I ended up with the 'halo' idea.

Any thoughts as to how to dress it up at all?

[Steve E]

Hmm, yeah. You need something about 2/3 of the way up so that it 'looks' right.

You could always take the false wall all the way up but put in a fake 'picture rail or small 'trough' around the three sides of the fireplace at the hieght where you'd thought to stop the wall. The rope light could sit on-top/inside that to create a sort of up-lighting effect? Not sure (I can't use sketch-up).