[ted ringer]

Hi all

I live in a small house, my living room is 4x3 metres, and because of where the doors are, i can only have my furniture laid out one way. So when I got my first LCD, to replace my old CRT, I wanted to try and utilize the corner where my TV lived, to leave as much space as possible. As my old 26" CRT use to take up a lot of space.

So I went on a quest to look for a corner unit that would be ideal for my needs, but I was soon to find out that there really was nothing out there that suited my needs, and prices was far to high IMO, for what you get for you money.

This left me thinking, where can I go from here, so I turned to the wife, and said sod it I'm going to build my own, she did not look impressed..lol, and perhaps rightly so. It had been 30 years since I'd played with wood, back in my school days, before MDF was invented, and I'd never worked with it before.

My tools where just basic, old joiners saw, you know the old rough cut type lol, a pencil, various sandpaper, hammer and level.

Anyways of i go down to the local B&Q and buy me 15 quids worth of MDF, and had them saw it it up into 5 pieces so i could get it in my little fiesta.

Once i got home the garden table became my base for attacking the project, and as I had no G-claps, a couple of old concrete blocks had to do to hold my MDF in place while I set about it with my saw.

First I mounted my TV on the wall using a rotating bracket, so i then had the height and angle to work to for my unit.

I then started to build the unit from the ground up, first building a plinth, to get the angle for the unit i adjusted
the TV to where it would be viewed from, and then bent a piece of copper piping to the same angle and used that as a template to mark the wood, improvising was always a must from where i come from lol.

Then using the base as my template i made the top and shelves, adding the sides etc, all under the eyes of my wife, which by now was looking at me with eyes that was saying, so there is something you have a use for after 13 years.

I also made a back for it, so to keep the heat from the radiator at bay, and to enclose it all in.

The next step was to sand it all down smooth and add some beading to the front edges and shelves, and then set about painting it. I used 2 coats of primer, and then 3 coats of paint, using a fine sanding paper in between coats and wet and dry before the final coat.

Then all was left was to put it back in place and thread all my wires and connect it all up.

There you have it, i know in the pic it looks like its against the radiator, but its about 3 inches away at it's nearest point so should be ok, although i'm thinking i might build a radiator cover next.

It cost around 40 quid all in all, and me and the wife are well pleased with how it turned out, in fact everyone that has seen it say it looks shop bought, I'd say that's a bonus lol.

[markiedee]

thats a very nice unit you made an overall nice setup which looks like it works

in the space of your room very neat and tidy gotta give respect where
respect is due well done mate.

[KhalJimbo]

Wow!!! Seriously well done, I wish I could have the skills to make things like that. Well Done.

[mr ooops]

awesome stand, youve done a cracking job on it

[alz2605]

Fantastic stand mate! I applaud anyone who goes to the effort of creating their own stuff. You've certainly designed a compact, stylish and practical unit. Well done

[ted ringer]

Thank you all for your kind comments, i must admit, i surprised myself on how well it turned out, especially with my limited tool set...

Here is one last picture trying to show peeps my room, and maybe give others ideas that have limited space.

The picture was taken in the doorway that leads to my kitchen, and there is also a door on left of the radiator, so like i said there really is only one layout we can have our sofas. I know the layout of the speakers is not ideal, but they work wonders compared to those of the TV built in ones, so we can live with that. Also on the right you can see another black box i made from the MDF that i had left over, this is somewhere to put my cordless keyboard, mouse, extra usb ports, gamepads etc, when there not in use. My PC is in the kitchen, and is wired into my TV with Ethernet and DVI to HMDI, so can stream movies, or play games, browse the Internet etc.

Thanks again.

[mabo]

Excellent job, i love seeing a bit of DIY ingenuity to get around a problem.

Can i ask, what grade sandpaper were you using between the coats?

[FLETCH1]

very nice job

[ted ringer]

Originally Posted by mabo

Can i ask, what grade sandpaper were you using between the coats?

I'm really not sure what grade i used, i had a couple of packs of various grades, from course to really fine. So i used the finest, but what really made the difference was the wet and dry, this left a smooth as glass finish, and is a must, if you want to get that shop look type finish.

[Alison22uk]

you've done well with the space their, done a good job with the cabinet too.