My self made cabinet

[Jules]

This is how a centre speaker should be housed.

If I was better with wood, I'd stain this black and try to get a piano black finish to match the KEF R series speakers.

 

[wmilner]

Nice... did you use pre joined/glued pine furniture board (like from bnq) ?

 

[Jules]

Nice... did you use pre joined/glued pine furniture board (like from bnq) ?

I cut it from sheets of pineboard from my local timber merchants.
It's not a sophisticated construction but it's very solid... a combination of screws, wooden dowels and wood glue.
I rounded of the edges with a jigsaw, then varnished it.

 

[wmilner]

Really nice work mate Do you have a full shot of the whole thing ?

 

[Jules]

not sure yet if I've ruined it or played a blinder... But since acquiring the lovely gloss black KEF R series speakers, my pine cabinet just 'stuck out' too much.

So, I have just sanded it down, applied a ooat of primer and given it the first coat of gloss black paint.
I will give it a second coat tomorrow.

In case I end up with a streaky mess, I also bought a tin of gloss black spray paint which I will practice with first on the raised TV platform (as that will be covered by the TV anyway.


I decided to do this after yet another failed and lengthy shopping / searching expedition to find something commercial that met my needs. It's so important not to 'close in' the centre speaker and to have it angled up.
With a large TV and deep centre speaker the only way to do this is with a cabinet depth of at least 500mm, and probably nearer 600mm as in my case.

Really frustrating that you can't buy something like this professionally without spending thousands.

 

[Jules]

Seams to be drying nicely. Its going to be a few days before this ready for a photo, but it doesn't look bad after its first coat.

Some of the less perfect edges haven't quite taken the paint as well, but I'm just gonna keep adding layers until I run out of paint.

 

[Jules]

I havnt painted the angled centre speaker support yet, but this is the main unit after 2 coats of paint. I reckon 1 more tomorrow.

 

[wmilner]

wow like I said amazing work bud.. bet your happy ?

 

[Jules]

Yeah, even if I do say so myself, this is easily my best cabinet build yet.
With the gloss black Pioneer Kuro TV and the KEF R200c centre speaker in place, it looks flippin' lovely.

Look closely and you'll see it's a bit rough in parts, but the overall effect is exactly what I wanted.

Unfortunately I can't appreciate it again until next week as everything is wrapped up in readiness for my house move on Friday.
I'm just hoping it fits in the new place ok.

 

[owen021173]

Looks great Jules,good job

Can't beat building your own unit to your own spec. I built mine as a temporary measure until I decided what I really wanted and it's still there nearly a year later.
Also hell of a lot cheaper this way as my requirements were a 2m wide unit and these retailed at £1000 +

How you reckon it's cost you ?

 

[Jules]

How you reckon it's cost you ?

As I recall the wood, screws, dowels and glue cost just under £100. The sand paper, sanding block, primer, paint, varnish and brushes (yes, I can't be arsed cleaning brushes between coats, so I bought a pack of brushes and used a new one with each coat) cost around £40.

So all in, under £150.

Although I probably spent about 7 days on it in total, most of that was waiting for glue to set and paint to dry.
So not really a massive undertaking.

 

[owen021173]

And what can you buy like that for £150 ???

Again, looks spot on Jules

All the best

 

[Jules]

Here it is in the new house.

 

[wmilner]

Stunning buddy.... worthy of a repost in the home cinema section !