Living Room Renovation!

Ace Modder

Ace Modder

Ace Modder

Soldato
Joined
8 Sep 2003
Posts
23,147
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Was 150 yds from OCUK - now 0.5 mile; they moved
Hi guys,

I moved into a new house back in November, the living room was a fairly dark feeling place. The walls were papered with cheap, horrible woodchip wallpaper.

We had damp in the kitchen, which was what we thought was due to the outter wall running all along the side of the house being exposed to an alleyway. Anyway we got the long wall ripped down to bare brick and a damp course injected into the walls etc and got the kitchen ripped out and completely re-fitted with a new kitchen. The long wall running all along the side of the building was kitchen and living room. So the 1 wall was replastered after having a damp course done.

Anyway after that we decided to remove all the rest of the woodchip wallpaper from the other walls. (nightmare) anyway we then decided to have the other walls replastered as they were not in the best of conditions due 30 year old woodchip pulling away at the plaster :)

We removed the old wood chip paper (worst job ever!)

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We then got the other walls replastered and had the horrible fireplace ripped out and a concrete base has been laid in its place for now.

Here are the pics of the room at the moment.

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Anyway, once the plaster has dried out, I will be getting the new skirting boards fitted all round the room.

Then I am going to have the carpet ripped up and fit wooden flooring down.

The issue I have at the moment is how do I lay my living room out now?

I have decided I fancy wall mounting my TV as I have had the fireplace ragged out! MyTV is a 40". My entertainment stuff looks like this currently.

TV
Hifi unit (4 pc)
PS3
Virign Box
5.0 surround speakers

Now if I mount my TV on the wall, what is the best way to house all the other bits?

Here is a diagram of my living room, showing my old layout, and below is a blank layout.

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I am thinking a new unit for the base of the chimney breast where the concrete has been laid?

With my sofa's staying where they are!

Or does anyone have better ideas?
 
If you wall mount the TV, put all the other electrical nubbins where the book shelf would be... You could make your own little housing for it.

Unfortunately, I know what I mean but I don't think I've put it across very well... :(
 
Late now probably but always the possibility of removing the chimney breast too as it appears unused. You'd need a beam to support the chimney and building control approval but it would give you more floor space and a nice flush wall.
 
The_Baron said:
Late now probably but always the possibility of removing the chimney breast too as it appears unused. You'd need a beam to support the chimney and building control approval but it would give you more floor space and a nice flush wall.
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Didn't want to go that far to be honest :) Done it all myself, apart from the plastering. I like free labour, my skills don't go as far as removing a chimney.
 
Ace Modder said:
Didn't want to go that far to be honest :) Done it all myself, apart from the plastering. I like free labour, my skills don't go as far as removing a chimney.
Click to expand...

Could you not go half way and just create a shelf in the chimney*?

* 1) This may be out of your skill range as per above and 2) you might need supports etc... Just a thought :)
 
Just finishing almost the same, I've kept my fireplace and slate tiled over the bricks that were there (we burn 5 ton bags of logs a year), also I hung the TV off the wall and chased in 2 x sky leads 1 x CAT6 1x telephone 2 x Power the result is a fully floating TV gaining loads of room, the TV bracket is fully moveable and I installed a floating shelf above for the Sky box and at the moment a Sony BD player which gives us access to iPlayer etc (shame no Netflix booooo Sony), under the stairs is the routher and Cat6 extensions with our phone etc

Worked out quite well and I did it ll myself with a laptop following online guides of orange to 1 orange and white to 2 brwn to 3 brown and white to 4 (may not be right) surprised it all worked but it did :)

floating.jpg
 
tv on chimney breast
speakers either corner of the room
bookshelves either side of chimney breast

I'm not sure how your fireplace looked but if there was a hole I'd have kept it for storage.

if it's filled in, put a white shelf there to go with the book case below tv

edit: I used to have those speakers, can't remember how long the stock wires are.
 
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Looks good.

Going through a total house renovation myself...it's tiring, but dammit the end result is worth it! Not far off mine being done now.

I've done a thread on another forum I could create/copy over onto here if people would be interested.
 
Phate said:
Looks good.

Going through a total house renovation myself...it's tiring, but dammit the end result is worth it! Not far off mine being done now.

I've done a thread on another forum I could create/copy over onto here if people would be interested.
Click to expand...

I'm nearing the end of mine. I never want to do it again. The next place I move to will require next to no work to be done, but I'll enjoy 3 or 4 years of stupidly cheap living in the meantime.
 
I did a near total renovation when I bought my flat last year - central heating went in, a rewire, every room decorated, new kitchen etc etc. Spent 20K+ on it.

It gave me an appetite to do it better and cheaper. I've already decided I want to buy an out of the way bungalow that's in a terrible state of disrepair. Everybody I know that's bought places in a nice condition has been itching to change things but can't justify it because the price they paid included it being in a nice state of repair.
 
I've spent 10k on mine so far, when I get back from holiday the only real effort left is new sockets in the living room and throwing a new floor in. The rest is just bits and pieces as and when.

My god it's been stressful though.
 
I think the more you do the easier it gets, to some degree. The kitchen for example went back to the brick for the rewire - so I could do anything I liked with the room and have the sockets anywhere, I knew it was getting a new plaster etc... If I had the constraint of working around things that didn't need done then of course it would have been cheaper, but it'd be more difficult.
 
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