Overhaul of miniscule living room, little project

PardonTheWait · 26 Mar 2011 at 23:56

Sup!

It's time to do the last room in the house that needs decorating, my tiny upstairs sitting room... I've bought a few new bits recently and it doesn't match the rest of the house, so we're doing it.

The computer and my normal living room stuff both live in this room. It's so hard to take pictures of/in the room because it's very small, but here's what it looked like:

I used to have some pictures where you could actually see the whole room but I can't find them and I don't have that camera anymore...

So anyway it's getting an overhaul. New TV, new amp, I'm putting in wired networking for the first time ever in this house, and chasing in all the cables or running them through the loft or under the floor. A floating wall behind the tv with lighting, spotlights, surround speakers up by the ceiling, and a fitted TV unit and new desk/shelves and so on.

I say I, most of the chasing and stuff that requires any talent at all is getting done by my dad with me gophering and doing donkey work, I am doing the wiring/network/decorating and so on though. It's just filling channels and drilling holes in the ceiling and pulling up floorboards and plastering I'm not doing, I'd just wreck the place!

I know it's not a huge project or as impressive as a lot of people's but I think it will look pretty good when it's done so I thought I'd make a little thread, see if anyone's interested.

PardonTheWait · 27 Mar 2011 at 00:03

This lot got done yesterday and today. Channeling in and adding wallboxes, sub cable run under the floor and hanging out of two blank wall plates, surround speaker cables up and through the loft and back through the ceiling, and ethernet from the desk to where the TV unit will be (which is where the switch is going). And a channel from under the desk to on top, my Mac is going to get wall mounted once it's all done.

Nowhere near as much furniture is going back in... two shelves running from above the desk to above the tv unit, the desk, the tv unit, sofa... that's it. Sub's getting moved from the left of the TV (you can't really make it out in the before pictures but it's there) to by the sofa.

It'll be a few days before anything particularly interesting happens now but I'll update when it's worth taking more pictures.

PardonTheWait · 27 Mar 2011 at 21:32

I thought I'd bodged up the ethernet keystones and would have to order more, but it turned out one of them was either dud or I'd broken it, and I could re-use the original one I practiced on. That's the only wiring disaster, all the other wires have been checked and are working fine, which is a relief

Only done boring stuff today, filling and rubbing down and whatnot. It's in pretty good shape now though, skirting goes on tomorrow, then after that it's paint, the floating wall, then the furniture goes in

PardonTheWait · 28 Mar 2011 at 23:38

Somnambulist said:
I'll be watching this, I always find these sort of threads satisfying.

I like them too

Got the first coat on the walls and ceiling today but I don't have the my phone cable down here, my main computer's upstairs boxed up... I'll stick one up in the morning though and more at the end of the day. There'll be a few days after that where I just chill and wait for the carpet so we can put the unit in.

Skirting went on today as well so it's started to look like an actual room again

PardonTheWait · 29 Mar 2011 at 13:54

This is the first coat that we got on yesterday, just doing more now and seeing what of the filler needs rubbing down and filling again... I reckon it'll just be the big tall conduit that you can't see in this picture. The room's so small it's really hard to take proper pictures of it :/

The layout we're having is a tiny bit hard to describe, but only because of the shelves. It's got a corner missing as you can see - the big mess of plug socket holes will be under the computer desk, the red wall will have the TV unit fitted at the bottom with DVD drawers, all the kit (amp, mac mini, blu-ray, 360) and an 8 port gigabit switch behind it. There's cat5e sockets between the TV unit and under the desk for my iMac.

There will be shelves at just below where the old picture rail was, running from above the computer desk, around the corner and along above the TV.

The TV's going to be on a floating wall which will probably be about 200mm bigger than the TV all round (it's a 40" which is satisfyingly huge in this room), with lights behind it. There's a dimmer to control the floating wall lights next to the arm of the sofa, lazy boy style

There's 6 spotlights in the ceiling as well which give quite a nice spread of light, they're on a dimmer as well now.

I'll go and grab a picture of the unit, it's all wrapped up so you can't see it well but the drawer fronts, top, computer desk and shelves are a grained grey and the carcass of the unit is black.

PardonTheWait · 29 Mar 2011 at 14:01

The unit:

Crap picture but you get the general gist. It'll have a full top right back to the wall with a lift out panel so I can get to the back of the stuff inside. Cooling wise I hope it'll be alright, the place for the equipment to sit is quite large. What we might do is leave the part behind the floating wall open so heat can get out behind the MDF. Dunno yet but I reckon it'll be ok, it's 1800 wide or something silly and it doesn't sit as close to the top of the amp as my old one did.

PardonTheWait · 30 Mar 2011 at 10:44

Pretty boring pictures this morning!

My first bit of network wiring ever and it works, I'm prouder than I have any reason to be.

Ordered these yesterday, came this morning. So as soon as it's done the iMac is ready to go on the wall which is ace. Oh and banana plugs for the sockets in the corner, I reckon it'l be a ballache to reach in and unscrew them if I need to so I thought I'd get some plugs.

Painting's pretty much done now, just a bit of filling, the skirting board needs finishing, then carpet goes in on Friday and the furniture on Saturday.

PardonTheWait · 1 Apr 2011 at 00:04

Another little update. The more interesting updates will come on Saturday night when it'll be, hopefully, pretty much finished. Everything will go back in and all that will be left will be to get hold of a blu-ray player and get the rest of my posters and frames for them.

18mm MDF board all cut for the small floating wall. Got some white LED lighting for behind this.

Got the light surrounds in as well and some more wall plates on. Need to mount the speakers tomorrow night. The placement's not 100% ideal for the surrounds, but I had them just by the sofa before on the wall and they got on my nerves a bit. One of the main aims we had with this was to make them room feel as big as possible, so up in the corners they go!

The room itself is pretty much finished now. Rad is on, just carpet to go down tomorrow, finish off the electrical sockets and one more light switch tomorrow night as well as fitting the mount for my Mac, then furniture on Saturday.

I'll leave fitting all the plugs to dad, don't want any electrocutions or electrical fires thanks

The scabby plug on the right is being replaced by a blank surface box and it's just going to feed the four 2 gang sockets further along which aren't wired yet.

I did these ones though. 2 sets of binding posts for the surrounds. I know it's another connection but they're only surrounds and I just figured it'll be a pain in the arse to get to them once the unit is in so binding posts would be easier. Then the ethernet to the desk next to them, and the sub cable hanging out of a drilled blanking plate. There's the same thing at the back where the sofa will go, I decided against soldering sub wall plates because I had a read up and apparently if you bodge it up (which isn't that unlikely) it can end up with a humming sub, and no one wants that! So it just goes in one wall plate, under the floor, and out of another one.

So that's it up to this point. Last couple of updates will be much more interesting but it's coming along

PardonTheWait · 1 Apr 2011 at 21:33

In all honesty I have no idea, my dads handling that and he's been fitting kitchens and doing electrics forever. the things that will be plugged in would only be the same things that would be all plugged into one extension before, it's just a neater way to do it. The mac will be powered from elsewhere now so it's actually less stuff than before. The load on it isn't very high.

PardonTheWait · 2 Apr 2011 at 12:47

The binding post wall plates came from thatcable on eBay, £3.99 each I think. Sub cable is a fisual pro install one, was £8 if I remember rightly

PardonTheWait · 2 Apr 2011 at 22:03

It's very much coming together now...

These pictures are pretty godawful and don't do the material the deskm unit and shelves are made of any justice at all, but here they are:

Desk in, Mac mounted, the unit itself is in but the top's not actually attached yet at the side panels aren't in. Shelves are up!

56 screws in the shelves, 56 in the walls. The brackets will be getting covered when stuff goes on the shelves.

Fair bit to do yet. Floating wall in, panel cut out of the top of the unit for cable accessm sides on, handles on the drawers, speakers to go in the ceiling, furniture back in, then we're done!

After that all I'll need to do is get my posters in frames and get them up. And buy the rest of the posters actually

PardonTheWait · 3 Apr 2011 at 22:05

Done! (pretty much)

The only way I can properly get it all in a picture is to pano it, so don't be alarmed, the shelves aren't bent!

All set up now. Got a few bits to go back in. Also need to get some blinds, and get the rest of my posters bought and framed up (and buy a blu-ray player). Aside from that though, all done.

PardonTheWait · 3 Apr 2011 at 22:11

whitecrook said:
looks good -- is the chair too close to the door ? Can the door open and someone comeon in if you are sitting at the mac?

Any chance of a floorplan ?

Just about. I have to squish in a bit, but it's the only way everything will go in the room, it's tiny.

As for a floorplan, here's the sketchup I made when I was designing it, the measurements are pretty sound:

It's pretty much square, and obviously has a big corner missing!

PardonTheWait · 4 Apr 2011 at 19:26

DiCe! said:
Where did you get the desk from? like the look of it! also i like the idea of it on brackets.....maybe add that to my todo list!

It's just cut from a piece of desk worktop, my dad's a kitchen fitter, so we designed the furniture I wanted and had it made.

PardonTheWait · 6 Apr 2011 at 18:02

The furniture was cut and made at the factory owned by a guy my dad does a lot of work for, the actual brand of the wood I'll find out when he's in tonight

Having it built was I suppose relatively expensive but I think with a room as tiny as this it helps you to make the most of limited space, and it's lovely quality.

The grey grained wood does have a 'feel' to it though, an artificial grain. Mouse works fine but I'll be getting some sort of mat...

PardonTheWait · 6 Apr 2011 at 20:20

Right, I've found out what the top is. It was made by the guy I mentioned and it's a vinyl wrapped MDF made by browns, who make made to measure bedroom and kitchen doors and so on. The finish is grey avola but they do loads

PardonTheWait · 7 Apr 2011 at 02:18

Quick pic of the TV bit with the main lights off and a the rope light behind the mini floating wall on:

The 'leaky' bits around the bottom of the board the TV is on are pretty much fixed now since that picture. We were going to have the top of the unit completely fixed with a lift out panel, but decided to just have the whole top panel removable, which is fine, only it's not 'sealed' to the bottom of the floating wall so there's a bit of light leakage, so I have put some double sided tape on the back of the board hanging down, so the worktop fits flush against it. It's 99% gone, next time the top is off I will fix it
entirely