Hello,
Beginner here. With writing this, I’m increasingly thinking I should hire a carpenter, lol. But I’ve been wanting to post this for months, so here it goes.
What do I want to build?
I want to build a desk/TV sideboard/shelf combo, that takes up the entire length of a 5-meter-long wall in my living room (see image).
- There’s the ‘lower part’: 60cm deep, 75cm high; two desks on either extremities (i.e. in the corners of the room), flanked by drawers and storage options for all matter of things. The centrepiece is the TV-sideboard, with cupboards for storage and an open solution for A/V devices.
- Then there’s the ‘upper part’: 40cm deep, 200cm high; this is like a shelf that sits on top of the ‘lower part’, but it is narrower by 20cm. This will be storage for books, records, work stuff, etc… I am not planning on having a back wall on the shelf.
What are the circumstances?
I live in a relatively small apartment (~ 40m²) with my partner. The apartment is a pre-WW1 house, with a room height of 3,2m. The 5m wall is brick, and behind it starts the next house, so it’s plenty thick. The living room itself is about 19m².
My questions to the community
My main question is basically how?
- Is it smarter to build the ‘lower part’ all in one first, then build the ‘upper part’ on top? Or is it better to build everything around the two L-shaped studs, that separate the desks from the TV? I imagine that the first option is easier to build, whereas the second option provides more stability.
- What tools, screws, wall plugs and techniques would you use to build this? More specifically: how do I anchor things to the wall?
- The material should be wood – but which one would be appropriate?
- I have a couple of other questions, but I’ll leave it at that for now…
Thank you so much for replying and taking an interest.
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Moderately talented DIYer here - with what you describe, I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be easier and cheaper to build this thing Lego-style from relatively cheap pre-made floor cupboards plus a series of custom-cut big boards as a countertop, and then stack some shelves on top.
In Ikea-land this could be e.g. Metod or Knoxhult ‘Unterschrank’ and Kallax or Billy shelves - I’m sure most furniture shops have something similar with a different name. Then all you’d have to do is arrange them nicely, connect them with some screws and attach them to the brick wall at some neuralgic points.Came here to say this. IKEA has some nice building blocks you can use to start this, and then just diverge where you need to.
Check out their online kitchen cabinet builder tool maybe.
You should make sure the TV area can fit the biggest model commonly on the market which I think is 85”.
This sort of built in furniture can last for decades and todays luxury electronics are tomorrow’s commodity.
edit: I would make sure the TV space it at least 205cm internally to accommodate todays large TVs.
Questions to think about:
What is allowed for mounting to the walls? Most landlords don’t take kindly to holes in their walls.
How will this be prevented from racking? You might want some back wall support of your own.
Are you planning on mounting to the brick or to the side walls? Many houses don’t have 90⁰ angles and you might find that your nice rectangular desk top looks terrible because the house is the wrong shape. (Those side walls are likely not as parallel as you want)
How long are you going to be living there/how nice do you want it to look? Most likely, this will not travel as well to another place. Mostly because this will be very tailored to this place.
If you make a back wall for the TV, you’ll be able to mount the TV to the unit, freeing up the lower surface and looking a bit cleaner.
Thanks for your reply.
The landlords are not the problem, and we’re not planning on moving out anytime soon.
What do you mean by racking?
Many houses don’t have 90⁰ angles
Yes, I was made aware of this. I’ll need to cut the wood planks of the desk and the shelf to the exact angles of my room. I am planning to mount the wood on all three sides of the room (all brick).
A floating TV is a must! I just didn’t draw it here 🫣
Racking is it falling over because not enough diagonal back wall support. If you’re mounting to all the walls, this is not a big problem. (You might have seen Ikea kallax shelves slanting a bit if not assembled right)
Edit: I want to add an online tool I use. https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/ to help arrange cuts on wood.
Hi, take it or leave it because I’m not very knowledgeable but I did do something like this with my partner. We used a shelf mounting system like this: https://a.co/d/60pkQw2 although I am not sure which exact one we used. I can look if you’re interested.
We determined the location of the support beams, which mapped where we placed the vertical shelf supports. Drilling those into drywall anchors is not an option. Then, we determined the shelf lengths we’d need to fit the space we tried to fill. They sell numerous shelf lengths, so it was a puzzle of where we could support it, how long we wanted it, etc. We have a tv stand below the shelving for our entertainment center stuff and our TV. I’m happy to share more if it helps.
None of this works if you really want to build the whole thing. But, it is easier than doing so and relates to what other commenter have said, this one travels a bit easier because you can use any parts that do fit your next place (which I know isn’t important right now).
In my previous place I build a TV set using these joints (1). My local hardware place cuts plywood on demand to size, as long as its 90° angles.
