Stolmen Plasma TV & gadget mount

Materials: Stolmen

Description: I live in a small flat and wanted to try and use as little floor space as possible when fitting my plasma.

I had already bought a wall bracket with my 50" plasma so fitted that to the two cross bars with "U" bolts from B & Q. The TV then fitted on the bracket as normal.

As well as this I wanted unit to hide a wall radiator plus take an X-box, sound bar, magazine rack, DVD and have storage.

Managed all and it looks good too.

Used two poles, two half depth shelves, three shoe racks, four cross poles and a couple of hooks.

Mounted the TV as shown above with the wall bracket and "U" bolts.
Only drilling involved was the holes for the u-bolts in the bracket and to mount the DVD

Just above the radiator I fitted one shelf tight to the wall and the other high up again tight against the wall but adjusted the height as required when finished. I then fitted one of the shoe racks vertical above the lower shelf butting up to it.
The TV was then fitted to just touch the upper edge.

Below the shelf the second show rack was fitted to take take magazines, books etc.
Below that was fitted the third show rack again vertical and used to fit a sound bar. On the upper shoe rack was fitted an LG Floating DVD player with the cables pulled to the back after drilling holes.(1 hole for a wire still to do!)

One of the two remaining poles was fitted behind the lower shoe rack to stop it rotating with the weight of the sound bar. The last pole is still to be fitted but will be fitted above the upper shelf to help as the back of a DVD rack.

All cables are out of sight with the x-box tucked away at the back but with good access.

Only cables in sight are one supply to a 4 gang socket and one aerial which are both white and match the wall.

The radiator is still used but with the shelf above it the air flow and thus heat output are down but the flat is still warm so no problems that way.

Hope you like!!!!

~ Chief

Dining and Homework Center

Materials: NUMER�R Countertop, AKURUM Wall, ST�T drawer and doors

Description: Two shallow drawer cabinets were installed along the wall set the width of the counter apart. A larger counter top was purchased than needed and cut to the length and width needed for the space. The extra counter pieces leftover were cut to fit on top of the drawer cabinets. They pieces were put into place and the table top was put on the wall with 2 L brackets and 4 legs. The remaining wall units were placed on top across all the table surfaces. The result is a custom looking built in unit that provides seating, great storage and a place to prepare food.

~ Ruth, Bay Area, CA

Minimalist Faktum/Akurum media furniture

Materials: Faktum/Akurum kitchen cabinets, 16mm MDF, 8 8mm bolts and nuts and the Kreg joinery system.

Description: I wanted a minimalistic media unit with enough room for big receivers and amplifiers, but the ones I could find were either too small or too expensive for me so I decided to build my own using Ikea kitchen cabinets. I went for Faktum/Akurum cabinets and white Applad doors.

- The cabinets were assembled according to the instructions and bolted together with 8mm bolts and nuts.
- The base was constructed using 6cm wide "planks" of MDF and joined using pocket-holes. Beware that MDF easily splits if you torque the screws too hard, so be careful and use a low setting on your drill.
- A 16mm MDF-board was cut to size.
- For a professional finish I got the sides, base and top spray-painted at a paint shop using the same color as the Applad fronts.
- Finally the base and top was attached to the three connected cabinets.

The media unit sits approximately 1 cm away from the wall, and with the door open even my PS3 is nice and cool. If one wants to operate home-cinema equipment with the doors closed air-holes can be drilled in the base of the cabinet just in front of de base. With a remote running on RF I can watch movies, play PS3 or listen to music with the doors shut.

~ Jens, Oslo, Norway

Faktum Organ Speakers Cabinets

Materials: Faktum Overhead Units, Non downlights.

Description: Probably the most outrageous hack I've ever done.

Faktum kitchen cabinets are rather heavy-duty, so I chose these cabinets as the basic frames to house the organ speakers.

The blue wall, is unfortunately laid with wire and air-con ductings. Therefore the mounting points for the (rather heavy)Faktum cabinet were lowered. The back of each cabinets were cut and holes on the sides were drilled to allow cables to pass through.

Lowering the mounting point can be rather undesirable as it would be harder to support the weights of the cabinets, plus the speakers. The cabinets were also then fastened to the ceiling so that they can withstand their own weights plus the speakers.

I contructed the (rather unprofessional-looking) cabinet doors out of basswood and speaker grill cloth. These allow sound from the speaker to pass through without compromising on the fidelity.

A pair of Non downlights were installed under the cabinet to provide lights for the organ.

Next to the organ is a Besta cabinet modified to house the amplification system.

And a hacked Kristaller Chandelier compliments the whole organ room setup.

~ Wai Hoong, Singapore - Home

Venting Besta

Materials: Besta Shelf/Vassbo doors

Description: I came home about a month ago and my wife had re-arranged our bedroom furniture after 7 years in the same spot. Of course, it made for a rather uncomfortable viewing angle for the television. She wanted me to mount something to the wall, to hide the cords (power and network), and she wanted glass doors. (She's a woman who knows what she wants!)

I picked up a Besta shelving unit and Vassbo doors to match our existing decor. I put an extra power outlet inside of the cabinet on one side and the network cable on the other, making ports in the cabinet for each and the cables to the TV. I put in the PS3 and Xbox and closed the doors for the finish. An hour later, the PS3 overheated.

I took the cabinet down and installed two 120mm computer fans and covers (Silenx) and made a port between the two sides of the Besta, along with taking an arc out of the back of each shelf for ventilation. The fans have an independent control system. The one on the left draws fresh air into the cabinet and the one on the right pushes air out.

~ Mark Mobley, Georgia, United States

Low Budget Table Top Shelf + Cable Solution

Materials: BESTA VARA Drawer Front, RATIONELL VARIERA Shelf Insert, BILLY Book-end

Description: For an extremely low budget hack, after various different combination in mind, I've decided to go with these.

PREPARATION:
The reason I used BESTA VARA drawer front as a shelf was because the size was exactly what I wanted without sawing and stuff. Also the drawer has grooves that can be used to do something like a sliding door but I didn't use it for this project.

For the leg, I used RATIONELL VARIERA shelf's leg instead of the more popular CAPITA legs cause it's cheaper and I can make full used of the metal shelf as well.

STEP 1:
Screw the leg to shelf with small screws. The one came with the shelf can't be used as those were flat based screws.

STEP 2:
Using a plier or hammer, flatten the two wide side of the metal shelf to be used as a wall.

STEP 3:
Then pressed the left/right side with a plier so it will wrap the leg in between a little bit to make the wall stand in place.

STEP 4:
Place the BILLY Book-end in between the two legs/ wall to hide the gap. The door can still be pulled open softly to hide all your messy cabling and harddisk in the hidden area.

~ Imchaser, Singapore

Fit a Faktum wine rack into kitchen cab gap

Materials: Old used Faktum cabinet and left overs of your oak kitchen counter

Description: We installed our new Ikea Kitchen, but it was a little gap between the last cabinet and the wall. That was bothering me a lot. Ikea's solution was to place a cover, but my solution was to convert an old Faktum cabinet into a wine rack that could fit precisely into that gap.

Details of the customized Faktum wine rack are available on my blog.

~ Mauricio Munera, Norway