Skip to main content

Home Theater Remodel - First Steps.

We've been in the new house for about six months, and there's still a huge pile of HDMI wires running from our TV over the fireplace, to the AV stand holding our components. 

It works great, it looks terrible. 

It's time for a change. I could bury the HDMI cables in the wall horizontally, or run them through the basement and back up.... but the former plan requires expensive drywall work, and the latter has a fireplace in the way and might be impossible.


Time for a bold plan. Time for wall-to-wall built in cabinets!




As the living room is currently situated, the TV is on the fireplace mantle. We'd like to hang the TV on the wall in that space.

We've had 2 fires this winter, and the wall above the fireplace maintains room temperature at all times - it will be safe for our electronics.

The mantle also has our left-center-front channel Bose Acoustimass cube speakers, which work, but which just sit there, adding to the clutter. We'd like to have these speakers mounted to the wall to the left and right of the fireplace - or even better, to add in-wall speakers.

So, our mantle has 4 HDMI cables and 3 speaker wires - plus 3 speakers, a Kinect camera, and the wiring
for that.

There's an old Crate & Barrel media cabinet to the left of the fireplace, which holds our DirecTV box, our Xbox, the AppleTV, the BluRay player, and so on. It doesn't look right, and it has wires (and Skylanders) all over it.

This is a mess. Even when it's cleaned up.

The solution? Extending the existing fireplace-shelving unit about 5 feet in either direction: thereby creating space for components, partially covering up all of the drywall work for cable-burying, and incorporating built-in speakers. The wires will be hidden, and the entire wall will look like a coherent design.

The primary hold-up has been cost - we'd like to go with an arts-and-crafts theme to match the craftsman-esque attributes throughout the house, but it could get pricey. To some extent, this will have to be a DIY project - and that means it's time to break out the blueprint software.

The deadline for completion of this project? 4th of July.

We'll get started with designs tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Comments

  1. Superb Post,I have spent a lot of time to gain effective info,I liked it very much,Thanks for sharing this post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you want to totally remodel your home including changing of windows, carpet and flooring you will need to have a budget.
    Home Improvement Contractor Ridgewood

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great blog and you setup your home theater system in a more attractive way. I am also using home theater system and i also wants to setup it in a same way

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm completely concur with your words that accommodation doesn't need to mean compromise.it appears that each home needs the best Home theater frameworks that suits your wallet.these are very stunning and the mixed bag in it makes it more great.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not All AirPort Extremes are Created Equal (UPDATED)

I'm looking for a used AirPort Extreme. In all the usual places - eBay, Craigslist.  I'll probably get one this week. Why? It's a long story.  A while back, I picked up an AirPort Express A1084 router on Craigslist, and found that it was incompatible with my AirPort Utility and wireless-n network, even though it looked *identical* to the current model of AirPort Express.  So, I wrote a post on this blog about the different types of AirPort Express routers, noting that if you're looking for used Airport Express routers to extend your AirPlay network, you'd better seek out model A1264. In the months that followed, Apple updated the AirPort Express again, changing the form factor (it looks like a little white AppleTV now), adding simultaneous dual-band support, and giving it model number A1392.  ASIDE: I'm not totally convinced that the form-factor change was an improvement. The A1264 plugged directly into the wall, which was incr

Review - WOW Ultra TV vs. DirecTV HR34 Genie

Here in the Chicago suburbs, we had two options for whole-home DVR services. We initially went with WOW Ultra TV, and after about 4 months, we switched to DirecTV's HR34 Genie system. (Neither Verizon FIOS nor AT&T UVerse were available in our area, so we can't review those. I haven't used Dish's Hopper, either. This is a straight compare/contrast review of WOW vs. DirecTV.) Both Ultra TV and Genie have their plusses and minuses. Both offer 1080p output, but that's primarily for the menus, as most TV content is provided at lower resolutions.  Both systems have a similar design architecture - a central hub, with multiple tuners and a large hard drive, recording and storing all TV shows, and distributing them to televisions around the house upon request.  Both systems also bring a number of "add-on" apps and have ways of accessing "on demand" content.  We've had each system for enough time to really put them through

Review: NuCore Flooring from Floor & Decor

This NuCore flooring review will also function as a Basement Update: We're finally, officially moving forward on the Phase 2 finish work.