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.
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?
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.