DIY Media Wall

Decided to jump on the trend of millennial-ifying tv spaces. This was the first major project we took on in our home and it’s not perfect but I’m really proud of how it turned out. This summer we’ll be replacing the bookshelves that flank the media wall with permanent floor to ceiling bookshelves. Thinking we’re gonna do cabinets on the bottom for additional storage space. Let me know what I did wrong/what you would do differently Photo 1: Media Wall in its current state. Still need to go over edge trim with another layer of paint, paint in between some of the shiplap and clean up the spots where I did a crappy job taping when painting the edges. Photo 2: Same space without the media wall. We moved into our home last May and had been using my girlfriend’s dresser as a media center. Photo 3: Started out with the framing which proved to be problematic for two reasons: 1) I foolishly picked studs that I would later realize were bowed/warped. I solemnly swear that I will never blindly pick lumber again. 2) Our house was built in 1918 which means that we have plaster and lathe walls and nothing is square. I originally measured from the wall, floor to ceiling not realizing that the ceiling slightly dips down. You can see where I damaged the plaster on the top left corner (we’ve since patched it and it’s fine, not great). The three holes in the wall are because after pulling the TV mount down we realized that we had drilled into the air venting. Used an omnitool to cut enough away and close up those holes with quality ducting tape. Photo 3: Here we’ve got the fireplace framed in. I went fairly cheap on the fireplace. It looks great, heats fine. I think it was around $200. I can PM anyone the link if they’re interested. Photo 4: Verifying that the fireplace works. On the bottom left hand side inside the framing you can see a register that we would later extend out to the framing. Photo 5: Framed in the soundbar and space for storage on either side. We ended up leaving that center wide open under the TV and I’m really happy we did because once we have the cords organized it’ll be a nice warm place for our kitties to sleep and relax. Photo 6: Lathe and Plaster make it very difficult to use any kind of stud finder. When I opened up the wall to seal the damaged venting I was lucky enough to find a stud and from there I marked 16” on either side to find other studs. Rather than rely on that I elected to bolt down some horizontal 2x4s that we could use to secure the shiplap. We used a 2x6 vertically over the 2x4s on the wall to hang the TV. Photo 7: Alright here’s everything framed in. Framing overall was pretty fun and easy. You can also see the vent that I would end up extending on the bottom left hand side. Photo 8: This is how we extended our venting. This drove me insane. I used ThermoPan which is great because it’s double sided and does well with heat and cold air. I basically just built a little box and made sure everything was taped and no air was escaping outside of the box. Photo 9: Here’s our first few shiplap boards. I made the shiplap myself out of 1x6’s and a table mounted router. If I had to go back and do it again I would probably just buy the shiplap. To install the shiplap I nailed it in with a brad nailer and used a piece of cardboard to get about 1/8” space between each board. Photo 10: Here I’ve started filling out the back with shiplap. This was about the moment that I realized why folks don’t have a giant open space behind the TV usually. I made so much god dang shiplap. Photo 11: Front and back finished more or less, sides were still open at this point. I used corner trim to clean up my rough cuts on the TV opening and sides openings. Mitering corner trim is an art and it took me more tries than I’m proud to admit to get it how I wanted it. Photo 12: Edge trim installed. I used a table saw to miter the corner edges and oh my god am I bad at that. I had the blade depth set too short and it ended up with inconsistent cuts. Had to get new trim and set the blade depth higher and things turned out better. Wasn’t sure if we would just stain the corner trim or paint it - in the end we painted and I think it would’ve turned out nicely either way. submitted by /u/bigtimedumb [link] [comments]

Mar 16, 2025 - 04:44

Decided to jump on the trend of millennial-ifying tv spaces. This was the first major project we took on in our home and it’s not perfect but I’m really proud of how it turned out. This summer we’ll be replacing the bookshelves that flank the media wall with permanent floor to ceiling bookshelves. Thinking we’re gonna do cabinets on the bottom for additional storage space. Let me know what I did wrong/what you would do differently

Photo 1: Media Wall in its current state. Still need to go over edge trim with another layer of paint, paint in between some of the shiplap and clean up the spots where I did a crappy job taping when painting the edges.

Photo 2: Same space without the media wall. We moved into our home last May and had been using my girlfriend’s dresser as a media center.

Photo 3: Started out with the framing which proved to be problematic for two reasons: 1) I foolishly picked studs that I would later realize were bowed/warped. I solemnly swear that I will never blindly pick lumber again. 2) Our house was built in 1918 which means that we have plaster and lathe walls and nothing is square. I originally measured from the wall, floor to ceiling not realizing that the ceiling slightly dips down. You can see where I damaged the plaster on the top left corner (we’ve since patched it and it’s fine, not great). The three holes in the wall are because after pulling the TV mount down we realized that we had drilled into the air venting. Used an omnitool to cut enough away and close up those holes with quality ducting tape.

Photo 3: Here we’ve got the fireplace framed in. I went fairly cheap on the fireplace. It looks great, heats fine. I think it was around $200. I can PM anyone the link if they’re interested.

Photo 4: Verifying that the fireplace works. On the bottom left hand side inside the framing you can see a register that we would later extend out to the framing.

Photo 5: Framed in the soundbar and space for storage on either side. We ended up leaving that center wide open under the TV and I’m really happy we did because once we have the cords organized it’ll be a nice warm place for our kitties to sleep and relax.

Photo 6: Lathe and Plaster make it very difficult to use any kind of stud finder. When I opened up the wall to seal the damaged venting I was lucky enough to find a stud and from there I marked 16” on either side to find other studs. Rather than rely on that I elected to bolt down some horizontal 2x4s that we could use to secure the shiplap. We used a 2x6 vertically over the 2x4s on the wall to hang the TV.

Photo 7: Alright here’s everything framed in. Framing overall was pretty fun and easy. You can also see the vent that I would end up extending on the bottom left hand side.

Photo 8: This is how we extended our venting. This drove me insane. I used ThermoPan which is great because it’s double sided and does well with heat and cold air. I basically just built a little box and made sure everything was taped and no air was escaping outside of the box.

Photo 9: Here’s our first few shiplap boards. I made the shiplap myself out of 1x6’s and a table mounted router. If I had to go back and do it again I would probably just buy the shiplap. To install the shiplap I nailed it in with a brad nailer and used a piece of cardboard to get about 1/8” space between each board.

Photo 10: Here I’ve started filling out the back with shiplap. This was about the moment that I realized why folks don’t have a giant open space behind the TV usually. I made so much god dang shiplap.

Photo 11: Front and back finished more or less, sides were still open at this point. I used corner trim to clean up my rough cuts on the TV opening and sides openings. Mitering corner trim is an art and it took me more tries than I’m proud to admit to get it how I wanted it.

Photo 12: Edge trim installed. I used a table saw to miter the corner edges and oh my god am I bad at that. I had the blade depth set too short and it ended up with inconsistent cuts. Had to get new trim and set the blade depth higher and things turned out better. Wasn’t sure if we would just stain the corner trim or paint it - in the end we painted and I think it would’ve turned out nicely either way.

submitted by /u/bigtimedumb
[link] [comments]