🖼️
The project:
The best wall for our TV was only 1.2m wide, so the TV always stuck out past one edge. Rather than fight it, we made it look intentional. We built a floating pine TV unit on one side of the wall, and on the other, a cabinet with a secret: a gap under the door lets our robot vacuum drive itself in and out to clean and then hide away. I wall-mounted the TV, hid the cables in the wall, and built everything from Bunnings pine with a matching skirting so it reads as part of the room.
- Materials:
- Tools:
- Step 1:
Planned around the issues
Measured the wall, sketched several designs, and used a stud finder to map studs and avoid electrical cables. This ruled out the wrap around TV unit and led to the floor-mounted vacuum cabinet.
Before image and the final design drawing:
- Step 2:
Built the vacuum box frame
Constructed the box from 70 x 35 mm framing timber, sized to fit the robot vacuum with clearance.
- Step 3:
Mounted the box
Fixed the vacuum box to the floor and to a couple of points in the wall for stability.
- Step 4:
Clad the box
Covered the sides in 3 mm MDF, deliberately leaving a gap at the top-right for the vacuum's power cords to pass through into the TV unit.
Added the top of the box in Specrite pine.
- Step 5:
Designed the self-docking door
Left a 15-20 cm gap at the bottom of the door so the robot vacuum drives itself in and out to clean, without needing to open the cabinet. Hung the door using full overlay soft close hinges.
- Step 6:
Built the floating TV unit
A simple pine box (no back to keep the weight down) was built with wood glue and pocket screws. Two dividers were spaced equally apart within the box. A leftover length of timber was attached across the back to carry the mounting screws.
- Step 7:
Mounted the TV unit
Confirmed stud and electrical locations, and fixed the unit to the wall using long timber screws into the studs, using a level to ensure straight, and aligning the top of the TV unit with the top of the vacuum box.
- Step 8:
Fitted the doors
Made three pine doors, hung with inset soft close hinges. Attached push to open magnetic door catches, for a seamless, no-handle look.
- Step 9:
Blended it into the room
Made a skirting board from pine offcuts, matching the angles of existing skirting so the vacuum box appears to be part of the wall (a lot of trial-and-error here!). Filled all holes with wood filler.
- Step 10:
Finished
Sanded the skirting and MDF panels. Primed, and painted the surfaces, sanding between coats. Sealed the pine surfaces with hard wax.
Styled it featuring fiddle leaf fig, white pot, and copper saucer.
