Hi. I’m Bob Schmidt with Home Remodel Workshop. I bought me a new LCD TV to take the place of that big monster TV I used to have in the past. I took some of the things that used to bother me about watching my big TV and I incorporated it in the design of the new base cabinet entertainment center setup that I’m going to use for my new LCD. I’ll show you some of the things I did and maybe that will give you some ideas for your project. Let’s get to work.
A few of the things I couldn’t stand about my original setup was I had all these wires and components either sitting alongside or hidden next to my TV or hidden behind my TV like my port for my computer and the speaker. I didn’t want to see any of this stuff in my new setup. After getting everything out of the way to see what I had to deal with, basically, I had a couple of plugs, a phone jack, a couple of cable feeds coming in, a cold air return and my speaker wire for my surround sound. After doing a little investigation on the cold air return here that chased all the way. It was open all the way to up above, so basically, I’m just going to move that cold air return grill high on the wall. And after that, I’m going to go ahead and get this base board out of the way. I got a plunge cut into it with my drilling tool and got it out of the way and went ahead and set a couple of base cabinets in place to see what kind of spaces I needed to fill.
These were cabinets that I salvaged for previous jobs that I’ve done. So I’m setting a couple of cabinets in there that filled the space up as much as possible and having enough finish shelving to do my filler strips. I went ahead and started there. I’m going to have to probably replace this carpet somewhere down the road. I don’t want to set these cabinets on top of the carpet. So, I put the cabinets in place and I marked the front of the cabinets with some green tape knowing that I’m going to have a trim piece that goes across the base of these cabinets that I’ll put down entirely to the carpet. I realized that the carpet may have to be re-stretched in the future at which point that’s fine. If I can tuck my trimmed piece down to the top of the carpet that holds it tightly enough and it doesn’t pull lose or start to roll, then I’m not going to concern myself with that.
Once the carpet, pad and tackles were out of my way, I went ahead and took my level and I checked the floor to find the high spot. It’s easier to shim cabinets up off the floor than it is to cut cabinets into the floor. So I found that high spot. I measured up on my wall, added 1/8 of an inch and I made a level line all the way around. That’s where I’m going to set the top of my cabinets.
This level line is also where all my down measurements that are going to come that I’m going to cut for the boxes into the back of my cabinets are going to come from. You don’t want to measure up off the floor because with the cabinets getting shimmed off the floor, you’ll miss your box.
Knowing that I want my cabinets spaced somewhat evenly in this opening, what I do is I take the overall size of the opening in the front where the front of the cabinet is going to be, I subtracted off the amount of the cabinets and I come up with a difference. And what I have to do is divide that difference by 3 to come up with approximately what size filler I’m going to want in each three sections on the two ends and in between the cabinets. I had an 1/8 of an inch on to the beginning number because of the style overhanging on the cabinets themselves. I take this number, I transfer it back to the wall with the framing square because there is no guarantee that this corner is square. I make the plumb line and that’s where I measure all my over measurements on my boxes with.
Once I get all the boxes measured from the level line and from our starting plumb line which is where the back of the box hits the wall, I go ahead and I transfer these numbers to the back of the cabinet pulling from the appropriate side of course. And then taking my Dremel cut tool, I go ahead and I cut first from the back completing most of the cut and then go around to the inside of the cabinet and finish the balance of the cut. Find your studs on the wall, go ahead and set your first cabinet. Making allowance for overhanging fillers, go ahead and mark your second plumb line for your next pullout cuts. Once everything is plumbed, shimmed and leveled, go ahead and make a rough cut on your filler strips and test them for fit prior to cutting to proper length and installing. Using four-inch strips of masonite, I custom fit each piece individually to the wall hot glued together to make a single template to lay over the top of my wood counter top so that I can cut each individual undulation so that I don’t tear up my walls while installing my countertop.
Perfect fit, first time. But after looking at these doors, it’s pretty obvious that I would have to have the doors open to operate my components. Also, these doors could create heat and trap component heat inside of the cabinets, and I don’t want that. So what I’m going to have to do is I’m going to have to cut out these panels and replace them with some panels that will let air and allow my transmitter to transmit through the doors. With these simple aluminum panels with all the holes, it dulls the look of the inside of the cabinet yet allows sound for my speaker, heat from the components and my transmitter to transmit through these doors so that these doors can remain closed while I’m enjoying my TV.
So there you go. Hopefully, that helped you out with some of the things you got to decide on during your project. I have me some snacks here and some soft drinks, and the sports program is about ready to come on. I think I’m going to enjoy that. I’ll catch you on the next one. Thanks.
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