TV UNIT - SIDE & TOP SHELVES

Sniff, sniff. Cough, cough. Splutter, snot gobble.

A day out in London last week and it appears that an unseen viral menace hitched a ride on the tardy train back to Chi. Funny but whenever we visit the Big Smoke we always appear to return full of germs. I blame TFL for not adequately sanitising their trains after a day of snotty fingers rubbed across doors and hand grab bars. The hardy Londoner doesn’t stay in to recouperate, preferring instead to share the ‘lurge’ with the world at large.

Mind the snotty gap

Not letting a few sniffs or sneezes deter us from our DIY. Bring on the Vics vapour rub or Lemsip, it’s kill or cure!

Now where did we get to? Right. Shaped shelf fitted so time to move on up. Let’s finish those side shelves then get cracking with the top section.

To recap, there are side shelves with no end pieces and this is where we’ll begin.

Grab a stained vertical upright and place it alongside the fishbone shelf on the side wall. This vertical piece needs to be carefully screwed into position, keeping the shelf level and at the same time ensuring that the front edges are neatly aligned.

How to get level shelves

We’ve done this using the tried and tested Heath Robinson method, propping up the shelf with a pile of DVDs until the spirit level bubble is centred.

Bodge or brilliance?

One person then holds the vertical panel and shelf in place whilst the other screws them together.

Is that bubble in the middle?

Starting from the bottom shelf, work your way slowly up the fishbone using the above method to ensure your shelves are level and aligned.

Left side shelf completed

Repeat on the other side. No DVDs used this time as there’s only one high top shelf. It’s a case of hold and hope.

You should now have something that looks like the photo below:

Both sides completed

Grab the stained top shelf piece and drop this into position to sit on the 2 stained vertical panels. Screw the top shelf into the top of the vertical panels from above. In this way, the screws remain unseen.

Position top shelf and screw into long verticals

Remember to feed your speaker cables up along each corner join before you push the whole unit back towards the wall.

Everything should now be ready for the top panel, top verticals and pelmet but more about that after a little lie down.  Anyone got a tissue I could wipe the laptop screen with?

TV UNIT - SHAPED SHELF

Well, well, fancy Sir Keir removing old Thatcher’s portrait from the walls of no 10.  Mock shock, horror (not!).

Can’t say I blame him. I too would have found her image ‘unsettling’. Almost as 'unsettling' as an Oasis reunion concert to which the media has devoted more air space than is really necessary.  Seriously?  That's not what I deem 'news'.

Thatcher's portrait was probably one of those pictures with beady eyes that follow you round the room. Should have chucked it on a bonfire but I guess that’s not very environmentally friendly. Its a wonder her ghost isn’t lurking around the corridors of power, haunting all those hapless incumbents that followed in her wake.

The PM might be busy taking down stuff but we’re still busy putting it up, with the TV unit progressing steadily upwards.

Today’s focus is the lower shaped shelf and component compartment.

Building the TV unit foundation

Before fitting the shaped shelf, work out how all the telly cabling will connect to the power bar under the shelf then cut a hole towards the back of the shelf top. Remember this hole needs to be large enough to feed a plug through it. Sand and stain/paint the interior of the hole ready for grommet.

Position small drawer units tightly next to the vertical side panels. As these are not as deep as the Cuba cabinet then to stop the drawers sliding back a wooden chock has been inserted behind them. A small painted spacer fits into the side space in front of each vertical side panel.

Black spacer used to plug gaps at the ends

Slide the shaped shelf into position on top of the drawer units making sure each vertical side panel fits into the special shaped side slot. At this stage, don’t push the shaped shelf fully towards the back wall as you need to allow play for speaker cables to run to the top shelf.

When you are satisfied that all the drawers and spacers are in the correct location then place a vertical support tightly next to each drawer unit. Screw the shaped shelf into the supporting vertical pieces placed at the side of each drawer box by screwing down from the top surface. Repeat until both sides done.

Screw shelf into stained support next to drawers

The shaped shelf should now be supported underneath at each end, the vertical side panels locked into position against the recess walls and there should be an empty central compartment ready for you to fill with gadgets or gizmos.

Lower shaped shelf and compartments finished

Next step – fixing the inner end shelf panels and top shelf.

TV UNIT - SIDE SHELVES

With all the timber cut, stained and painted construction can finally begin starting with the side shelves.

Side panels primed, painted with 2 coats of black matt multi-surface paint

Unlike the other wall units we’ve made, this one will not strictly be symmetrical. The long panel on the left is to be divided into 5 compartments; four tall enough to store DVDs and the top one for decorative bits.

The long panel on the right is to be divided into 2 compartments; a very tall one to house my beautiful Art Deco lamp with a top section aligned at the same height as the left side.

Screw small stained shelf pieces into position from the back of the long black painted side panels as if you were making half a fishbone. 

Aligning the shelves from the front

Countersink screws to fix stained shelf from the back of panel

When this panel is put into position, the shelves float in mid air but will be secured to a stained upright once the shaped lower shelf is slid into position.

Half a fishbone type of shelf

Before screwing the vertical panel onto the floating ends of the shelves or positioning the shaped shelf there is the small matter of power. Not the all-consuming power wielded by Sauron wearing the one ring but electrical power for your TV and other gadgetry. One bar to rule them all….

6 gang surge protection power bar - purchased from Amazon

I’ve purchased a 6 gang power bar with surge protection to hang on the wall under the shaped shelf. Fit your power source to the wall before positioning the shaped shelf. It’s also a good idea while there is no shelf in place to connect up any components or speakers so that you can run the cables up the unit sides as you build it.

Slide lower shelf into place then work out where to fit the power bar

Remove shelf, fit power bar then check shelf fits afterwards

Ready for part II

Everything should be ready for the next bit of the build phase which is putting together the shaped shelf and compartment housing your gadgetry.

TV UNIT BEGUN

Hurricane Ernesto, Storm Lilian – how good of you to drop by. Just in time for the bank holiday weekend. Are you thinking of hanging around long? No. Good. I’d hate for my eagerly awaited extra-long time off work to be rudely interrupted by wind. It’s bad enough having to deal with the ‘whooosh’ from the other half’s emission-producing fart factory without additional gusts from inclement weather.

Anyhow I’ve little time to dwell on the fickle nature of the British summer because there’s a TV unit to be made. Shut the door on your way out.

You’d think that being a smaller, more simplistic looking unit than those previously constructed, this one would be built in a flash but we’ve already hit a number of snags. It’s all so annoying!

Where do we start?

Thanks to that inconvenient sticking out bit of mantlepiece, we’ve realised that the TV unit can’t be made up as one piece then slid back into its final position. It also can’t be rotated in as a complete single piece which means having to come up with a creative construction solution or basically build it in situ. Once in, it can never come out.

Dry building the sides and top shelves to see if it'll fit

Then there’s the hole in the wall. It houses a wall vent presumable fitted by the previous owners because they may have had an old gas or coal fire but it’s exactly where you’d want to position your side panel. Templating round the vent would be a bit of a bitch so instead the unit’s side panel will sit partly on top of the hole and the vent grille will be cut down to sit alongside the wood.

Vent hole in the way

To mirror the library unit, I wanted the side and top panels cut as straight lengths then painted black. There are also a couple of small drawer units to be incorporated on each side like before but the biggest set-back is the lower shelf. I wanted the lowest shelf to be the same width as the Cuba cabinet ie 40 cm instead of 30 cm. But the side panels are not as wide as the shelf. How to get round this?

The only solution we can come up with is to inset the side panels into the wider shelf by cutting out a small section. 

Overcoming the different sized wood

Unfortunately, this wider shelf cannot be screwed to the side panels so is being supported largely by the small drawer units and a couple of vertical supports. I am hoping this will be enough to prevent warping but worst-case scenario, an additional central support piece can be added.

Side drawer units supporting the large lower shelf

All of these things have added a unique set of challenges to what I thought would be a very straightforward TV unit project so much so that my head hurts just thinking about it. Get that kettle on again. More tea is needed to lubricate these little grey cells!

Pulling it all together