Living Room Wall System

Jules Yap·
IKEA Living Room HacksMedia Storage
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IKEA Living Room Hacks

Materials: Friel, Lack, Akurum, Besta and Pax

Description: This is a 12″ wide wall system put together with 100% ikea items including 2 Friel TV units (as base), Besta black-brown doors, 2 Lack wall shelves and Pax/Akurum kitchen cabinets top units. The 60″ Pioneer Kuro TV and the Definitive Technology Mythos speakers have all wiring hidden behind the Besta wall panels/doors. The Friel base units hide all AV equipment and 12 TB home theatre/movie Plex server. Total cost of just Ikea units is approx. $1,100. Total time spent designing and constructing was around 2 weeks.

See more of the Besta wall unit.

~ Sourojit Dhar, Long Beach, CA

Jules Yap
Latest posts by Jules Yap (see all)

56 Responses

  1. Fantastic job! I’ve been studying your photos on Flickr trying to figure out how you did it all.

    I’m about to take the plunge myself with some Besta cabinets. I really liked how you used the Besta doors as panelling. Can i ask you: 1) how did you mount them to the wall — using the Besta door rails? 2) in the bedroom, did you take the panels direclty to the floor, or leave space for cables, etc.? 3) for the TV, did you mount directly to the panels or mount through them to the wall behind? 4) how did you deal with electrical sockets?

    Thanks and again, your house looks amazing. You can really tell a lot of thought went into it.

    Reply

  2. I found myself wasting a lot of time reading all the comments hating on this person. After reading them I was glad that I did because it proved to me that if there are people who hate you because of your accomplishments then you must be doing something right. Thanks guys, I hope I can post my awesome setup on here one day in my amazing house and sit back and let the haters hate. Cheers con cafe!

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  3. I think there are arguments on both sides, personally I love it & I suspect a lot of what people are calling the “haters” love it too. However, there argument is not about envy or hatred but more about frustration at not having better photo’s of the build process in order to understand the techniques involved. It is actually a resonable argument as is wondering what or where the ‘hack’ is. Despite these two valid questions and regardless of the correct answers (for me at least) I am deeply impressed at the work and creativity.

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  5. Love the setup and hating all the hate. Ikeahakcers is also about inspiration. And definitive also about Jealousy. Atleast i dont have to ask, what tv is that? What speakers and thats a nice chair, what chair is that?

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  6. A bunch of Ikea furniture- $1100

    Time spent writing this response- too much

    Penniless losers with dead-end jobs accusing someone posting their living room setup of being braggadocios? Pricesless…

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  8. Given the pains this guy has gone to, to post these amazing pictures then surely he is aware of what this website is about showing a hack and then detailing how it was done.

    I would suggest he didnt do this himself…and if im wrong then where is the harm in posting the plans he would have needed to use in order to put the whole thing together.

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  9. Too many haters, please leave. There is a none jealousy policy in place here and you are not welcome, go back to modifying your 2 quid soap dish. In fact a good hack would be to modify a toilet roll holder so it was beside your mouth, save time on clean up

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  10. one problem i thought this was a more like a DIY website not a show-off site, but dont get me wrong it looks great now tell us how you made it and maybe close ups as for the last picture is a total show off as you cant bearly see the “hack” so yeah call me a hater then but he is just showing off and not showing a hack!

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  11. Creativity is:

    The Sistine Chapel/your child’s pasta portrait of you/a Banksy original on Ikea cardboard/the above living room.

    If it’s creative, whatever it cost, it’s inspiring.

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  12. JoelC… Take it easy with the negativity! Go look at some modern architecture magazine (maybe Dwell) and see if they actually teach you how to put anything together. Since when did Ikeahackers become a place only to learn? Its a place to show and tell… not all creation here has to show EVERY step of construction and design. Sure it would have been nice so see the details on this wall system, but that does not warrant an unforced nasty comment. Go get some culture!

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    1. Just what did you find that I said that was so Nasty? And yes IKEA hackers is supposed to be about learning how you did the Hack otherwise it’s not a very good post and it’s going to get Criticism. Learn to deal with such Criticism. Look at many of the above posts. Lots of people said much worse than me. I just want to know how he built it. I can look at nice pictures of entertainments systems all day on other websites much better than Ikea stuff if I want to just see nice furniture

      Reply

  13. The most annoying part of this Hack is the absolute lack of details about how he made it, and the excessive details about expensive equipment namebrands. We would have liked to know say how many door panels did you use? 30? And how did you mount those panels on the wall? You have pictures showing off your room but not the build process. We’re here to learn how, not to just see a finished product to wonder at?!

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  14. Very creative way of putting this together. Fantastic bang for the buck. Just wished I had seen this a year ago.

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  15. Wow – I’m so impressed! This is a beautiful job. I’m trying to design a simple Besta non-hack 10′ wall for my TV unit in my new condo den and will likely spend more than $1100 for it without it looking anything nearly as beautiful as this. I went to your whole house page – you have done the original architect proud. kudos to you man

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  17. Minimal, sharp, I’m jealous mostly because I don’t have a room for anything like this. Don’t hate cus the first thing I wondered was “how big is that TV”. I’m glad he told me. The black brown in the center and white above and below makes the TV look so much bigger. Looks great…some people spend money on cars, furnishings, or clothes…this guy likes his home theater. Cheers! Job well done.

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  18. Wow! I was right! I just read sd’s post. . . He DIDN’T spend a lot! Can’t buy talent, creativity and a good eye! Kudos to you sd!

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  19. I think he’s brilliant! What he did was incorporated his expensive looking and well designed space with Ikea fixtures. How do we even know if he spent a lot on the rest of the decor?? He may have designed on a dime for all we know. Whether people have money to spend or not, it’s all about having good taste and knowing good quality, whether something costs $1or $1,000. It’s called having ”talent” which you are born with . . . whether you have cash or not.

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  20. Looks great! And it’s practical for hiding wires/equipment. Major points for making standard Ikea look sleek, modern, and expensive. I need to do something similar in my NYC apartment – am going to show these pics to my contractor and hope he can figure it out… Hack of the Year!
    p.s. I’m drooling over that Basis turntable. Respect!

    Reply

  22. Thank you all for all the kind comments. I do wish I had taken pictures during the sleepless two-weeks period spent building this wall unit. I ran into several issues despite planning, designing and detailing out everything months in advance.

    As someone mentioned, my small family can enjoy a few goodies (that cannot be scrimped on), by saving on others that can be. Even those things that look expensive are really not… audiophile gear (someone pointed those out in the flickr link) on the AMAZING http://www.audiogon.com, Eames/Nelson furniture/stuff from craigslist. I do not believe you need to earn boat loads of cash to enjoy a FEW tasteful things in life. Checkout this guy – http://www.the-brick-house.com

    “In anything at all, perfection is attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”
    – Antoine de Saint-Exepéry

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  24. Wow! This guy did a great job. If anyone is familiar with Poliform furniture, he did the same look but at 1/20th of the price. This is a great example of how creative thinking can bring together low priced but quality looking IKEA furniture with high quality furniture (eames chair). The result is an expensive looking room but at a budget.

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  26. Beautiful. Can’t say it enough. sleek and conceptual with entire home and for me that’s the end all be all! build pics would be awesome. I really enjoy how expansive and seemless it is. I’m reconsidering my current media design. (pssst… great design like all great art causes extreme emotion)

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  27. Very nice to see the use of some IKEA products done in a professional manner. This is much more interesting and inspiring than seeing how someone morphed a stupid looking $10.00 final product out of $50.00 of IKEA parts.

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  29. Maybe his living room is paid for with product placement fees, like Kim Kardashian’s wedding.

    Oh, I hope his wall lasts longer than…you know.

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  30. nice slick install. no build picts though which is a shame which might be why there’s such a negative reaction to it. This isn’t Architectural Digest, we’re more interested in the build than the finished product.

    The linked photo set has another almost identical setup in a bedroom and similar one in a ‘man-cave’ which has even more expensive audio gear (tube amp, some kind of crazy turntable, and what I think are some ~$10K speakers if they’re the ones I listened to several years ago). All really nicely done and nice photography.

    I’ll give him some slack because I assume he’s an audiophile and probably has some silly silver oxygen-free speaker cables with lcd readouts that cost more than his car. I know I know, the sound quality! its freaking amazing! 🙂

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  32. JD, Bahhhh, Bahhhh, Bahhh. We agree with you.

    Every so often a ikea hacker would post something that’s irritating; something that touches the nerves of people. So they voice their opinions. Critical observations is important, if not necessary, part of evolving as a race. Bahhh, Bahhh.

    “The world waits your next insightful pearl of wisdom” — no need to wait. All that needs to be said has been said in the original posting.

    Seriously dude, if we don’t like the hack, we must attack. Bahhh, Bahhh.

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  33. “There are two types of people on who troll this website: (1) haters and (2) sheep who like everything. We need more sane people who can be critical and not be accused of being haters.
    That being said, this dude is the ultimate show off artist.”

    Tell me why you need more people to be critical? This is furniture! It’s not world events, economic policy or social equities discussions. It’s just hacked IKEA furniture.
    We do need sane critical people in real, meaningful and consequential debates. This however, is just furniture.

    “this dude is the ultimate show off artist”.
    This is an example of a sane, non-sheep critique is it? Articulate. In-depth. The world waits for your next insightful pearl of wisdom.

    JD

    Reply

  34. He could have hired someone to create this, instead he bought the materials at IKEA and designed the wall system for himself. I wish my ideas and design skills were this cool, but I guess I’ll have to hire someone to do this for me… Yeah, I’m jealous, Eames chair included! Well done.

    Reply

  36. I really like this hack and the description he’s given. For those that like home media setups, it’s always interesting to see how people have put together home media centers, in this case a 12 tb drive running plex. Sounds like he’s a Mac guy then also since running plex. Nice One!! Also like the audio setup. What Ikea boards are you using. I’ve seen those legs but not sure about the boards.

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  37. This is a beautiful example of how seamlessly new products can blend with classic architecture. We also have a mid-century modern home in LA and have saved quite a lot of money by being resourceful and incorporating the best in moderately priced, well designed, modern furniture i.e. IKEA products.

    Thanks for your inspiring post. The mid-century modern aesthetic can be achieved on my 21st century budget. I’ll just have to keep dreaming about my Noguchi sofa.

    Enjoy your beautiful home.

    Reply

  38. Nice entertainment units are seriously expensive especially one that would comprise a whole wall. Taking that into consideration $1,100 is not much for the one above and it’s a beautiful hack that blends in well with the more expensive furniture in the home which is saying something as the components being used are Ikea not high end wood. If he wants to emphasize that the Ikea hack is blending in and hiding expensive equipment and still doesn’t look cheap – who cares?! Looks great! Beyond my skills but I sure wouldn’t complain if someone built one for me.

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  39. “I suppose people get offended by these lines”

    I suppose people need to find more worthy targets of their impotent rage. Maybe he just wanted to give a shout out to some equipment he thinks is worth the bucks. Like the IKEA stuff…

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  40. Is there a “hack” in there somewhere? Or was the work strictly about deciding what to spend the money on?

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  42. I suppose people get offended by these lines: “The 60″ Pioneer Kuro TV and the Definitive Technology Mythos speakers have all wiring hidden [behind the Besta wall panels/doors]. [The Friel base units hide all AV equipment] and 12 TB home theatre/movie Plex server.”

    Well – who cares about these information? If he just wrote something like: “…hiding all TV/AV/speakers cables/equipment perfectly”.” I guess there wouldnt be that much negative feedback…

    Personally, I dont care about the text. I see a nice composition of IKEA items – and additionally a beautiful Vitra Eames Lounge chair 😉

    Just my two cents 🙂

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  43. Haters gotta hate.

    Beautiful work, and proof-positive that IKEA’s inexpensive kit fits in well with far more expensive stuff. “Just” $1,100 isn’t “bragging” about how much money he spent. It’s bragging about how much money he saved and still got a high-end look. He coulda easily blown $5,000+ on similar-looking furnishings from ritzy Italian designers.

    Haters – you need to get out of your mom’s basement more often.

    Reply

  44. The difference between this and other posts that brings out the “haters” (aka people with common sense) is that this guy just brags about the money and that his TV that’s large enough to overcompensate for whatever he feels the need to overcompensate for.

    Not at all jealous. I’d be embarrassed to live there.

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  46. There are two types of people on who troll this website: (1) haters and (2) sheep who like everything. We need more sane people who can be critical and not be accused of being haters.

    That being said, this dude is the ultimate show off artist. $1100 for ikea stuff is $1000 too much.

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  47. You’ve made 3 people very jealous!^^

    The house looks amazing and the layout of the entertainment area is clean. I built a home theater last summer and was quite proud until I saw yours. Hahaha

    If you’ve got the money, spend it. And you did… well!

    Reply

  48. Hey, isn’t every post a brag post? If I was able to hack any Ikea stuff well, I’d be bragging too! Be proud of your skills, and let others be proud of their skills. Enough with the bitterness people, it says more about you than you realise.

    Always interested in hacks that hide AV equipment, given the complexities of cooling, and maintenance. This is impressive, although a little advanced for me 🙂
    JenX.

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  49. Seriously? Again with the hating? I would be extremely proud of this home, boasting everywhere possible! He’s not boasting at all. Just laying out the facts. By “just the Ikea units” he meant, “just the Ikea units”. Not anything else. Stop hating already and appreciate art when you see it.

    If you check his Flickr link you’ll see that he is some sort of architectural designer.

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  51. Agreed with the two comments above. It’s an Ikea-hack site, not a fit-your-expensive-Eames-chair-into-every-shot site. And by saying that “JUST Ikea stuff was $1100,” it’s a little ostentatious.

    Reply

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