So we had a 10 year old TV in the family area that eventually decided its time was up and went to sleep. We had a bulky low lying tv cabinet on the floor, which I thought was time, after looking at it for years, to upgrade.
I gave the TV cabinet to my now adult son and sent my husband down to get a new TV.
In my horror he returned with an 85-inch purchase due to apparently it was a deal he couldn’t refuse! (Eye roll)
He whacked it on a bracket on the family room wall and thought she’ll be right.
Now … three months later, frustrated and having gone through every TV stand idea on searching the internet, I still found nothing that I really liked.
We have power point issues, antenna outlet plug issues, light switch and fan switch issues. All due to the size of this TV.
I got quotes in from carpenters and electricians all around the 6k-7k range … (another eye roll).
So I put the thinking cap on.
IKEA items used for my BILLY Bookcase TV stand:
2 tall BILLY bookcases (31 1/2 x 11 x 79 1/2″)
3 short BILLY bookcases (31 1/2 x 11 x 41 3/4″)
10 OXBERG doors (15 3/4 x 38 1/4″)
Being able to play with a wall measurement of 4m long, I came up with a TV stand design using a combination of IKEA BILLY bookcases with OXBERG doors.
To make it work, we needed to lift the TV above the switches and also hide the cables, so I suggested we put wood beams on the wall to leave a cavity and cover with floor boards.
We got light switch brackets to bring them forward of the wall and drilled holes in the bottom of the cabinets for the antenna to reach the outlet.
The sound bar cables and also somewhere for the bass box to hide. We finished it with a pre made bench top cut down to size.
Also finished the top with trim for a built-in look. And left the top section of the two tall BILLY bookcases open for decor and accessories.
The bookcases provide ample storage space for dvds, game consoles and other electronics.
It took three days (and a lot of eye rolling from hubby) to complete. And all up the cost was about $1,400.00.
Also in here, is my first IKEA project built 12 years ago. I jumped straight into a kitchen and it is still standing strong. In that time my five children were much younger and believe me it has endured years of hard knocks but ohhh the memories!
Besides the BILLY bookcase TV stand, I decided to change the bench top of my IKEA duchess that I built six years ago to the same as the TV unit to blend in.
~ by Tracy Swinson
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Jules is the author of IKEAHackers.net: 25 Biggest and Best Projects".
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