Hiding the home theater equipment is probably one of the trickiest thing in our modern day living room, but here's an idea you probably haven't considered - cutting a hole in your wall and masking it as a built-in wall speaker.
Given you have enough room behind the wall-mounted TV to do it, you can follow in Dotte's footsteps and cut a hole in the wall dedicated just for your A/V equipment. If you're gonna go through with it, we'd suggest double-checking to make sure there's enough room above the receive so nothing gets damaged from excessive heat. Even with the airy black speaker cover, you still need some room for air to circulate.
Here's some of his gear pictured (but hidden for the most part):
- Pioneer S-V42
- Sony Bravia KDL-40EX500
- Sony Playstation 3 160GB
- Yamaha RX-V767
What do you think of this look? Is it a clever way to hide your A/V stuff or an awkward hole in the wall?
[Images: Dotte]
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Marisa and Peter's Playfully Eclectic Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
looks awkward. it's looks like a big black panel on white walls. you can use a different color speaker cloth. they sell white or gray color speaker cloths, so it won't be such a big color contrast to the white walls.
Agreed. I like the concept, but the room looks strange like this. I think it would look awesome with the right wall color. Painting the walls is surely less work than making this!
I think it looks awkward because of the placement. It looks like they put it towards the left side of the wall. Adding a wall decal that goes from the right up towards the door would probably balance out everything.
And, you'd have to frame out the hole that you cut. That, or you'd have to make sure that your components fit in between the studs.
Plus, you'd need to build a shelf within the wall to support your equipment.
The end result looks pretty good, but it's too much of a PITA for my taste.
Very clean look!
Few PC fan (push/pull setup) should vent any heat from Receiver unit.
And allocate room for laptop in same wall enclosure.
I like the idea a lot. Not sure if the black panel sells it as a "speaker."
My issue is overheating. Especially if you've got an audio receiver, a cable box and a PS3 (or Xbox 360) in there.
Hey!
I see you used my pictures. That is fun, but you could ask first!
I have to say, to my deence, that the hole is covered with a bit of plexi-glass. And then i has sprayed it with black color from the inside. It is, as now shown on the picture, very shiny, and it´s not supposed to look like a built-in wall speaker.
http://www.minhembio.com/Dotte
Take care!
Dotte,
D'oh! We tried sending you messages on Minhembio several times, but we really don't understand Swede so it must not have gone through. Apologies on our end and if you want the picture taken down, just let us know. We'd also be interested in seeing a walkthrough on how you designed it - it may be an inspiring project for our readers!
Cheers,
-Anthony
It´s ok! I sure can write a guide if u want, and add more pictures if u want?
You need some better speakers