Hello,

Beginner here. With writing this, I’m increasingly thinking I should hire a carpenter, lol. But I’ve been wanting to post this for months, so here it goes.

What do I want to build?

I want to build a desk/TV sideboard/shelf combo, that takes up the entire length of a 5-meter-long wall in my living room (see image).

  • There’s the ‘lower part’: 60cm deep, 75cm high; two desks on either extremities (i.e. in the corners of the room), flanked by drawers and storage options for all matter of things. The centrepiece is the TV-sideboard, with cupboards for storage and an open solution for A/V devices.
  • Then there’s the ‘upper part’: 40cm deep, 200cm high; this is like a shelf that sits on top of the ‘lower part’, but it is narrower by 20cm. This will be storage for books, records, work stuff, etc… I am not planning on having a back wall on the shelf.

What are the circumstances?

I live in a relatively small apartment (~ 40m²) with my partner. The apartment is a pre-WW1 house, with a room height of 3,2m. The 5m wall is brick, and behind it starts the next house, so it’s plenty thick. The living room itself is about 19m².

My questions to the community

My main question is basically how?

  • Is it smarter to build the ‘lower part’ all in one first, then build the ‘upper part’ on top? Or is it better to build everything around the two L-shaped studs, that separate the desks from the TV? I imagine that the first option is easier to build, whereas the second option provides more stability.
  • What tools, screws, wall plugs and techniques would you use to build this? More specifically: how do I anchor things to the wall?
  • The material should be wood – but which one would be appropriate?
  • I have a couple of other questions, but I’ll leave it at that for now…

Thank you so much for replying and taking an interest.

  • Sam Vimes@beehaw.org
    2·
    9 hours ago

    Depending on the level of quality you’re looking for, that could be a very doable project, or a mistake, only you can find that out! Based on your questions, I’d have some reservations about tackling that.

    My specific thoughts: Figure out if it’s custom to that wall forever, or has any possibility of being used elsewhere in whole or in part. building it in chunks that attach together is a good idea regardless, for ease of build/if anything needs to be changed later.

    Those are some pretty wide shelves up top, and you’ll definitely want to consider how much weight they’ll potentially hold, and if they should be very thick or have additional support in the center.

    Hiring someone to do all of it, or just a bit of design/consulting isn’t a bad call depending on your skills and quality desired.

    The other suggestions of find some furniture (IKEA or other) that checks enough boxes with some minor add-ons/modification is a good option as well.