Sharing our tv wall has been one of the things people have been asking me to share since I shared the progress on my stories. I have been looking forward to sharing this post with you, but had to take a major mental break when Jason went back to work. He was off for 3 months and in those 3 months, we have done so much work, I realized I really needed to just give myself a minute to breathe!But moment is over and were back at it! Let’s just jump right in, no more waiting! Isn’t it pretty?! Jason did such a great job with this! Even he was surprised at how good it turned out! Haha!
**Update: Here are the measurements:
The shiplapped built ins are 12′ wide X 9′ tall X 16″ deep
The columns for the floating shelves are 5″ wide
The floating shelves are all 24.5″ wide X 2.5″ thick X 16″ deep
The cabinet below the tv is 70 7/8 ” wide X 25 1/4 ” tall X 15 3/4 ” deep and it is floating 9 inches off the ground
The measurements for the whole room is 15′ X 18′ X 9′ tall
Btw, you can shop everything here on this page under “den”
>>> Here’s what the room looked like when we moved in. Of course I didn’t take a picture of this actual wall *sigh*, but if you can imagine, the tv wall used to be a door on the right and a closet on the left.
<<< You can see this was the old way to get into this room on the left with closet protruding out.
Sponsored links are present in this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
I got this idea from Chris Loves Julia who got the idea from Studio Mcgee. I’m a sucker for a shiplapped wall and I just loved the cozy and modern built in look. The design is so simple and clean yet interesting. Tv walls are not my favorite, but when I saw this design, that totally changed my mind about tv walls! Here’s the inspiration:
How we built our DIY shiplapped tv wall built-ins
The Shiplap
We used 2×4’s to frame out the built in shelves on both sides of the tv. We used these mdf shiplap boards that were already primed to make our job a little easier. They’re 6×12 and a little over a 1/2 inch thick.
We used these for both the baseboard and crown molding. I just went with this because I wanted a very simple molding and it’s what we used for baseboards all around the house. I layered this 1 1/4 inch board at the top to give the crown a little small detail. I basically wanted to keep it really simple and this was an easy way to achieve that.
The shiplap is painted the same color as the walls in here called Polar Bear by Behr. It’s a nice slightly warm white.
The DIY floating shelves
These shelves were built to slide into pieces of wood that’s nailed onto the shiplapped wall. They are pretty snugged though so it’s not that easy to pull them back out. But that’s okay because I did have an extra shelf here because we cut it a little too short.
I used Sande plywood for the top and bottom of the shelves. The face is the same type of wood, just is a bit thinner. I used natural colored wood putty to fill the nail holes and anywhere that needed it. Then sanded the whole shelf down.
<<< You can see here that the shelves have not been stained at all. I’m still considering staining them a bit to give them a little more depth but I figured I can enjoy them in their raw form for a while because once they’re stained, there is no going back.
I originally was going to go with a solid wood but wanted the shelves to be a little thicker. Mine are 2 inches thick. I saw that there were a few ways of creating floating shelves, but this way just seemed to make sense and was an easy way for us to do it on a budget.
The TV Cabinet Below the TV
So this wasn’t a DIY. This is part of the customizable Ikea Besta line which we have used for years and love. I chose this combination. It’s just simple and minimal in design and just holds a lot which I appreciate. You won’t believe how many Xbox and Playstation controllers, and games that thing can hold! Also, instead of using legs, we mounted the cabinet on the wall to keep with the built in design.
My favorite part of the whole project: Shelf styling!
I mixed in some old with new pieces. Some thrifted mixed in with some Homegoods finds. I kept it pretty neutral with a low key calm palette but I’m sure when the mood strikes, it’ll be something a little different.
I really appreciate having the open shelves for storage but also for something pretty to distract the eye from the big black box that’s hanging.
What everyone is wondering: the difficulty to build and the $$$
The big question is how much did we actually spend on this project. It cost us a little over $700 to get this project done. That includes the door we had to close up and the closet we had to remove and patch up. We did already have half the base boards left over but for the most part it can cost about $700- $800 to build this. Which at first might sound like a lot but if you really think about it, a good quality tv cabinet can easily cost more than this. My friend did tell me that she was quoted $5000 to hire out for this same project which she later told me she got them to go down on the price. Go girl! So if you are interested in hiring for something like this, for sure shop around to see what your options are on pricing.
As for the difficulty, I’m not gonna lie, it was not easy. It took us a few days to build and then another day to caulk and paint so I wouldn’t call it a weekend project. And even though we have some experience with this, it was impossible to get every nook and cranny perfect. So I would say this is more of an intermediate project. We had to use a table saw, miter saw and nail gun which usually for me means ok there’s a little more skill involved. Also there is more precise measurements so at the end of the project, your brain might hurt a little bit. Was it worth the work though? Absolutely! I asked Jason if this was one of those projects he never wants to do again. Surprisingly, he said it wasn’t bad. When it comes to wallpapering though, he’d love to never wallpaper again.
What do you think of the DIY built-ins? Is this something you’re interested in creating? I’m working on all the links to shop our shelves on the next post which I will try to get up this weekend. Make sure to subscribe to my blog to get updates on new posts!
If there’s any other questions I might not have answered, go head and leave me any questions or thoughts down below! Thanks so much for taking the time to check out our DIY shiplapped tv wall built-ins.
Anu O'Neill
June 27, 2020I absolutely love this! Did you paint your besta cabinet to match, or did you match the Ikea paint to your built ins?