Motivation

After moving into a new apartment with my partner in June of 2023, we needed to figure out what to do with the non-functional fireplace in our living room. It had legacy media ports and power mounted high above it – too high for a TV to be mounted there comfortably, and pointless to do if you can't have a fire going anyways.

We tried resting the TV on a console, but it bugged me how messy the cabling was, and that the fireplace wasn't totally hidden. I decided it was time to build my first piece of a furniture: A false wall to mount the TV to and hide the fireplace.

Design and Build

I started by using this project as an opportunity to port my SOLIDWORKS skills to Fusion 360, and completely over-designed the wall I had in mind.

After taking the drawings to a woodworker friend, we redesigned it in-shop and started assembling it. The fabrication actually only took a few days.

Installation

The false wall was mounted to the real wall with french cleats, and I wanted to minimize the depth of the wall as to not take up space in the room. This meant the measurements were quite fine, and the installation would be a big test that accuracy. Everything worked out well, so painting happened in place, and the appropriate holes were drilled for cable routing.

At last it was complete. I really like how it turned out.

Special Thanks

Huge thanks to my friend Tyler for letting me use his tools and workshop, as well as Matt for his helpful advice. My partner, Maja, was invaluable when it came to figuring out a design, verifying measurements, and general advice.