Well I thought I would start another build thread (as though one wasn't enough) to document another project of mine. This project started off simple enough and has ended up morphing somewhat into a complete room redo.

The room in question is a small spare bedroom measuring roughly 10 X 11.5. We have lived in our home a little over five years and this room has always been somewhat of an afterthought. It basically started as our upstairs catch all room/over sized closet that just happened to have our computer desk in there too.

Two days after Christmas last year I was at work and my wife calls and asks a question just about any man would go week in the knees for. "Honey I'm at Circuit City and they have some really great deals. What kind of TV do you want?" Well after picking my jaw off of the floor I ended up having her bring home a 42" Hitachi plasma. This started version 1.0 of the small spare room.

We decided to move our former main TV (a 27" Zenith purchased in 1995) to that room and make the room somewhat of a kids room. The room was pretty much rearranged and spare clothes removed and all that could be moved relocated to storage in the basement. We redid the wire shelving in the closet and the kids had a room where they could watch TV and play games. Honestly my wife and I just did not put much more thought into it than that. Our 27" TV for about three months has been acting up and now has finally decided it is ready for retirement and is dying a slow but painless death.

It is pretty bad when the kids don't want to play PS2 or watch TV because the image is blue and fuzzy. I can't say I really blame them. The TV issue has moved us into Kids room v2.0 and since it is Christmas time the wife and I have decided to really give the kids a room to call their own and actually put some thought into the room and to do this as a surprise for Christmas.

The following are some pictures of the room pretty close to what it was before we started.

Regards,

RTROSE

This is taken looking from the closet towards the entry door. The computer desk used to house our now long since retired Gateway desktop computer. The desk is now in the garage and I'm in the process of finding a new home for the desk.


http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02804.jpg


This is taken at the entry door looking back at the closet. As you can see state of the art entertainment complex. Nothing but the best for my kids!
The lacy frilly curtains are just a bonus. For what its worth I really don't think they really paid much attention to the curtains anyway.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02803.jpg

The two photos above show the results of several hours of cleaning and decluttering. This room was a major catch all and over the years had accumulated lots of misc. junk stuff. I considered getting the room to this point a major improvement.

Some additional background information regarding this room redo. I am working on a complete basement project and part of that project is a kids media/hangout room, however since that project seems to be taking a very long time I wanted to have this "temporary" room be a space the kids felt like they could call their own. Until I started the basement project they pretty much had the run of the basement so they have not had a "real" space to call their own for quite a while.

I had a couple of requirements for the new TV to fill. One it had to be cheap (I know a relative term) and two it had to be able to serve duty as our bedroom TV when the time comes. I came to the decision that there were several TV's that could possiblely fill the requirement but after all of the number crunching I decided on the Vizio 32" plasma VP322. (http://www.vizio.com/productDetails.aspx?id=1404&pid=1506)

For the price I just don't think I could go wrong. One evening during our Christmas shopping my wife and I picked one up from our local Walmart. It was an evening or two after this my wife and I had the idea we would put a little more thought into the room rather than just take the old TV out and put the new one on the same coffee table and call it quits. So it began. The quest to turn a misused/underused room into a kid friendly space that we and they would not be embarrassed to call ours/theirs. In the next few days I will be adding more of the journey to complete this space before Christmas.

Regards,

RTROSE

Once my wife and I decided to put some thought into this endeavor first up on the agenda was to paint the room. The original color of the room was Southwest White. A nice neutral color but not near adequate for a room redo! The color was quickly decided that it should be blue, but what shade of blue? I wanted to go pretty dark on one wall and lighter on the other three. My wife and I had trouble agreeing on the hue of blue so we did bring the kids in on this one. We settled on colors called Dragonfly for the dark color and Abracadabra for the lighter blue. I wanted the kids input on the color since it is "their" room but other than knowing we are painting the room they have no idea what is coming. HE HE!

This picture is of the lighter walls taken from the same vantage point as the first picture in the above post. The colors are off but the paint is less blue and more gray in person vs. the photo.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02812.jpg

This next picture is the darker color (obviously) and we only did the darker color on one of the walls since it is a very small space. We were fearful if we did too much dark it would start feeling claustrophobic. Again the color is off and the photo shows a brighter blue than what it is in person. It is almost actually a Royal Blue. I really like this color.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02809.jpg

We typically use Sherwin Williams paint because we have had really good luck with it, but for this room we used Olympic paint from Lowe's because we had a gift certificate we needed to use. I was really pleased with the Olympic paint. It took three coats of the dark and two of the light to get the right amount of coverage which was about what I expected. The second coat was still showing roller marks on the dark but after the third that was no longer an issue.

Now what to do? Hmmmm......TV mounting options I dare say.

Regards,

RTROSE

Well the Vizio is not my first flat panel TV but it will be the first that I mount on the wall. I decided since the room is small and space is at a premium I would take full advantage of a wall mount. I have gotten quite a few things from Monoprice (http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp) and have had excellent results so it was a no brainer to get the wall mount from them too. I finally chose this mount.

http://images.monoprice.com/productmediumimages/37241.jpg

I then wanted a slick wall mount shelving system and came across the OmniMount Tria system. (http://www.omnimount.com/consumer/product.aspx?ProductId=1d83abc9-beb0-4afa-a321-196417fb4af6&CurrentId=3.7)

http://www.omnimount.com/products/side.1d83abc9-beb0-4afa-a321-196417fb4af6.jpg

This looks like a neat system, we'll see if it is as neat as I hope it is. I only have a ps2 and a DVD player (HD-DVD player actually) to fit on the two of the three shelves so should fit quite nicely.

We have also purchased some more "manly" curtains in black faux suede. They look really good and block out a surprising amount of the light coming through the window. To round out the room we also purchased a futon silver/gray frame with a black faux suede mattress/cushion with matching end tables.

Now I'm in somewhat of a holding pattern until tomorrow evening. I have gotten help getting the kids out of the house for a few hours so I can get everything assembled, mounted, and operational. My wife thinks I'm just as excited as the kids will be and she is probably correct. The real challenge will be keeping the kids out of the room until I'm totally completed.

Regards,

RTROSE

Well,

I'm basically done with the major part of the room. It has been a long evening but well worth it. I will post pics later as I am beat and off to bed. I'll comment on how it went tomorrow when I post the pictures. Overall not too bad just time consuming. I have a few small things to wrap up Christmas Eve before the big "reveal" on Christmas day.

Regards,

RTROSE

I think I may have broken my own record for a project completion. Maybe I should set a completion date for my basement, might get done faster but I digress.

A few things before any pictures are posted. I always kind of smirked or chuckled when I read one of those "How high should I mount my TV" threads or questions. Now the joke is on me! That was one of the first things that stumped me was where to actually place the TV. DOH! Too high neck strain, too low it would look funny, and my shelving wouldn't fit. I ended up mounting the TV higher than I would have if I had not had to consider the shelving in the end equation but it works out and that is what matters in the end.

The mount I got from Monoprice was really overkill for this TV but I at the time I did not know that. The mount was very straight forward in how it all went together and I am very pleased with the quality and function of the mount. I did have to alter the location of where I wanted to mount my TV slightly to hit two studs (as per the directions) but still managed to come up with the TV pretty much centered on the wall.

I am always wanting to pass along knowledge to my fellow AVS they may find useful. PSA- Pencil lines are really really hard to see on dark eggshell finish paint! Go get your kids white colored pencil and use that. I did not think to do that until I was done. Live and learn.

Onto some photos.

Regards,

RTROSE

Here's the players. Lets get started.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02841.jpg

After determining where I needed mount the TV it was pretty strait forward in getting the mount up and the "backbone" of the Tria system in place. I just noticed how well the pencil marks shows up with the flash.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02847.jpg

While the directions that came with the Monoprice mount were very good. The directions with the Tria left a lot to be desired. Some of the basic questions I wanted to have addressed weren't and were left to be answered by just trial and error. Here is the mount with the glass shelves in place.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02848.jpg

I know you all will be upset but that is all for know. I'm sure you'll be on the edge of your seats waiting for more of my ramblings. Thanks for indulging me and my postings.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Regards,

RTROSE

The room was a hit! Not that I had any doubt it would be, but my kids were shocked at what my wife and I had done for them this year.

I don't have any shots of the completed room as of yet but I do have this shot of the install before any cable management has taken place. I apologize for the glare. Also part of the redo was changing the outlet just to the right of the setup from two outlets to four.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02851.jpg

So the room redo has a Vizio 32" plasma, Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player and a playstation 2. I also used a computer 2.1 speakers and got a couple of adapters to use for a semi-surround sound setup the the room. Obviously not a true surround sound setup but I already had the speakers and for about eight bucks and change for the adapters has a speaker setup for the room/TV that is much better than the TV speakers alone.

For Christmas my kids got Rock Band SE, their room redo, and PSP's. Needless to say this was their best Christmas ever. I have two very happy children!

To furnish the room we got a futon sofa, a couple of little end tables, and of course the upgrade to more manly drapes/curtains. My wife and I still need to get some wall decorations up to finish out the space but we are all very happy with the result.

Regards,

RTROSE

what did you pay for that shelf unit?

I really like the wall color, almost like a Colts blue! That being said, great job on the room. I know if I had that kinda setup when I was a kid, I would be damn happy. Oh yeah and GO COLTS!

what did you pay for that shelf unit?

I got the shelf from sixavenue electronics after searching amazon. Clickie. (http://http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&me=ALAQLAKJ574UN)

I paid right around 90 bucks and I got free shipping from amazon. I really like the look of the shelf and for what I used it for it was perfect.

Regards,

RTROSE

I really like the wall color, almost like a Colts blue! That being said, great job on the room. I know if I had that kinda setup when I was a kid, I would be damn happy. Oh yeah and GO COLTS!


Yes it the photos it is very close to Colts blue but it is much darker in person but neat none the less. My kids are very happy, they actually slept on the futon last night in the room. I too would have been very fortunate to have a room all to my own when I was growing up, but then again when I was a kid their age Pong was the most advanced game console!

Regards,

RTROSE

Ok,

Here are some updated shots of the room after a few additions and some cable management.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02909.jpg

Much better look to it after tucking all the cables away.


Here is a shot of the back of the room.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02912.jpg

The nice futon for the boys to lounge on.

Here is a shot of the "manly-er" window coverings.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb215/RTROSE_album/DSC02913.jpg

Overall I am very pleased with how the room turned out and the over all look to the room. Now the wife and I are looking for just the right wall decorations to finish out the room. Once we have got that done I'll post some more pics of what we did.

FWIW doing the cable management for the Tria system was a REAL PAIN IN THE REAR! It is a neat idea but the execution leaves something to be desired. I first tried to do as the directions said and to place the wires how I wanted them and then place the covers over the wires. I tried this at least three times without success. I finally snapped the covers in place and just routed and fished the wires under the covers while they were mounted in place. This worked out much better, too bad it seemed to take me forever to figure this little tidbit out. The only cable I truly couldn't hide was the component cable for the PS2. It is a Monster Cable (the only one I have ever bought, 10 bucks online) and is too thick to go under the cover. I managed to hide it the best I can, and it blends in with the wall color so you can't really see it unless your looking for it. Over all I'm happy with the neat appearance.

Regards,

RTROSE

Very nice. How old are your boys? They are very lucky.

Thank you and yes my two boys are very lucky. Eventhough I was very lucky as a child I would never have dreamed of having such a room even if by today's standards it is a very modest setup. As I said in an earlier post the cutting edge game system when I was around 10 or so was Pong and then Atari.

How times change!

Regards,

RTROSE

Which model tv mount from monoprice did you use? I have a sammy 32a450 I want to mount in my bedroom.

Which model tv mount from monoprice did you use? I have a sammy 32a450 I want to mount in my bedroom.


This is the mount I used model 3724 (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082806&p_id=3724&seq=1&format=2) for my 32" Vizio. Very happy with the mount. Very strait forward to mount and very secure. No sagging, binding, or other problems. You won't be disappointed.

Regards,

RTROSE

TROSE,

Nice room, I also like the blue that you used on the walls. I have been looking at some blue samples to paint my ceiling. May I ask the shade of Olympic paint you used.

Regards, Ed

TROSE,

Nice room, I also like the blue that you used on the walls. I have been looking at some blue samples to paint my ceiling. May I ask the shade of Olympic paint you used.

Regards, Ed


Thank for the compliment. I am actually having fun with the room too. My wife and I have been jamming out with Rock Band almost as much as the kids.

The darker color is called "Dragonfly" and the lighter is "Abracadabra" The blue in the photos is brighter (lighter) than what I see in person. The two are standard colors available from Lowe's

Regards,

RTROSE

Awesome Thank You

beautiful set up. I was considering purchasing this wall mount myself. How far does it extend? I'm new to the whole wall mount thing :confused:. When it extends, does it tilt downward?

Looks nice! I love monoprice!

beautiful set up. I was considering purchasing this wall mount myself. How far does it extend? I'm new to the whole wall mount thing :confused:. When it extends, does it tilt downward?

Thank you for the compliment. I understand about the confusion. It will extend out about 15 inches or maybe a little more, but I am limited by the TV power cord so my max extension is about 10 or 11 inches. The tilt feature is some what misleading. It does have a variable tilt feature but it is more like you set the amount of tilt you need and then lock it at that. It would be a pain (in my application) to adjust the tilt on a regular basis. The mount does not tilt on extension.

Hopefully that answers your question.

Looks nice! I love monoprice!

Thank you! I too love monoprice. It is very nice to do business with a company that has great prices, great products, and excellent customer service. I feel they have my (our) best interest at heart.

Regards,

RTROSE