How do you guys approach hiding cables, like the long component video cable and speaker wire? I can't seem to find anything that will help me along.

My room (living room, actually) has three openings/doors to it, and running wire along any of them is a pain in the rear.

Also, what kind of stand/rack do would you recommend for holding these components: receiver, Xbox 360, XP30 DVD player, three bookshelf speakers, and sooner or later a PS3. I need something no higher than 3-feet-tall and that can let my electronics properly ventilate.


Sometimes I wonder if I should've just gotten a TV instead. I love my projector, but the living room just isn't designed for it.

This is going to sound like a pain in the arse but once you get started it's very easy, and I'm no contractor. When I bought my house it had cable strung everywhere, up through the closets, under carpeting, through heat registers, you name it. I took it all out and ran cable to 4 rooms in about 4 hours by myself. All I did was run the main cable into the attic and split it there. I pulled up some insulation and found an interior wall for every room I wanted to do and just drilled a hole through the 2x4 that sits on top of the wall studs and dropped a cable down into the hole. I went into the room and measured from the exterior wall to determine which studs I was between and cut a hole for a gang box in the drywall with a utility knife. I used the drywall boxes that have 2 ears on them that you tighten down and they pull the box tight to the drywall, that way you don't need to screw them to a stud or anything. Put a faceplate on the box and that's it, done.

It's very professional looking and you would think it was done when the house was being built. All you need is a drill, utility knife, and a stud finder. If you don't have a studfinder they are only about $15 at Lowes and are nice to have around for other things also like hanging stuff on the walls and such. If you have drywall walls and no floor in the attic like I do it's a breeze, you could run all your cables, speaker wire, anything this way. Once you gather everything up and get started you'll be surprised at how fast it goes.