Bookself Theater

We had a basically useless room in our house that we used for a playroom. It had no lighting, storage, or any entertainment value. The goal was to provide all three by installing a small simple theater that had high WAF (wife acceptance factor). storage for the toy collection, and simple lighting. The new houses in Raleigh are missing overhead lighting because the builders charge $1000 to put them in.

Here are the plans.

The first step was to build the base. This leveled everything. All the 5.1 wiring and electrical was run prior to starting. This made finishing the project simple

The then built the cabinets in the garage and started to assemble them. I got the wood from Lowe's and 84 Lumber. I'll never go to 84 Lumber again, there market is mass builders and they sell crap wood. there was a 2x4 there with most of the wood missing. I asked the guy "who would buy this"? He said builders do, and that's probable what the studs in your house look like. No wonder I can't find them sometimes, and my walls are bowed.

This is the first level. It's 18" deep on the sides and 22" in the middle. You can see the wiring patchwork in the upper left of the pic. I had to turn the corner with the wire to hang the overhead light.

Ayda loves to climb on things. The trim is installed
The yellow ball demonstrates how level the shelves are.
Crown molding on the top
Lots of sanding and wood fill. If I did it again I would insist on better tolerance, but this was my first job. 1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of finish. What a pain.
Ceiling, crown, and walls painted. I painted for ~20 in this room.

Here is with the stereo installed. That's a 27" LCD. Just enough sound and screen to meet the WAF

• Polk Audio R150 Black Pair Bookshelf Speakers
• Polk Audio PSW111 Black 8" 150-watt Powered Subwoofer (I will build my own next time, but this one works pretty good)
• Polk Audio RM202 Center Channel Speaker
• Dayton CS620W 6-1/2" 2-Way In-Wall Speaker Pair (These went into outside walls and I didn't know what the environment would be like so didn't want to risk ruining good equipment)
  

Here it is with the doors on. I got them from rockler and they installed perfectly. I did use longer screw to mount them to the frame, as I expect they will be abused by the kids. The sub is hidden in the cabinets. not optimal for sound, but a high WAF

Angie's decorations. This is a kids room

Notice the sub in the top of the pic. To increase the WAF I had to hide the sub. It's a little sub, but it adds just enough for this room. Besides I'm bumpin 900 watts in the main theater.