Mum Of 2 Saves £2300 By Building Her Own Massive Media Wall
- Lorraine, 53, wanted a media wall but couldn’t afford a professional installation
- Her cheapest quote was £4000, but she went DIY and spent just £1700
- The mum of 2 taught herself the entire process by watching YouTube videos
Media walls are an eye-catching feature of any home, and not only do they look good, they’re also great for saving space. However, they often come with an eye-watering price tag. Wanting to dodge the big bill, one mum of two decided to go DIY - and saved £1000s in the process.
Lorraine Taylor, a 53 year old building society team manager from Bedworth, North Warwickshire, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘Before I moved into my new house I knew I wanted a more contemporary and modern-looking living space. I was looking at media walls as I wanted to save space and have a modern, almost minimalist living room.
‘I had lots of ornaments in my old house and I wanted to display a select few in my new house to represent my history. I saw a few images online of media walls with shelving and liked them.
‘I’m on a few DIY Facebook groups and saw pictures of media walls that others had done. I’ve always liked a bit of DIY (never done anything on this scale though) so when I moved I started to research on the internet and Youtube as to how to build a media wall. I spent many a sleepless night trying to figure out how to do it all!
‘I’d Googled roughly how much media walls with fires cost in general and even for a small wall, which wasn’t what I wanted, it was more than I could afford. The cheapest quote I found online for exactly what I wanted was just under £4000.
‘I looked up images of media walls and found a design like mine that I liked and I knew that was what I wanted. I measured up and figured out the materials I needed and the cost, including the fire. I’d thought it would cost around £1500 initially. In the end it was just over £1700, which is a great price compared with the quote I received.
‘Firstly I had to research how to build a stud wall, what materials to use etc. I watched Craig Phillips, also known as Mr DIY, on YouTube to figure out how the process worked overall, along with numerous other YouTube videos on the subject.
‘I then started to hand draw a scale drawing. It took eight attempts before I got it right! I chatted with my electrician about moving electrical sockets. I totally didn’t think about moving my internet socket which was in the way! Then work began, and I completed the project by booking some time off and working at weekends. It took me three months in total, doing bits at a time.
‘There were some challenges along the way. For example, getting my measurements right! It’s not entirely symmetrical. Out by about 1cm but I can live with that.
‘Also, I found out the wall already there was a stud wall which gave me a major headache in terms of hanging an old heavy TV. I wanted it fully moveable, but I got the wrong bracket and my TV nearly fell off the wall. Fortunately, I found some GeeFix plasterboard fixings which worked great.
‘Figuring out how to conceal my Sky box, router, Hive Hub and cabling from the sound bar was also tricky. I couldn’t really find much information online about how to do this, so I searched for wall mounts for those devices I wanted to conceal.
‘I encountered another issue when I found out I needed to leave an air circulation gap around the TV for the boxes concealed behind - after I’d built the frame. Luckily my measurements had somehow enabled me to leave a suitable gap.
‘I hadn’t really done much plasterboarding before, and my stud wall wasn’t level all the way across, so I had to take some boards off and pack them with cardboard to level them up. I had someone else plaster it for me as I have no idea how to do that.
‘For convenience and a nice ambience, I wanted spot lights that could be white, multi coloured, dimmable and Alexa controllable. I finally found the bulbs and slim depth spot light casings.
‘I had originally wanted to put concealed press open cupboards along the bottom but I felt that was beyond my capability.
‘I’ve recently set up a part time mobile massage therapist business so I was trying to sort that as well as build my media wall. Eventually I want to be able to use my living room to do massage at home so the space needs to be set up for this dual purpose.
‘I still need to sand and paint the plasterwork, fit the coving and skirting and fit the flooring. However, the room now looks great - very modern yet cosy, and I love having the room filled with different colours at night!’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Wow, Lorraine’s living room looks completely different! This is a stunning transformation and I’m really impressed. It must have taken a lot of work, but that £2300 saving will no doubt have been worth it. When can I come over for movie night?!’
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