7 things I wish I had known before having a bespoke TV cabinet made

Check out my new TV cabinet.

Instead of buying an off-the-shelf unit, I decided to go the bespoke route, and commissioned a local carpenter to make one fitted to the exact – and slightly wonky – dimensions of one of the alcoves in my lounge.

The process was at times fraught and frustrating, but now it's over I'm glad I went bespoke. It involved a lot of decisions, a lot of mess and a whole lot of upheaval, so if you're thinking of doing the same, you'll want to be prepared.

Here's what I learned.

1. Cable management is life

We don't usually spend much time thinking about the cables that connect all our home cinema gear, but until true wireless becomes a thing, they are kind of essential. So you'll need to think about how these cables are going to get from A to B.

As you can see from the picture above, I opted for a shelf to hold my Sky Q box and router, until a minor disaster upended that plan – but more on that later. Cutouts at the back of the shelf and the top surface of the cabinet allow the cables to snake through.

You'll want the top one to be as small as possible to make it more discreet – but be warned. Mine is so small I can just about fit my TV power cable through without scratching the wall. If I had my time again, I would make this a little bigger in case my next TV has a thicker connector, otherwise I'll end up taking the plug off my brand new TV in order to thread the cable through, then reconnecting it near the plug socket. Which is not something I want to be doing.

2. It pays to future-proof

Speaking of my next TV... it really pays to do a little measuring first to not only make sure your existing kit fits, but also what you might upgrade to in the near future. A little foresight goes a long way.

For example, my TV is an ageing 42 incher – and not even one of the best 42-inch TVs around. In my defence, it was bought for when I lived in a flat and I haven't got around to upgrading it yet. But when I do I'm definitely going bigger. A 48-inch model could easily fit the space, or maybe even a 55 incher.

I had some shelves made and fitted at the same time, so I made sure they were high enough up the wall to accommodate a potential 55-inch TV. This also gives me enough space to get around the back of the TV when needed, though it hasn't stopped me banging my head on them.

3. You will be a prisoner in your own home

Ah, building work. Whatever you're doing, it's guaranteed to take longer, make more mess and cost more than you initially think.

It's only a little cabinet in the corner of one room. How much upheaval can it possibly entail?

This much.

That's my lounge, believe it or not. This became a building site, the front garden a workshop and the kids' playroom a dumping ground for all the stuff that had been in the lounge. Apart from the kitchen and toilet, that's the entire ground floor of my house out of action for the best part of three weeks.

Three weeks?! It was only really a few days of work (including the shelves), but as with all building work, we ran into a hiccup or two...

4. The process rarely goes smoothly

First, it rained, which set us back a couple of days. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when the carpenter is cutting wood outside, he needs it to be dry, otherwise the wood will swell. I guess he could have cut it inside, but given the state he left my front garden in, I'm really happy that he didn't.

Then he managed to knock out my broadband. I knew he was going to switch it off in order to work around the router, so at first I thought he had just disconnected me a few minutes early. But when he reconnected and it still didn't work, I knew something was up.

When moving the cabinet into place, he must have knocked the ethernet port – these are notoriously fragile. Sky first sent a new router, and when that had the same issue, they sent an engineer out, but he couldn't come for a few days. Which is not ideal when you work from home.

Thankfully the engineer got it sorted no problem. But the carpenter wasn't able to fit the cabinet in place or paint it, or really do anything else until the engineer had been. Hence the delay.

It was around this time I was wondering why on earth I didn't just buy a pre-made TV cabinet and be done with it.

5. You have to balance aesthetics with practicality

The original plan was to have the Sky box and router hidden behind the door for a completely sleek look. Then someone pointed out that having a router in a cupboard will severely restrict the wi-fi.

So the next plan was to put it on the shelf. There were two problems with this. Firstly, this didn't really mitigate the issue with the first plan, as the wi-fi signal still wouldn't really be able to beam out. And secondly, Sky sent me a new router when my broadband went down, but this one was designed to sit on its end.

This called for a compromise. The Sky box can sit on the shelf above the doors, while the router stands next to the TV. It's not ideal, but you have to strike a balance between aesthetics and the practical, and I would rather have working wi-fi than a slightly wider field of view.

6. Make sure it will work for your specific needs

The beauty of bespoke is that you can design it exactly for your needs. This is also the biggest downside, as it means making a lot of decisions – exact layout, what colour it should be painted, where should the trim go on the doors and how thick it should be, how many doors to have, what kind of handles to have, where exactly the handles should sit on the doors... It's endless.

But the upside is a cabinet that works as well as it can for the room. Because the carpenter made a cutout for the ethernet socket, the cabinet sits pretty much flush to the wall, which actually gives the room more floorspace while creating a wider surface to hold the TV. Win win.

7. It's not that much more expensive than the off-the-shelf option

Of course cost is a major consideration. Including the shelves I had made and fitted at the same time, the total cost was £1130 – including all labour and materials, and painting both the shelves and cabinet in different paints. I reckon the cabinet alone would have been closer to half of that. And that's for a carpenter in London – it could well be cheaper elsewhere.

From a quick look around, that's really not much more than some ready-made TV cabinets of a similar size. Yes the process was painful, but it was definitely worth it. If you're considering a new TV cabinet, try tapping up your friendly local carpenter to see what they can do for you.

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