Fitted Living Room Furniture

Fitted Living Room Furniture

Author
Discussion

Neil H

Original Poster:

15,323 posts

250 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
Just moved into a fairly new modern flat that has very little storage space. The living room is quite a nice size (5m x 3.6m) and along one of the walls we were thinking of getting the whole 5m wall done with fitted shelves/ cupboards, with a big space in the middle for the TV on the wall. We wanted something contemporary, maybe a white gloss finish – I’ve had a quote from a Hulsta dealer but their prices are stratospheric (a unit covering only half the wall was £12k, customising it would bump that up to £18k). Something similar but more realistically priced would be great – anyone have any ideas?

This was the Hulsta design that caught my eye, something along these lines:


5potTurbo

12,482 posts

167 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
That is a lot of money.

Knowing that we're all powerfully built, Red Bull can throwing, company directors .... I daren't suggest the blue & yellow logo'd store from Sweden - which could provide very similar for <10% Hulsta prices....

We came close to buying some Hulsta stuff for our new house, but baulked at their prices. We bought Henders & Hazel stuff in the end.

kiethton

13,883 posts

179 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
5potTurbo said:
That is a lot of money.

Knowing that we're all powerfully built, Red Bull can throwing, company directors .... I daren't suggest the blue & yellow logo'd store from Sweden - which could provide very similar for <10% Hulsta prices....

We came close to buying some Hulsta stuff for our new house, but baulked at their prices. We bought Henders & Hazel stuff in the end.
Exactly this - sounds like Ikea is just the ticket for what you want - saw many variations in differant colours when last there and can be planned/set up as you want

KTF

9,788 posts

149 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
Take that photo to IKEA and get one of their guys to replicate it using IKEA stuff for you. Shouldnt be too hard for them.


aberdeeneuan

1,339 posts

177 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
We had a local carpenter build ours for us, which we then painted. Done exactly the way we wanted, will last forever, and a lot cheaper than that!

Yes, it's not gloss and it'll need some maintenance, but it was worth it for the way it fits around the chimney breast.

Whitean3

2,182 posts

197 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
We went with Wackenhut (German) and custom designed our living room furniture. It wasn't cheap but not Hulstra prices either. There are some dealers in the UK.
You can download the brochure as a PDF. I recall it was a bit of a pain to order all the components required, but it was quite fun designing exactly what we wanted.

http://www.wackenhut.de/en/company.html

Neil H

Original Poster:

15,323 posts

250 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
I’ve nothing against Ikea at all, I like a lot of their furniture, but I’m not sure I could get the level of customisation I’m after (do they actually make fitted furniture?). I’d like floor-to-ceiling units, glass & lighting, spaces at the back for cables and so on and I want everything to fit together perfectly…I’d be willing to pay £1000ish per metre of wall. Is that reasonable for what I want, or am I asking for the moon on a stick?

I’ve had a look at some local places but they seem to have more traditional finishes.

The Wackenhut site looks interesting – I like that style.

singlecoil

33,313 posts

245 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
I'm tempted. Offering fitted living room and office furniture built to the exact sizes required is something I've been wondering about for a while now.

Do you have any more pictures of the sort of thing you fancy?

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
I'm tempted at £1000 a linear metre!

If you've got that much money to burn, why don't you invest in some personal development, some tools and find a decent saw mill? If you're covering the entire wall it would be relatively straightforward as not making it free-standing would let you fix verticals to floor and ceiling and use dowels to support the shelves, so no complicated/accurate jointing required.

Anyone with the time, inclination and a bit of common sense would be saving themselves a fortune on this sort of stuff.

martinnitram

244 posts

200 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
As mentioned above, get a well recommended joiner or kitchen fitter, one man band types usually give you the most honest price and for a fraction of the cost.
Most of the bigger firms send a high pressure, mega money, cheap suited, over perfumed, bubbly chewing, i can do you a special deal - but its today only, let me ring the boss in the office, Porsche cayenne driving salesman round to do the dirty work of selling it to you.
Firms like these are fine for the idiots, but not Pistonheaders who know better.
If i wanted fitted furniture in my house though id do it myself, not only am i a powerfully built company director, im also very handy with a drill and saw.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
martinnitram said:
im also very handy with a drill and saw.
I'm of average ability with both, but if you get the right tools for the job any numpty can make a straight accurate cut and drill a hole in the right place. £1000 a linear metre would let you get some very nice tools!

I just realised that I might have the actual answer for the OP; when I was at uni I got lumbered with a box room, so constructed wall to wall shelving, including a bar, with a wrap around desk/computer housing. All made from 12mm conti-board with oak effect veneer. It's still on my parents loft if you're interested? Just put your TV where I had my optics wink

TheBMWDriver

591 posts

153 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
Hulsta prices are way way too hight for what it is.

Jesse make good furniture and they have systems that may fit the bill.

www.jesse.it

I know a guy so if you do need it let me know and I can put you in touch.

poliform is also very nice but a little no the expensive side. Again I know a guy if you are interested I can put you in touch.

TheBMWDriver

591 posts

153 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
Hulsta prices are way way too hight for what it is.

Jesse make good furniture and they have systems that may fit the bill.

www.jesse.it

I know a guy so if you do need it let me know and I can put you in touch.

poliform is also very nice but a little no the expensive side. Again I know a guy if you are interested I can put you in touch.

Blakeatron

2,514 posts

172 months

Thursday 12th December 2013
quotequote all
We manufacture lots of units very similar to the picture - any competent furniture maker would jump at the chance!

An alternative would be the Crown Imperial lifespace range - but not a huge size selection

Wozy68

5,387 posts

169 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
OP stay away from all this mass market stuff, for a start it will be chipboard with some kind of paper veneer. A lot of money for IMO using poor materials
I would say 1k a metre would be about right for a proper bespoke jobbie your after. Anything more mass produced should be lot less IMO

If you want a proper finished job that looks 'right'; the 'done by a man with a van and a lot of power tools built on site', will look just like that.

If you want something to look really bespoke, go hand painted, then you can just change the colour when tastes change.

Edited by Wozy68 on Friday 13th December 04:23

singlecoil

33,313 posts

245 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
My choice of material for a project like this would be Egger MFC (melamine faced chipboard) with a matching 2mm front edgeband radiused all round. Egger board is ideal for this purpose, it's available in a huge range of colours including many realistic woodgrains, a range of surface sheens from gloss to matt, very hardwearing and resistant to accidental damage, and the boards are pretty much dead flat.

I'm almost certain that the units in the first picture are made from Egger MFC or another decent make of the same type of board.


I say this as someone who has mostly constructed his cabinets in birch plywood and hand painted them. I would still prefer to do that but the quality of Finnish and Russian birch plywoods has dropped a lot over the last couple of years and it's unusual to find more than one tolerably flat sheet in half a dozen.


Neil H

Original Poster:

15,323 posts

250 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
singlecoil said:
I'm tempted. Offering fitted living room and office furniture built to the exact sizes required is something I've been wondering about for a while now.

Do you have any more pictures of the sort of thing you fancy?
This is the room



...and the wall (not sure how useful a picture of a wall is, but here you go!)



Along the biggest wall I will have a 55” TV fixed to the wall, slightly offset to the left. On the left side I’d like a mixture of shelving/ drawers (possibly with the shelving extending into the corner onto the adjacent wall), cabinets and possibly a glass cabinet with glass door and lighting. Along the top of the space will be a shelf or a top-opening cabinet(s), and on the bottom some kind of low units to house games consoles etc. On the right side of the TV will be cabinets/ shelving as in the first picture. I’m toying with the idea of having a desktop extend to the wall in the corner, similar to this



My wife is not keen on a natural wood finish, she wants everything gloss white – personally I think it would be better to break it up with perhaps some doors in another colour or possibly wood, so this is still up for debate.

I’m going to play around with some design software this weekend and see if I can make some plans of what I want.

Some more pics of the style I'm after (obviously with different layouts and finishes)




Neil H

Original Poster:

15,323 posts

250 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
I'm tempted at £1000 a linear metre!

If you've got that much money to burn, why don't you invest in some personal development, some tools and find a decent saw mill? If you're covering the entire wall it would be relatively straightforward as not making it free-standing would let you fix verticals to floor and ceiling and use dowels to support the shelves, so no complicated/accurate jointing required.

Anyone with the time, inclination and a bit of common sense would be saving themselves a fortune on this sort of stuff.
Biggest factor would be time, and lack of confidence in my ability to get a top finish. I'm happy to pay a pro for that.

martinnitram said:
As mentioned above, get a well recommended joiner or kitchen fitter, one man band types usually give you the most honest price and for a fraction of the cost.
Most of the bigger firms send a high pressure, mega money, cheap suited, over perfumed, bubbly chewing, i can do you a special deal - but its today only, let me ring the boss in the office, Porsche cayenne driving salesman round to do the dirty work of selling it to you.
Firms like these are fine for the idiots, but not Pistonheaders who know better.
If i wanted fitted furniture in my house though id do it myself, not only am i a powerfully built company director, im also very handy with a drill and saw.
Yeah I’m wary of that – how should I go about vetting a local fitter though? I think the challenge is dealing with an unknown quantity vs a high street brand that has displays etc.

Nick Grant

5,409 posts

234 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
Check out IKEA's BESTA range, you can play around with the online configurator to get what you want...

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/planner_b...

The Moose

22,821 posts

208 months

Friday 13th December 2013
quotequote all
Bloody hell yikes

Get a carpenter in for a week. Some materials and a paint brush.

Job's a good 'un!