apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Simple, beautiful and elegant. Love the use of media storage in your design, and the restraint to NOT go for the biggest screen size available.

kewl idea! good luck on the contest!

Tam
(Klover)

looks like a media center shrine... very asian.

After finding some 'surprises' in my place and seeing strange things done to friends' places before they moved in, the first thought that went through my mind was "that big sheet of plywood had got to be hiding something big and ugly". After reading your tip, I guess that's just cynicism on my part...

LOVE THIS! I really like your set-up, I like how you incorporated the vertical sub as if its a support piece. The wood background makes it pop. Very cool. I want your DOOR!!!

great attention to the details... fantastic job running the conduit. I especially like the way the bass speaker appears to support the floating shelves above and the placement of the 3 plants creates a very Zen experience... Super Duper!

Very cool!!

Matt & Kim's crib ROCKS!!

VERY NICE! BEST SO FAR!

MATT AND KIM = L33t!

Wow! What an interesting use of plywood! It definitely warms up a part of the home that can feel very sterile. I don't see a SINGLE WIRE! Is that polygal to the right, above the window? How about a full house tour?!?

way to go! we have loved watching the progress, you are so creative. thanks for sharing!

my first thought was, "they just mounted their tv on plywood."

if organic was the goal, i would have at least stained the wood, or covered it in woven straw matting or something.

Sorry thinkingwoman but I do believe they have tung oiled the plywood and obviously they did more than just mount a tv on plywood if you read their entire post and look at all of their photos. Looks great - would love to see more!

Well, it's simple........and who says you have to have more than what you see? creative minds at work!

I don't get what people find good about this entry.

Where's the full room shot? On the others we have criticized the location of couches and chairs, etc. etc. but here you don't get to see the arrangement. Does this comply with the rules? What's the point of two pictures of the TV?

The TV is next to a hallway/door and the wall with windows. Say that's about 40 inches. When you look at the picture with the surround speakers, they are way off the sweet spot. The speaker on the right (in the picture) must be much farther away than the speaker on the left, which means that the simple Home-Theater-In-a-Box probably can't even speed up sound to that channel so that it doesn't sound distorted.

The equipment here is a Home-Theater-In-a-Box! How can this compare to the real setups on RandallB's and Rene's and other's we will see?

"No exposed wires". Instead expose the pipes that run the wires through the MIDDLE of the room?

I think people are falling in love with the barn doors, which are nice, but I don't get the setup. And I'm strill trying to understand if the hanging light fixture would be above my head if i were to watch TV or there's really a dining table there and not a couch.

thanks for all your positive comments!
to answer questions, yes, ted - that is polygal to the right, above the bedroom doorway.
brooklynite, we did violate rules and sent in 4 shots, one of which was a full room shot. i'm guessing the powers that be decided not to use that photo because you could not see the entire height of the a/v set-up - being that it is such a small space, it was difficult to get a photo that included everything. there is a single sofa directly across from the tv, and a dining table behind it that the lamp hangs above. we never have that lamp on while watching tv.
we chose to expose the pipes hiding our wires because we live in an authentic loft, constructed totally of concrete -- all plumbing, ductwork, and electrical conduit is already exposed, so exposing the conduit that hides our wires actually stays true to the roots of our home.
yes, it is just an out-of-the-box system. i won't deny that -- but we did something that plenty of people don't: we DESIGNED the set-up. we didn't simply mount the tv on the wall and hide our components in a closet. we came up with a solution that highlights our system and makes it all look good. and it does sound fantastic, too!

if you are curious, here is a full-room shot that includes the sofa:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/469959621_a510090c6b.jpg

Brooklynite's comments make me think... Could the limitation to three photo submissions be hampering the contests? I mean, really it's not just about how good your setup is, it's also about how good of a photographer you are.

I think the tv seems kind of small. Why do all that work and not invest in a nice television?

Marbargarbo, It may be smaller than some of the entries we've seen on here, but it IS still a nice television. We are not the typical american do-it-as-big-as-you-can consumer -This is the largest size we need our television to be, so this is the size that we chose. Instead of having our tv screen dominate the room, we chose to create a designed media unit that feels organic as well.

Why not make the unit slimmer then? It seems out of scale.

well it's not.

forget the home tech stuff, i love your tripod lamp next to it. where's that from?

west elm. thanks!

I guess it goes along with the description "smallest" coolest tech setups then, eh? Don't be so defensive, if you like it, so be it and that's all that matters. I comment pretty objectively. It's not really a classic proportion and that's all I'm commenting on.

I guess I should've looked at the full room shot. Your TV probably does look a lot bigger when you're less than 4 feet away.