Basement Wall Unit & Entertainment Center

A young growing family wanted to make their finished basement into a comfortable playroom and entertainment center.

The space was somewhat narrow and an irregular L-shape. The space at the far end was being reserved as a guest bedroom area.

The initial space evaluation...

Their goal was to install a permanent built-in storage, display and entertainment wall unit.

Many options and several digital layouts were considered.

Here are 2 initial mockups...

During the design phase the homeowners purchased a rather large L-shaped couch that would now need to be taken into consideration along with their growing goals for the built-in in the small space. There was only one option for where the couch could go without making the space feel very cramped and limited.

In addition, during the design phase, the homeowners decided against a small 6'-8' built-in on one wall. Instead they wanted more space for display, storage and a small bar distributed on the majority of 2 walls between the access window and door.

Back to the drawing board!

The built-in wall unit presented a number of challenges:

The basement space isn't very big;
it has a narrow & unusual L-shape;
the homeowners purchased a very large L-shaped couch that needed to fit into the design;
there is a heater against the wall that had to continue supplying heat to the space;
The ceiling has 2-2 1/2" boxed chase runs that will intersect with the wall unit;
the design of the wall unit must attactively incorporate a window in the corner of the space, should continue to allow daylight to stream in and easily allow for ventilation;
a large TV should be built into the wall unit so that it would be comfortably available to watch by those sitting on the couch. To accomplish that the TV could not remain it its current location.

After quite a few revisions the following layout was presented and accepted by the homeowners: