Friday 8 April 2016

The Guillotined Expedit - Sound system hide'n'seek

This was the first stick of Ikea furniture i bought for the new house, and a fitting swansong for the almost extinct Expedit. Off with it's head!


I needed an entertainment unit for my living room. Previously i had been using a "Birch" 2x4 Expedit on its side, but the wood laminate was clashing with the new floors, and it looked kinda on the chunky side in the new, big, light-filled room.

I also had a very square and heavy subwoofer/amplifier to hide, in addition to the fairly cheap looking, but effective satellite speakers.


I popped the 1x5 Expedit on its side, and fixed it to some Capita legs. By offsetting the legs to the left, it would let me balance the unit against the freestanding 1x1 cube, the "head".

The 1x1 Expedit, on the left, is the perfect size to hold my 15kg subwoofer, while leaving enough room for the port to breathe, and with the little left-front speaker sitting in the front.


The rightmost cube of the "body" is heavily cantilevered, but it merely holds the right-front speaker. In two years of service it hasn't sagged, which speaks volumes for the long term rigidity of plastic-coated particleboard! I'm not sure if the thinner Kallax would do as well.


Originally i was using the door insert packaging as speaker covers, but only because they fit so incredibly well, and sort of rocked some industrial chic (right down to the visible Ikea print).


They ended up being changed out for some leftover canvases from my bed headboard project. I cut the canvas out and replaced it with stretchy fabric, to let the receiver IR blaster work through it. I then put dome-headed tacks into the back of the canvas frames, and glued counter-sunk neodymium magnets to the Expedit. The result looks great from all angles, and self-centres, which makes replacement a breeze!


The rear speakers are hidden in the AMPLE arms of my awesome Kivik three-seater, along with a stealth power-board for laptop charging. The surround system sounds great, works with my games and netflix, and is superbly discrete.


Like this? See my other Ikea hacks!

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