Upgrading the TV Setup in the Wardrobe
Jayco didn't really put much thought into the bedroom wardrobe area. First, the TV is in the top position, near the ceiling. Not only does that make it uncomfortable to watch from the bed, but when we're laying down the picture blacks out because of the angle. To fix this, I decided to switch the TV with the middle drawer, then turn that drawer into an overhead cabinet.The TV also had a panel right behind it that held the plug, but there was another 18" or so of space behind the panel that I couldn't use for storage...this project reclaimed that.
Discussion thread here: TV mod for Jayco Greyhawk wardrobe
Email me with any tips and tricks you've found useful, tweaks to what I've done here, etc.!
| Changing TV Cabinet in Bedroom |
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Here's the wardrobe before I started. |
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First I removed the drawer and sliders, and removed the TV. You can see the 120v outlet on top...I took it off the panel but didn't have to do anything with the wiring. You can also see how much room is in this cabinet. In the original design, there was only 6" of space behind the TV in that top area...now I have it all! |
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Took off the crossbrace and removed the top shelf. |
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Here's the TV's piano hinge after I reinstalled it into the center position. |
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Added the catches on the right side to keep the TV cabinet closed, and I'm one step closer. The color really isn't different like this picture makes it look. |
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I removed the drawer face from the drawer, flipped it upside down, and added hinges to the top. Now it opens upwards to create an overhead cabinet. The other overhead cabinets in the RV use mortised hinges but I don't have a tool for that, so I just got a pair of Liberty 5/8" x 3" Non-Mortised Concealed Spring Hinges. This cabinet will actually give us more room than the drawer, in addition to all the area behind the TV.
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I tried to reuse the panels as shelves but that didn't work very well, so I installed ClosetMaid wire shelving instead. For about $130, I put two 48" tracks on the back wall, two shelves 19.8" deep and 26" wide, and one sliding ventilated wire drawer measuring 21" wide by 17" deep and 11" high, similar to this kit. I mounted this right behind the TV and will use the shelf on top of it for the DVD player and my son's Playstation 3. Kitchen appliances that we don't use often will go in the overhead cabinet.
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| Pics of the finished product. Adding the springs put too much force on the hinges when there were only two screws on each side, so I had to add a strip of 1"x1" behind the crossmember so I could have four screws on each hinge. That's it! Easy mod that will make it much nicer for us to watch TV in bed, and almost doubled the storage area available in the center section of this wardrobe. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!   |
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