Case Study: Hamer Project

We held multiple meetings to discuss installing a computer monitor/TV (display) in the kitchen area of the client's home.

The clients knew exactly what they wanted.

"We'll put the TV on the wall here," they said, pointing to a precise location on a specific wall.

After several meetings and various discussions with the contractor who was building the house (Bomo Design) and the Interior Designer (Laurie Smithe), the decision was made to mount the display flush in the wall. The next questions were: "What size display will fit in the wall?" "How deep will it be?" "What will the finish look like?"

The wall the client had chosen for the display was a Venetian plaster, completed before the display was mounted. The first step appeared logical: cut a hole in the plaster large enough to fit the TV.

Seems easy, right? WRONG! On examination, we discovered that this was a structural wall full of wood so that idea wouldn't work.

It looked as if the client might not get the display they wanted - until we applied a bit of creative thinking to the project.

After reworking the wall (by The Bomo Team) and a lot of searching around, we found a manufacturer who could make a custom display to fit our requirements. The finish around the display would be Venetian plaster, 1/8 inch away from the display on all sides.

We ordered the custom display. It arrived. And WHAM! There was a difference of ¾ inch between the specification for the display and the actual finished product.

Now what?

Back to the Bomo Design Team for more options.

Their suggestion: "We'll have to take out the Venetian plaster and make a different frame."

Great idea! Except…how are we going to mount it with no space in the wall for a mount? And we couldn't do it from the other side of the wall either because that was Venetian plaster too.

Said The Bomo Team: "Make a custom frame."

That's when the light went on! We called in Matt Noble of Noble Fabrication in Ventura. He's an artist in metal. From classic cars, to hot rods, to custom metal, he knows metal and everything about it.

His brainwave: affix a stainless steel frame around the form of the display so that it overlapped the Venetian plaster by 1/4 inch.

Sounded good…but HOW would it be mounted?

"Velcro®," he said. "Industrial strength Velcro®. Just don't use too much or you'll never get the display out again."

Matt went to work and built a custom bracket to attach the industrial Velcro® to the back of the display. The display, custom bracket, industrial Velcro® and custom frame traveled to Santa Barbara for installation.

Affix custom frame to the display…mount custom mount onto the display with Velcro®…affix the other side of Velcro to the wood in the wall. And…GO!

The moment of truth…

Carefully place the display into the hole so that the Velcro® grabs. Uh-oh! The Velcro® is too thick. It added 1/8 to the overall depth and now the display is not perfectly flush with the wall.

Can you figure out how we solved the problem and gave the client the display they wanted?