IKEA's new UPPLEVA entertainment center promises the holy grail of home theaters: a fully integrated, organized TV, stereo, and peripherals. If you'd like something similar but with a bit more choice, you can built it yourself. Here's how.


IKEA's famous for making attractive, functional furnishings…that you'll find in every other house on the block. Going the DIY route may be more work, but it allows you to incorporate these ideas in any home theater furniture (and gear) of your choosing. Plus, while the UPPLEVA is coming to Europe within the next few months, US tech heads won't be seeing it until at least next Spring. So, if you like the idea of a unified entertainment center but want to add a bit of individuality (not to mention get it now instead of next year), here's a look back at some our favorite solutions for doing just that—as well as a few we haven't featured before.

One Set-Top Box with All the Media You Need


The first point IKEA makes is that you have a ton of things connected to your TV—cable boxes, DVD and Blu-Ray players, DVRs, video game systems, and whatever else you may want. These days, that number's probably gone down quite a bit, but there are a lot of devices out there that will help you consolidate even more—like the Boxee Box, Apple TV, or even a home-built media center. In fact, if you built your own home theater PC, you could toss XBMC on there with a few add-ons and get everything you could ever want, from Blu-Ray to video games to Netflix and other streaming video from the web.

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Now, you're still dealing with a big ugly computer in most conventional cases, but if you really wanted to fit perfectly into your entertainment center, you could. Obviously, the best way would be to build that entertainment center yourself from the ground up—as described in this Instructable—but that isn't ideal for everyone. If you have an entertainment unit you already like, you can build that home theater PC right inside its cupboards so it's actually part of it (you could also try this method if you have drawers instead of cupboards). If your unit is open, you can add your own doors to keep it a bit cleaner, and armed with an infrared repeater, you could control them without ever opening up and exposing your electronics—just like IKEA boasts in their product.


One Remote Control to Control Everything


Speaking of controlling your electronics, IKEA also mentions that their unit has one master remote control for everything, but these days, that shouldn't be considered a huge feat. If you aren't using a universal remote for your entertainment unit, you should be—check out our top 5 choices of universal remotes to find the right one for you. Of course, if you want something cheaper, you can always buy a good universal remote for $15 at your local electronics store, and it should still do a good job of controlling everything. You can even use it to control that home theater PC with LIRC. In a nutshell: if you have more than one remote on your coffee table, there's no reason you can't consolidate them down to one.

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Small, Wireless Speakers


If you want better sound than your TV gives you, you have two choices—you can go big (ugly) or go small (less ugly). However, high quality small speakers can be harder to come by, so we'll defer to our gadget-obsessed friends at Gizmodo for this one: they recommend the Audyssey Media Speakers for true space savings, or if you're looking for a more intense 5.1 setup, you can grab a space-efficient systems without spending a ton. And, while some good cable management is all you need to get everything neat (see below), you can also go completely wireless with any set of speakers using an adapter like the previously mentioned Audioengine W1.


Cable Clutter Solutions


The real draw of IKEA's system is how clean it looks—there are no cables to be found anywhere on that thing. Chances are you have a ton of cables cluttering up your living room, especially if you're doing awesome things with the unused ports on your TV. However, if you're willing to work at it, you can get the same effect on nearly any entertainment center yourself. You could even go completely wireless if you want—though that can get expensive quickly, so if you want to try hiding your cables first, we have suggestions for that too. In fact, we've done a whole start-to-finish guide on decluttering your entertainment center, from shortening your cables to hiding your power strip (ironically, IKEA already offers a lot of great cable management pieces, too). And, if all else fails, you can embrace your cables instead of cursing them.


Obviously, the main appeal of IKEA's setup is that it's hassle-free: you buy the unit, bring it home, and it's pre-designed to be clean, organized, and unified. But chances are you already have a lot of things you don't want to get rid of, like your 50 inch TV or home-built media PC. With the above tricks, you should be able to take the things you already have and get a similar, if not almost identical setup to the IKEA one. Got any of your own tips for decluttering and unifying your entertainment center? Share them with us in the comments.