7 Design-Friendly Ways to Customize Your Next Project
For most A/V projects, anytime the word “custom” is involved, chances are the next word that comes to mind is “expensive,” but the two aren’t necessarily synonymous. Yes, designing a completely custom system can end up being pricey, but there are a number of relatively simple customizations that can be employed to beautifully blend technology into any space—making both the interior designer and the homeowner happy.
While off-the-shelf tech products typically don’t offer much in the way of design customizations (if any at all), we specialize in a build-to-order approach that allows integrators and end-users to provide high-end audio solutions while keeping design top-of-mind.
“Custom is at the heart of what we do here at Leon,” said Noah Kaplan, Leon’s founder and president. “For almost 25 years we’ve been working with both the A/V and interior design communities to offer design-forward solutions you can’t get out of the box.”
We have a team of designers and engineers on-staff who are experienced at working with integrators, architects, and interior designers to customize our product line to suit the audio needs and aesthetic of any space.
“The projects we work on are really collaborative in nature,” said Kaplan. “We think of ourselves as an extension of our dealers’ creativity. We’ll meet early on in the project to hear what their initial ideas are, and from there, we can make suggestions and come up with design solutions together.”
When talking custom, the possibilities are endless, but we put together a list of 7 design-friendly ways to customize your next project.
Horizon Denza soundbar in a custom, rustic barn wood finish
1. Customize the Finish
Speakers typically come standard in black or sometimes white, but we can match our speaker cabinets to any paint or stain color to blend in with the environment they’re being installed in. For in-wall and in-ceiling options, the same paint matching process can be applied to perforated metal grilles, perfectly matching the speakers to the color of the room.
We offer a curated selection of designer grille fabrics that can be specified for any of our speakers with fabric grilles.
2. Choose a Custom Grille
The majority of speaker grilles out there are plain black, but customizing the grille fabric or material is an easy way to pick up on other design touches in the room. In a midcentury space with rich tones and walnut furnishings, a granite-gray grille fabric can be a beautiful complement, or in a light and airy space with all-white-everything, it only makes sense to specify a light-colored grille. We are even able to print graphics onto grilles, which can be perfect for matching patterns and textures, or a great branding opportunity for a business interested in incorporating its logo.
Custom Profile speakers handcrafted out of aluminum
3. Utilize Custom Materials
Standard speaker cabinets are typically made out of MDF or plastic, but certain spaces call for a more custom solution to ensure the audio seamlessly integrates into the surroundings. In an industrial-style space with exposed ductwork, creating the speaker cabinets out of a matching metal might help them to feel less obtrusive. And in spaces with unique wood tones and textures, we are able to provide custom hardwood cabinet trim to closely match the wood finishes in the room.
A octagon-shaped variation of our Detail Ultima speakers painted to match the exact paint code of the bookshelf with handcrafted braided brass lattice grilles. Installation by TRIPhase Technologies.
4. Specify Custom Shapes & Sizes
Have a nook or a niche that an off-the-shelf product isn’t quite fitting into? Speaker cabinets can be built to custom dimensions, allowing integrators to specify different heights, widths, depths, and even unique forms. You don’t have to try to fit a square peg into a round hole when a few tweaks can be made to deliver a custom solution that fits just right.
Our Tonecase FIT Universal mounts any Sonos soundbar directly to the display, concealing it behind a speaker grille that matches the exact width of the TV. Installation by SAV Digital Environments.
5. Hide Technology in Custom Cases
No matter how much you sing the praises of the products you’re recommending, sometimes your client has their heart set on a certain brand and there’s no talking them out of it. The good news is that for off-the-shelf products like Sonos, we offer solutions that provide concealment and style, like hardwood cabinets and soundbar mounting solutions that blend the speakers in with the design.
A custom-painted Edge Media Frame that encases the TV and soundbar while blending in with the room’s decor. Installation by TRIPhase Technologies.
6. Create a Custom Frame for the TV
Talk to any interior designer and they’ll tell you that figuring out what to do with the TV is often their biggest challenge when it comes to integrating technology into their designs. A simple solution for making the display feel like it matches the room’s decor is to create a custom frame for the TV. We make hardwood and metal veneer TV frames that frame all sides of the display while also concealing the mounting and wiring. We can even work with custom finishes and materials to ensure the frame perfectly matches the finishes in the space.
A Media Décor Moving Art Screen that hides the TV behind it with a family photograph. Installation by Northside Homeworks.
7. Conceal TVs and Speakers with Custom Artwork
In certain spaces, having the technology completely hidden away is the goal, and when that’s the case, there are some great options that use artwork to conceal both the TV and speakers. Our Media Décor moving art screens and Eclipse Art Lifts reveal or conceal any TV behind art, and our Ente SoundTile is a speaker system that is hidden behind a fine art print.
And of course, designing something completely custom is always an option too. “We’ve created speaker cabinets out of skateboard decks, integrated audio into massive outdoor art sculptures, and worked with just about any custom material and finish you can think of,” said Kaplan. “Basically, if you’ve got an idea, chances are we can make it happen.”
A version of this article first appeared in Connected Design magazine.
