7 Interior Design-Friendly Ways to Customize Your Next Project

There are probably more options than you think for adding that custom touch to your next installation. Danne Dzenawagis of custom audio manufacturer Leon Speakers shares some common customizations that help blend design and technology in any space. Use some of these on 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), some A/V manufacturers operate much like a high-end furniture manufacturer, offering a standard base model with the ability to select color, finish, fabric, and more.

Leon Speakers is one such company, specializing 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.”

Leon has a team of designers and engineers on staff who are experienced at working with integrators, architects, and interior designers to customize their 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 worked with Leon to put together a list of 7 design-friendly ways to customize your next project.

1. Customize the Finish. Speakers typically come standard in black or sometimes white, but companies like Leon can match its 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.
   
   
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. Leon is 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.
   
   
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, Leon is able to provide custom hardwood cabinet trim to closely match the wood finishes in the room.
   
   
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.
   
   
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, Leon offers solutions that provide concealment and style, like hardwood cabinets and soundbar mounting solutions that blend the speakers in with the design.
   
   
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. Leon makes hardwood and metal veneer TV frames that frame all sides of the display while also concealing the mounting and wiring. They can even work with custom finishes and materials to ensure the frame perfectly matches the finishes in the space.
   
   
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. Leon’s Media Décor moving art screens and Eclipse Art Lifts reveal or conceal any TV behind art, and it’s 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 (see picture here in this article), 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.”

Visit Leon Speakers by clicking the link above or the icons to the right (or below if you’re on a mobile device).