Floor-to-Ceiling TV & Fireplace Feature Wall in Courtney Oaks, St. Augustine FL

The Project

Some walls just demand something bold. This living room in Courtney Oaks, St. Augustine, Florida had a 21-foot ceiling and a focal wall that was completely bare — not a built-in, not a mantel, not even a TV mount. The homeowner knew what the space was capable of; they just needed a team that could build to that scale. AVP Construction JAX designed and installed a dramatic floor-to-ceiling custom feature wall combining a three-sided 84-inch electric fireplace, a large wall-mounted television, and a full-height millwork surround finished in a high-gloss black melamine — all engineered with concealed LED channels that create a striking floating effect against the surrounding Calacatta marble-look panels.

The finished piece anchors the entire great room and coordinates beautifully with the modern chandelier above and the large-format marble-look tile floor below. It is the kind of feature wall that makes every other design decision in the room easier.

The Challenge

A 21-foot ceiling is not a ladder job. Working at that height safely and precisely — while keeping surfaces, finished flooring, and furniture protected throughout — required full scaffolding towers and careful sequencing from the very first board to the final panel seam. The scale also meant that any mistake in layout or alignment would be amplified across a massive surface visible from everywhere in the open-plan living space. Every framing member, every substrate panel, and every reveal had to be planned and executed with the kind of accuracy you typically reserve for much smaller, easier-to-reach work.

In the before photo you can see what we started with: an enormous white drywall wall with nothing but an open fireplace rough-in near the floor and raw insulation exposed in the firebox cavity. The ceiling stretches up out of frame. It is a blank canvas, but an intimidating one. Getting from that to a polished, seamless, floor-to-ceiling millwork installation required meticulous planning before a single piece of lumber went up.

The Build

Laying the Foundation: Framing at Scale

The first step was building a robust wood framing structure directly against the existing wall — one that could carry the weight of the full-height melamine panels, the heavy three-sided electric fireplace insert, and a large flat-panel television, all while tolerating the natural movement of a wood-framed house in St. Augustine's humidity.

Here you can see the earliest stage: horizontal blocking strips spanning the wall from floor to the upper reaches of the 21-foot surface, with the fireplace platform base taking shape at the floor. These ledger strips create the attachment points for everything above and ensure the finished panels never telegraph a soft spot or a ripple.

From the side profile you can appreciate just how tall this framing ran — from the floor platform all the way to near the ceiling line. The blocking is tight and even, giving us solid backing at every panel edge and at critical points for the TV mount and the fireplace bracket.

Once the horizontal blocking was dialed in, the full framing grid came together. Looking straight on at this stage, the proportions of the finished feature wall are already visible — a wide central column that will become the high-gloss black surround, flanked eventually by the Calacatta marble-look panels on either side.

The side profile of the completed framing grid shows how cleanly the structure transitions from the deep base platform — built to house the fireplace and provide the floating hearth shelf — up to the full-height column. Neat, plumb, and rock solid.

Substrate and Panel Work

With the framing complete, the next phase was sheathing the structure in substrate panels before the finish surfaces went on. The Ram Board floor protection visible throughout the build photos kept the new large-format tile safe every step of the way — a small detail that matters a lot on a project this size.

Here the MDF substrate panels are up across the full height of the column, taped at the seams, with scaffolding on both sides to give the crew access to the upper half of the 21-foot wall. At this stage the proportions are set and the mass of the feature wall becomes real. The base platform for the fireplace is clearly visible at the floor.

Wilsonart Melamine: Luna Night and Calacatta Marvel

The finish surfaces are where this build becomes truly special. The center column — the dominant face of the feature wall that runs floor to ceiling — is clad in Wilsonart Luna Night melamine, a deep, high-gloss black with a subtle texture that catches light beautifully. In person it reads almost like polished stone. The flanking wall panels on either side of the column are finished in Wilsonart Calacatta Marvel, a crisp white marble-look surface with fine grey veining that echoes the large-format floor tile perfectly.

In this early installation photo the Luna Night panels are going up on the center column while scaffolding still flanks both sides. You can already see the drama: the deep gloss black against the white Calacatta surround, the open glass-front fireplace box at the base, and the oversized geometric chandelier above — all working together in a space with a ceiling that just keeps going up.

From the side angle you can see the high-gloss surface of the Luna Night panels reflecting the recessed lighting above — three crisp point reflections in the black field — and the fireplace lit up in its three-sided glass enclosure below the TV mount. The LED strip channel running along the right edge of the column is visible here as a thin line of white light: that is the floating illusion beginning to take shape.

The LED Channel Detail

One of the defining elements of this build is the concealed LED channel installed along the full vertical edges of the center column. The channel sits recessed between the Luna Night column face and the Calacatta Marvel side panels, so when the LEDs are on, the entire black column appears to glow and lift off the surrounding wall surface. It is a detail borrowed from high-end commercial interiors and it works spectacularly in a residential great room at this ceiling height.

This close-up after shot shows the LED channel in cyan mode — a vivid stripe of light running the full height of the column edge, with the Calacatta Marvel veining catching the glow and the electric fireplace ember bed glowing red at the base. The contrast between the warm fire tones and the cool LED is striking and completely adjustable to whatever mood the room calls for.

During final commissioning, with the TV powered on and the fireplace running, you can see how all the layers of the build come alive together — the gloss black column, the live-edge flame effect behind the glass, and the geometric chandelier filling the upper volume of the 21-foot ceiling above.

Working at full height required two rolling scaffold towers side by side to give the crew safe, stable access across the entire face of the column simultaneously. You can see a crew member working near the top edge of the Luna Night panels in this photo — giving a real sense of just how high this installation climbed.

The Result

The finished feature wall is genuinely jaw-dropping. The floor-to-ceiling Luna Night column commands the room the moment you walk in, the Calacatta Marvel flanking panels tie the whole wall into the marble-look tile floor, and the LED channels shift the mood from crisp white to vivid color at the touch of a button. The three-sided 84-inch electric fireplace gives the impression of a floating ember bed beneath the TV — visible from multiple angles in the open great room — and the floating hearth shelf in matching Luna Night completes the composition at eye level.

Here the cyan LED channels are running and the fireplace is lit — the full effect in one frame. The black column floats off the white marble surround, the TV sits flush and seamless within the millwork, and the scale of the 21-foot room finally feels intentional rather than overwhelming.

Looking up from a low angle you can see the full height of the Luna Night column, the warm ember glow at the base, and the LED strip running the right edge — all against the Calacatta Marvel surround and the open-railed second-floor balcony visible beyond. It is a feature wall that earns its square footage in a St. John's County home with serious architectural ambition.

The side-angle view looking across the great room toward the sliding glass doors shows how the feature wall reads from a distance — a clean black vertical element that defines the living space without closing it off, the LED strip a quiet exclamation point along its edge.

Up close, the quality of the finish surfaces and the precision of the installation are clear. The Luna Night high-gloss melamine has no visible seams at the television level, the fireplace glass sits perfectly flush in its opening, and the floating hearth shelf casts a clean shadow line onto the white marble-look base below. This is the kind of detail work that holds up under scrutiny — which is exactly what it deserves in a room this grand.

If you are searching for a custom TV entertainment center builder in St. Augustine or the broader St. John's County area, this project shows what is possible when scale, materials, and craftsmanship align. We also handle custom feature walls and millwork accent walls of every style — from modern high-gloss to warm shiplap.

Ready for Your Own Feature Wall in Courtney Oaks?

If you have a living room wall that deserves more than a coat of paint — whether it is a soaring two-story focal wall in Courtney Oaks, a fireplace surround anywhere in St. Augustine, or a custom TV entertainment center somewhere else in St. John's County — AVP Construction JAX is ready to build it. We work on new construction and renovations, and we bring the same attention to detail whether the ceiling is 9 feet or 21. Reach out and tell us what you are envisioning. We would love to help you make it real.