Entertainment Centers

This media center is made from Alder wood. It features book-matched drawer faces, and a dark cherry stain. It was built in stages, from right to left, over several years. The drawers extend fully for storage of CDs and DVDs, while the tower features LP storage.

This media center is made from locally-sourced Walnut. It features two flush-panel cabinet doors on Euro hinges, and a pocket for a subwoofer. The customer’s goal was to house as much of the home theater in one spot as possible, and the density of Walnut helps dampen vibrations.

The top is 5/4 edge-joined pieces, done in Walnut, like the rest of the piece, finished in a water-based clearcoat.

To go along with the media center, this coffee table is also done in Walnut with a matching finish, and features a pencil drawer to house all the accoutrements that go along with modern home theaters, like iPads and remotes.

The top matches the media center, a 5/4 edge-joined walnut done in water-borne clear to minimize the offgassing in the customer’s house, and to provide a more environmentally (and woodworker) friendly finish.

At eight feet long, this solid Cherry entertainment cabinet holds all the stereo equipment. Because the customer had some other Cherry furniture already, I stained this piece a little darker to help “catch up” with the other pieces’ color and aging. Instead of my usual toe-kick base, this has four legs, also to match their other furniture.

Like my other pieces, this features heavy duty Euro hinges to keep these twenty-four inch long doors from sagging with time. Because of the short depth, this piece has drilled holes for shelf pegs, but the middle shelves are adjustable.

This minimalist entertainment center is done in Maple, finished in a low gloss clear. The doors are done with Euro hinges to allow for complete access to the opening, while remaining hidden to keep attention on the wood.

The handles shown here are pieces from a Farrier in Tucson, and custom fit to the doors. The open middle bay feature adjustable shelves, in case the customer ever needs to rearrange the pieces on display there.

What’s the difference between paint and stain? Viscosity. This Alder unit is finished in a very dark black stain, with a clearcoat over top. The spindles evoke a traditional Southwest design, in keeping with the rest of the customers furniture and house.

Designed to hold the accoutrements of the flat screen, this would typically feature hidden cabling, but the traditional Adobe construction doesn’t really allow for that but this minimizes the number of cables visible by containing all the traditional entertainment center goodies, and the spindle construction of the doors allows for good airflow above and around the electronics

An adobe banco demanded the need for a custom built entertainment center for this customer. With clean, long lines (over 8 feet) and compartments with vertical slat doors, this oak furniture is balanced. The unit has a depth of 16 inches to fit equipment and full extension drawers optimize storage access.

The row of bottom doors are slatted with black fabric backing allowing for the hidden speaker’s sound and a free air flow for the stacked electrical components. The use of euro hinges adds durability and support in holding the long span and weight of the doors.

New flat screen TVs have enabled a less bulky piece of entertainment furniture to accommodate them and their components. This 32″ flat screen sits nicely on the 59″x 20″x 45″ piece. I recommend that customers not enclose the cabinet around the screen because of ever-changing technology.

Sombraje style doors (salt cedar and willow twigs) take advantage of functional design by allowing airflow for the equipment to stay cool. The large storage drawers accommodate CDs, DVDs, and all of the extra electronic accessories. The choice of Wormy Maple adds to the Southwest rustic look that the customer needed to compliment his preexisting home decor.

Made in the same materials as the one above, this cabinet has a symmetrical configuration and accommodates a larger TV.

This unit is built entirely in solid Poplar, on account of the complex curvatures. It is also anchored to the wall with hidden hardware, and painted to match the wall, and the wiring for the entertainment center is all concealed behind the plaster.

This corner unit was built from alder, finished to match existing cherry furniture. The ridged design is meant to emulate cooling fins for the equipment inside. The design has two compartments, a drawer at the top, and a cavity in the bottom.

Behind the fold-down drawer there is an adjustable shelf. On either side, there are cavities for cable management. The full-extension drawer slides allow full access to the drawer opening, to make accessing the contents easier.

I got a chance give an old piece some new life with this project. This started life as a shorter Alder bookshelf, but I expanded it to hold this record collection. I increased the height to clear the amplifier and woofer below, as well as adding the boxes at either end to hold the speakers at the right height.

This TV console is framed by three separate but attached cabinets – two on the side to match the height of the TV and one spanning the total 8 foot length. Made in Alder to stain like Cherry, the two bottom doors are cloth covered to conceal the home entertainment speakers.

The cabinet has a 30 inch depth to contain the TV, but the two side piers did not have to be as deep. Instead, I made two pull-out piggy-back cabinets behind the two side piers – this is a great storage for extra CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes.

I used Alder with a light fruitwood stain to build this wall unit. The TV console was housed in a semi-permanent corner cabinet. The wood and stain complement the nearby kitchen cabinetry. The encasement of the console unit blocks the visual blemish of extensive cables and cords. Raised panel doors have hidden handles and an attractive top molding crowns the unit.

Made in Alder with a Cherry stain, these two twin towers are cabinet ends to a large TV console. The top cabinets have full glass doors and inner lights to display artwork. The lower smoked glass doors house the multitude of electronic components. The two adjacent wooden doors cover a pull-out cabinet for lateral storage of DVDs, CDs, etc.

At five feet high and one foot deep, this solid Mahogany entertainment storage center opens out for access and closes in for a handsome cabinet. The heavy base helps ballasts the weight of the open doors. Solid brass hardware glows against the Mahogany, don’t you think?

This is a solid alder bank of media storage cabinets. It’s a custom solution for a customer who has an excess of media and cabling. The drawers hold CDs, DVDs, and the lower cubbies hold LPs. Spanning a distance of over 10 feet, it holds all of his audio/video equipment at waist-height. The top extends two inches past the cabinet to conceal the wiring required for all the equipment.

I built this in 3 pieces, and anchored them together to get the continuous look. While I didn’t anchor this to the wall as planned, it is a good idea in most cases. The middle bank has book matched drawer faces for that continuous grain as well. The pedestals are shimmed to make up for the unevenness of the brick.

For compact stereo furniture, wheels will enhance mobility, accessibility of wiring, and changes of floor plans. This solid Alder cabinet has adjustable shelves for all of the equipment, including a turn table.

These two complementary cabinets in the same design are built in solid Oak and trimmed in exotic Paduak for a dramatic outline. One is open and airy while the other conceals the clutter.

Every so often, a customer knows the aesthetic value of Cherry and appreciates the aging of this wood. The lower bank of drawers exemplify the unique grain of Cherry – with time, these waves of grain will deepen in hue and character. The shelves are of such a span that the front and back of each shelf has a double rib to support the heavy, expensive stereo equipment placed side-by-side.

The un-tooled, old world look of Shaker style is handsomely accomplished in these two solid Cherry pieces. Wheels are concealed behind a floor molding.  The TV is separate from cabinet to allow for technological changes, i.e. a rectangular flat plasma TV. The top drawer in the side tower slides out as a turntable tray. The customer selected grey-pewter handles to complement the glass door and metallic grey of the equipment.

This design allows for a maximum of storage in this relatively small space. The TV, DVDs, books and family photos are all close at hand.

This was a very big entertainment center, about 6 feet long and 6 feet tall. It is made from Cherry wood, and was constructed in two pieces. The top cabinet has bi-fold doors with a combination of piano and euro hinges, to allow the doors to stay low-profile while open. The cavity in the bottom was a custom fit for the pictured sub-woofer.

The panels in the doors were customer-furnished, as she had a specific patina in mind, for a weathered look. To fit the panels, the bi-fold doors were fitted with three euro hinges at the outside, and piano hinges at the center to support the weight of the metal and wood at its maximum extension (while closed).