Back in October, I began a new woodworking project to build a media center for the living room. Currently, my college entertainment center (designed for a 36″ CRT TV) serves as the only storage in the living room, and currently doesn’t do a great job. It’s time for something better. After looking around for plans, we finally picked this media center from Woodsmith #194:
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Woodsmith #194 |
The next question…what kind of wood to use. After seeing similar units in stores such as Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel, the darker finishes really appealed to us. Since I have a garage full of walnut, this was my first choice. I quickly found that walnut plywood was too cost-prohibitive. Instead, I settled on building this with maple, since I also have a lot of that as well. I spent some time working on a dark finish:
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Testing out various staining and glaze techniques. |
Once I found a good dye/glaze combination that achieved the dark finish, it was time to make some sawdust. I started making the center console. The plans allowed for a 55″ TV, but knowing me, I wanted to be able to support an even larger TV. By increasing the width of the center console, this unit should allow us to have a 65″ TV in this media center.
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Center cabinet for the TV |
Making the center cabinet went by really fast. It features inset doors, which was a first for me. It also feels two pull-out drawers for easy access to all of the electronics, and ample space for heat dissipation. I plan to mount a high-grade power strip and gigabit ethernet switch for all of the components that require ethernet. In the end, I will also be mounting some LED strip lighting inside the case as well, to make it easy to see inside the cabinet.

The inset doors were easier than I expected. Mounting the doors with the euro-style hinges was also easier than I thought it would be. It was also a first for me to use drawer slides for the two component trays. That part was also easier than expected, and the slides work great.
Once the center unit was complete, I moved on to build the bridge unit that will sit above the center console. The bridge unit was a fairly easy build. Simple box construction, face frames, and a top that allows for a crown molding detail.
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Bridge Cabinet |
Here’s the Center and Bridge console together.
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Bridge and Center cabinet together |
In the next post, I’ll share some pictures of the two tower cabinets. I have started to make some progress there as well, and I’m anxious to get both of the tower cabinets complete as well. I can’t wait to bolt this unit together to see it all as one.
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