Built in Entertainment Center

Awesome work!

Well done, looks fantastic!

I like that this was a joint project. Not very often that both enter into a project because skills and tastes are so different it poses difficulty with compromise. That being said, you guys did a great job apparently each doing what you do best.

Looks great, planning one soon!

That is really nice. Great work and enjoy!

Impressive work, looks great

Very well done. And impressive that you and your wife can work on the same project together peacefully. Many years ago I was a wallpaper hanger. I got a lot of jobs from divorce attorneys to finish the job so they could sell the home!!

just curious - how are the upper cabinets fixed to the bottom ones
and did you fix any of them to the "wall" ?

Real nice job,did you finish it in place?

Vjeko - The left and right shelving units are fixed to the bottom cabinets with six pocket hole screws. You can see it in the unfinished adjustable shelf photo. There is a 3 inch gap between the shelving units and the ceiling concealed by the poplar facing.

Once shelving units were in (and before the facing) I built the top center cabinets as one piece. To fit it into place I screwed some scrap wood onto the top of the center cabinets and had them stick out ~3 inches like wings on an old plane. (See diagram below)

I then slid the upper center cabinets into place and they were supported by the shelves. Once in place I screwed them into the sides of the shelving units.

The lower left cabinet and left shelving unit are screwed into the studs within the wall to the left (covered by trim). The right lower cabinet is pocket screwed into the floor boards via the poplar facing. The holes are covered by the baseboards. In the 3 inch gap between the shelving units, upper center cabinet and the ceiling I put some L shaped pieces of scrap that fastened to the cabinets and the studs in the back wall (all covered but poplar facing).

Hope this helps.

Belg1960 - Yes the were finished in place. Once the cabinets were set and screwed together we filled any cracks/gaps/dings with wood putty and sanded them out. We knew we wanted it to be painted white from the start so this was part of the plan. My wife primed it once and put two coats of semi gloss paint on it. Same color used for base boards.

I knew there would be a little slop here and there cause I don't have the luxury of owning a large table saw made for cabinets or other large cuts, but I purchased 4X8 sheets of plywood. To process them I used a 99 inch clamp similar to this one and a DW364 circular saw. This worked great but I usually measured a 16th of an inch larger and then ran it through my DW744 table saw to get the piece as close to perfect as I could.

Great team work on creating such a beautiful and functional project for the house. Like the design, build and the color.

I hope this is not too late! I just found this website today while looking for an entertainment cabinet to make. I love this one, it's perfect for our set up. Will you give the dimensions for it?

This is a very nice entertainment center. Congratulations.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

JanMac - The overal dimensions are 132" wide, 8 ft tall. Bottom cabinets stick out 22" and the top shelves stick out 11" from wall. The Side bottom cabinets are 32" from the floor. The lower center cabinet is 23.5" from the floor and 55" wide (allows for a 60" TV). From the top of the bottom center cabinet to the bottom of the top middle cabinet is 46.5".

Hope this helps. I don't have full plans drawn up.

Thank you sooo much! I'm sure my husband and I can take it from here. You're an artist!

Hey ThorinOakenshield,
I ran across your post after searching Google for DIY built-in bookshelves. I love the way it came out and you have great pictures capturing important steps. I see after building the bottom two shelves you added a top sheet that has finished edges. What type of wood did you use and did you finish the edges yourself?

Thanks

The top sheets are maple or birch ply like the rest of the cabinets. I cut the to the dimentions of the cabinet after i put on the face frames so the edges lined up with the top plywood. I bought some poplar molding from lowes or home depot, nailed it to the edge with a pin or brad nailer. And then hid any flaws with wood filler, let it dry and sanded it.

Here is a molding shot

Awesome. I greatly appreciate it. I'm looking into different table saws now and plan to craft cove raised panel cabinet doors. I will post my project once I start.