Build Your Own Entertainment Center  -  May 23rd, 2008 11:30am

I was searching for an entertainment center to home my new Plasma TV.  Unfortunately everything was either to expensive (as in thousands of $) or to small, cramped, ugly, shoddy.  Basically I have better taste and tougher requirements than my wallet can afford.  As is often the case in this situation I decided the only way to get exactly what I wanted was to build it myself.  So thats what I set out to do.  Build a custom entertainment center cabinet to hold all of my stuff complete with built in power, cord management and extra wide shelves for controlers, dvd's and extra cruft that always gets stored along with our electronics.

I'm not Bob Villa though nor do I really have any woodworking tools to speak of so its been an interesting process to say the least.  Luckily I stumbled across these metal brackets usually used for framing that made it possible to keep the design simple and strong at the same time.  Hopefully the steps below and the plans below will make it easier for someone else to build a similar cabinet with little more than a cordless drill and some supplies from the hardware store.  Just make sure to read and re-read everything before you start if your actually going to build one of these suckers.

To begin with you'll need the following:

• Drill with 1/8 & 3/8 drill bits.
• Sand Paper (various grades)
• 2 - 24" bar clamps
• 2 - 36" bar clamps
• 30 - L metal brackets (see images)
• 12 - flat metal brackets (see images)
• 4 - European hinges
• 24 - 1/4" hole shelf holders
• 1 - box #8 2 inch wood screws
• 1 - box #8 1 1/4 inch wood screws
• 1 - box #8 3/4 inch wood screws
• 1 - box finishing nails
• 2 - 1 qt boxes of epoxy finish(see images)
• enough semi gloss paint, or stain and varnish to cover the piece

You'll also need the wood to build this sucker but lets talk about cutting wood first.  Basically this is my achille's heel.  I can't cut a straight line to save my life.  Fortunately the Home Depot next to my house will cut any wood you buy there for free.  Its a big ass saw, but if your nice to them they will take their time and make some pretty good cuts.  So take the cut-guides available at the end of this post with you, mark everything up and pray to the wood-working gods.

For wood you'll need: ('==foot, "==inch)

• 2 - 8' redwood 2x4's
• 1 - 6' redwood 2x4
• 1 - 4'x6'x3/4" birch plywood
• 1 - 4'x6'x1/2" MDF
• 1 - 1"x6"x2' Poplar
• 1 - 1"x3"x6' Poplar
• 2 - 1"x2"x8' Poplar

I choose the redwood 2x4's because they are usually straighter than pine.  Since I painted my cabinet black I supposed I could have used any plywood or trim boards but the Birch had a nice grain and the Poplar was harder than pine but still easier to work with and cheaper than oak.  All in all - the wood is under $100 and as long as you have some of the supplies you can probably come in under $200 total which is shitty Swedish furniture level costs (only this thing should last a lot longer).

Oh and don't freak out if you start measuring and find out that a 2x4 ins't really 2" x 4".  I've accounted for the masochistic jacked up measuring system the hateful wood people created to try and prevent us from building anything.

Anyway, the basic idea here is to build a strong base, attach the upper frame, and then cover up all the ugly stuff with trim boards.  The brackets and screws will make it strong and hopefully straight as well.  So either cut up your wood as described in the plans or have it cut for you, but get all your supplies together and follow these steps:

Step 1) Build The Base
Step 2) Drill Shelf Holes
Step 3) Attach Sides to Base
Step 4) Attach The Top
Step 5) Add The Facing Boards
Step 6) Build Cabinet Doors
Step 7) Hooray For Hinges!
I should mention here that I did't build my cabinets quite this way and instead used a router to cut out a lip on the inside of each cabinet front where the plywood could sit.  In the end though it didn't seem to look much better and was really time consuming so while your welcome to do the same I'd try it like I've described it above as it will save you a lot of grief and look almost as nice.

Step 7) Sand and Paint
Step 7) Epoxy Top (optional)
You'll want to give the piece a few days to a week to really dry and cure hard before putting stuff in there.  During that time you can screw some power strips to the back and add cord management stuff.  I also created a screen for the top center shelf area to hide my speaker (makes it look buit in).


NOTES:

1. Download, read through everything, and know what your doing before you start.  The hardest part of this project was coming up with the plans while I was doing it all.
2. There is a lot that I've left out above which mostly consisted of I screwed up X so I did Y - if things don't go perfectly don't panic, improvise!
3. Some of my cuts didn't end up perfectly straight but the piece turned out fine in the end - as long as your close the design allows for quite a bit of fudge room.
4. Sandpaper and/or a Dremel is your friend if anything doesn't quite fit.
5. If you are going to stain instead of paint it make sure all of your wood grains go in the direction you want them to.  I didn't even think about this till I was done and it would have looked strange in anything but black.
6. If you paint it consider brush-paint instead of spraypaint.  It would have saved me some $$ and not sure if it would have looked any different.
7. Lastly - have fun and remember its the journey not the destination that matters.  This isn't the easiest project but it was very rewarding for me and took only about a week or so to do.

If anyone builds one of these and sends me a photo I'll happily post your result.  Also please post any tips and/or hints in the comments section to make life better for everyone.