Entertainment Centers You Find that Have Inspiring Designs?
Dear All,
My wife wants an entertainment center for the family room. Happy wife, happy life. As such, I will make it and am just starting to think about design potentials. Generally speaking, over 25+ years, I have never seen a home entertainment center that inspires me. For just about all other furniture, I can easily find things that get my heart pumping and I want to make it. Do you have any thoughts or ideas that may help me?
I like Shaker and Craftsman style. Will likely build it out of cherry (or cherry skinned plywood). Basically two cabinets on the side and a low height cabinet that runs across the middle to house AV system and to either sit the TV onto (though TV may get mounted to the wall). I once saw something called Prairie Style (think Frank Lloyd Wright) that looked kind of interesting) but I’ve lost that info. Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful. I want to make furniture I’m excited to make and this one has me feeling the blues. Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Joe
Replies
An idea of the scale of the unit in relation to the space would help. I'm sure you have a spot in the house in mind, post a sketch... simple line drawing with some space measurements, including the ceiling height and the gap in the middle for the TV.
Valid points mj. The area (shown in photo) is 15 feet long. The peak of the arch is a bit over 7 feet tall and there is about another two feet of verticle space so in terms of height I would be open to somewhere with the top of the cabinets being 7 feet or 9 feet (I realize plywood is likely 8 feet if I went that route). The ceiling itself angles up to about 20 feet on that wall - don't plan on building up to 20 feet for all kinds of reasons. That little stubby part of the wall in the left sticks out 8". Realistically, whatever cabinets I build would stick out further than that. TV likely changed to something bigger down the road. The photos on the wall could be removed and the globe and other items can be moved elsewhere as needed.
Oh, the current "entertainment" center/TV stand is a genuine piece of Ethan Allen furniture. That was back before I woodworked and considered Ethan Allen to be good furniture. I can now make better myself (which is a good feeling).
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I designed and built this entertainment center about 42 years ago. You may not care for the aesthetic but it has been an incredibly versatile design. The shelf boxes simply stack on the other components, nothing is fastened. When I first built it I probably had a 25" CRT TV sitting there. This photo was taken in 2014 while accommodating a 42" flat screen. Today it easily rocks a 58" flat screen. The center unit has sliding bypass doors. I built the speakers (JBL components in a base reflex enclosure) as part of the original design. The two brown spacers make up the difference between the speakers and the center cabinet height.
The components are natural finish oak plywood with a solid half round nosing on the edges.
Thanks. I do like this design and almost bought something similar in the early 2000s when I was single. Alas, my wife doesn't like this design.
Jkatzowitz has it right. The technology changes rapidly and often. But even his is somewhat dated, while those big jbls are probably to this day really nice speakers and functional-today you can reproduce that quality with something that will sit in the palm of your hand. All in all though its held up design wise pretty well for over 40 years in the digital age! Whatever you have for your entertainment centers components will likely be obsolete before they need replaced. If your making something that you want to be a permanent addition it has to be changeable and adaptable for things that you have no idea what they might be in the distant and maybe even near future while having to figure out what to do with a space you made for something that no longer has any use. When I think of all the hours I spent dragging wires and cables through crawl spaces and attics and fishing through walls to then have to do the same thing again only with different cables and wires and then to end up wireless! Or is that the end!?
As to styling,well that is subjective and you have stated styles that you like. Wright's "Prairie Style" pretty much falls into the "mid century modern" category as we call it these days. ( used to be just called "modern" but pronounced " mowderrrrn"). Wright's furniture examples can be easily found online. I always felt that his furniture was all about styling and being part of a big picture and had little to do with practicality or even comfort. His furniture was meant to be in a building he designed and placed where he designed it to sit.
Giant furniture like maybe your proposing I find it prudent to make sectional. Top section is separate from the bottom, top maybe 2 or more pieces etc. Adjustable shelving. The really difficult thing about designing an entertainment center is you want to make a pretty thing to house a bunch of stuff that ,let's face it,is some awful looking stuff!
My entertainment centre comprises two campaign chests I built about 10 years ago. This is home to a 55" LG OLED TV. 2 years ago I added a section for an audio system, comprising re-build Thorens turntable, Devialet amplifier, OPPO CD/DVD, and Cambridge Audio streamer. Speakers are Kef LS50 Meta plus subwoofer.
All is solid Jarrah dovetailed cases and drawers. (I built almost all the furniture in this room).
Of relevance is the relationship of the system to the space. We have a large, open plane living room, and this lends itself to the designs. This may not work in a different space.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I like this as well. However, not what the wife wants - showed her.
Here is a piece I did about 12 years ago. Not a traditional entertainment center but easily holds the entertainment components. Just an idea for something other than standard console
Audiofile stuff is different. I'm a dynaco man myself. People into that get super high quality stuff, often vintage ,and keep it. A nice box to keep it all pretty much doesnt need to change. A family home entertainment center is different. It's usually built to house consumer products that constantly change and are planned to become obsolete or something completely new by the manufacturer. LPs become cassettes become CDs become streaming. Tinitrons become rear projection or overhead projection then become ever increasing in size flat screens. Then there is always gaming to consider,virtual reality and what does AI have in store for us?
Thanks all for the feedback. I will chat with my wife. I have much more leeway on the various other pieces to build for the house. She has more specifics for what she does and doesn't want in the space. I've at times thought to just buy cherry coated plywood, a biscuit joiner or domino, and a track saw and just slap something together quickly and edge band it all. It's usually how I work but I too do worry about it becoming "disposable" furniture. At least with traditional bookcases, dressers, etc there is always a need for them and the only real risk is the style being out of fashion.
Part of the reason I don't want to spend any time or money on the kitchen cabinets (what we have is fine, works, and is wood frames and doors) is that no matter what I put in now, it will be torn out by the next homeowner.
Sounds like "happy wife, happy life" is as mobile a target as it ever was!
Build to make youself happy tomorrow morning. What the next homeowner does will happen anyway, and your memories will remain.
It sure is mj. To elaborate on the kitchen cabinets, I don't want to do them given how much time it would take me or money to pay someone. Knowing they would be ripped out just seals the deal considering I wouldn't enjoy it as well. However, in the living/dining room, I want to do some craftsman built in looking 3/4 high glass book cases in which the tops of the book cases are also part of the fireplace mantle. That project gets me excited. As such I will do it and let the next owner decide to keep them or rip them out.
Not sure how fancy you might want to go but this a project that I recently took on for a customer. The existing (see first picture) would not accommodate the new 80 inch tv. To the side of the tv were slide-outs to hold CD's and tapes. I removed them only to find bare sheetrock behind them so had some rebuilding to do! The wood is knotty alder. Maybe this will give you some ideas. It looks like you have a arched entrance into the room. It would be cool to match the arch and maybe do fluted columns on the side.
Very nice! Will keep in mind. I like the arch feature as I have an arch from the hall that leads into this room.
Wow, talk about a TV shrine! What's that little table on the right side about?
Just a table that was already there. That was a bigger project than it looks like. Had to rebuild the back, both sides, top and bottom and mill some trim to make it look right. Happy customer! She thinks I can do anything and keeps me busy.
Looked like something 'lectronic. Nice job by you!
A little intense but this is a commission I built and installed last month. Mostly solid oak. Upper door panels and back are ply. Lower doors are 1x1 rips routed and scraped before laminating into door panels. After designing and building it I kinda wanna make one for myself.
Not specifically an entertainment center, but the modular wall unit Anissa Kapsales made for the magazine is beautiful and super versatile--for my own house I would much prefer it to a dedicated unit, and the inherent flexibility of the design is a great hedge against new technologies.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2019/05/31/free-plan-mid-century-modular-wall-unit
or in issue 276
Very nicely done, Chuck!
Regards from Perth
Derek
My wife decided we needed one for the big room in the basement, "for the grandkids to watch TV when they come." Problem is that they are 20 and 19 and never come for overnight. She set up the big bedroom the granddaughter, complete with a canopied bed; she spent 1 night in it.
She looked and looked online and handed me a photo of a murphy bed, and said that's what she wanted it to look like.
Naturally, the proportions in teh photo would not work well for an entertainment center, so I started with width - to accommodate a 48" TV. Overall height was set to leave a space at the ceiling equal to the space between the crown and band molding, about 10". Everything else came from those 2 criteria.
The crosshatched moldings required cutting a LOT of miters.
The 2nd photo is what I worked from.
Cool. Generally speaking, my wife wants two cabinets on the side and something in the middle to house the TV or have the TV sit on top of it. What you're showing is where we started for sure.
Here's one I built a couple of years ago. Curly maple and cherry, with perforated metal screening for air circulation. Enough room for satellite receiver, blu-ray player, amplifier/receiver, CD player, and turntable. (Still have about 10' of vinyl from when that was how music was sold.)
And yes, Prairie Style would be Frank Lloyd Wright.
Cool!
Dear All,
Thanks for the feedback. I did a reasonable thing late last week. I went to the library. Found all kinds of Frank Lloyd Wright, Craftsman, and Bugalow style books. Some explain how Prairie is a little different than craftsman or mission style. Mostly prairie is an offshoot, and they should all blend well. No rush into making the final design but lots of ideas as well as other things I can do to help further tie this in the house. For example, we could change the hanging light in the entry way to a prairie style. I have a 20 year old Dale Tiffany light that has "stain glass" in the shade. FLW had some features in his work that are in the light that could also make their way into the entertainment center. The best news is that the wife loves the direction it is heading (until I tell her how much the wood costs). Realistically, I am a solid year out from being able to make this.
I just started Becksvoort's 15 drawer chest (on my bucket list of items to make). Have wood to make a Limbert half height 3 sided bookcase. Have wood to make two saw benches that will serve as occasional sitting benches for large gatherings. Wife wants the entertainment center after this. Need to dig around a bit as I think Mike Pekovic had a design class and I could see where designing this entertainment center might be a perfect fit.
All good problems.
I love reading design books. Did any of the ones you found stand out?
If you're interested in Art Deco, see if you can find a copy of "Ruhlman: Master of Art Deco" by Florence Camard.
They weren't design books per se. Rather books about FLW or Bugalows that had lots of photos. All were pretty good and one didn't stand out. Given the narrow focus of FLW, most had very similar photos.
Not sure if it will help at all or not, but I am obsessed with craftsman and prairie style anything, and this is the entertainment cabinet I build last year incorporating some elements of those styles that satisfied both my wife and I, and fit in the space available to us. Definitely some other elements I would have loved to incorporate (corbels and maybe some pierced carvings), but all in all, I am satisfied with it, and it serves us well. Hope it helps!
Jandy, I like the design and execution of your nicely done cabinet. My only question is why didn't you find a way to hide the wiring for the flat screen? I think a significant part of any entertainment center build is wire management. I'm sure you could come up with a very cool solution for it.
eventually I will run conduit behind the wall, but my wife just wanted it in place for the moment, and I need to install an outlet in the wall as well. Simply haven't had the time to do it yet, sadly. I have plenty of spaces in the back of the cabinet for wire management and electronics venting, but we have so many other house projects that currently take precedence over the cords. But no worries, it shall be done. . . . eventually. haha
There is an easier way to hide the wires, it's called Photoshop!
That is very nice indeed.
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I understand your frustration. It can be difficult to find inspiration for an entertainment center, especially when you have such a specific style in mind.
Here are a few ideas that might help you get started:
Look for inspiration in other furniture styles. The Shaker and Craftsman styles are both known for their simple, clean lines. But there are other styles that might also work well for an entertainment center, such as the Prairie style you mentioned. The Prairie style is characterized by its horizontal lines and organic shapes.
Consider the size and shape of your space. The size and shape of your space will have a big impact on the design of your entertainment center. If you have a small space, you'll need to choose a design that is compact and doesn't take up too much room. If you have a larger space, you have more flexibility in terms of size and shape.
Think about the function of your entertainment center. What do you need your entertainment center to do? Do you need it to hold a TV, a Blu-ray player, and other AV equipment? Do you also need it to provide storage space for DVDs, CDs, and other media? Once you know what you need your entertainment center to do, you can start to design it around those functions.
Don't be afraid to experiment. The best way to find a design that you love is to experiment. Try out different ideas and see what works best for you. You can even build a prototype out of cardboard or scrap wood to get a better idea of how the final product will look.
I hope these ideas help you get started. Good luck with your project!
Thanks. The prototype would be really helpful. Last thing I want to do is to spend all this time (and it will be a lot of time) and have my wife be disappointed in something that could have been addressed by a prototype.
Get a roll of heavy brown floor paper....cover the area of the wall with it. Draw your ideas full size with a black crayon. Give her a red crayon to strike through the parts she doesn't like and hope the whole thing isn't red....LOL! Might be a good starting point.
That's a good quick way to get to initial mockup. From there I can move onto 3D cardboard. Thanks.