How to Build a Media Cabinet

With all the electronics and entertainment equipment available, a living room can quickly become a cluttered mess without a multimedia storage cabinet. Building your own media cabinet can be the perfect way to organize your entertainment resources. Here’s how to build a media cabinet to fit your needs.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Screws
• Wood
• Measuring tape
• Level

1. Measure the dimensions of your television, stereo, DVD player and speakers. Also, measure the dimensions of the available floor and wall space in your entertainment room. Don’t forget to write these measurements down.

2. Create an inventory of everything you hope to put on or in your media cabinet. Do you plan on only putting a television on it or do you also plan to use it to store your VCR, DVD player, stereo, CDs, picture frames and more? This step will force you to decide on the scope of your project.

3. Be an interior designer. Often times, your media cabinet will be the focal point of the room so you want to make sure it is in line with the room’s overall decor. What color will look good? Do you want something modern or traditional? How about height and width?

4. Research your options. Take a trip to your local furniture and home furnishing stores and look around. Get ideas of what other people are doing to save space with their media storage needs.

5. Print your design and make a list of all the supplies you need. Bring this list with you to the hardware store and purchase all the required materials.

6. Start building. Once you have all the materials you need, spread all the parts out in a spacious room. Review the instructions one more time and then get to work.

The Building Process

7. Start by cutting out the side panels in order to determine the size of the shelves, drawers and doors.

8. Cut out the edge banding strips and glue these to the sides of each panel.

9. Measure and cut out the shelves and shelf molding. Attach the molding to each individual shelf using wood glue.

10. Assemble all the outside panels. Use glue to hold them together. Determine where the shelves will be and drill holes to insert the hinges. Next, install the middle shelf to provide the panels stability while you build the rest of the cabinet.

11. Drill the screw holes where the panels meet and then screw together the entire cabinet.

12. Construct the cabinet’s base by cutting out the legs and rails. Attach the legs to the rails and the rails to the bottom of the cabinet using appropriately sized screws. Place the cabinet upright on its new legs to make sure it is stable and does not wiggle.

13. Cut out the door panels and attach the hinges to the doors. Next, line the doors up to the cabinet and mark, with pencil, where the hinges meet the panel. Set down the door and drill holes for attaching the doors. Use the screws that come with the hinges to attach the doors to the actual cabinet.

14. Measure and cut out the panels for all the shelves and drawers. Assemble the drawers. Slide all the drawers and additional shelves into the cabinet.

15. Sand down the entire cabinet and then varnish or paint as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• Before you place your expensive electronics in your new cabinet, put some weight on the shelves to check that they are sturdy.
• Often times you will have to pay for the building plans found online. Consider trying the library or local bookstore, as they will have a selection of books specifically on building media storage cabinets.
• Before you buy the supplies, make sure you have all the necessary tools.
• If you have to buy an expensive tool to make the media storage cabinet, it may make more sense to simply buy a pre-fabricated cabinet.
• Use caution when using any power tool.