How to Build a New Entertainment Center Yourself
I have never built anything in my life, but I decided to try and build an entertainment center, because frankly, the ones you buy now fall apart! Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Like I said, I am no carpenter by any means, but I decided to see if I could make one. My wife and I spent an excessive amount of money on one that was missing parts, unstable and just downright ugly! The holes that you screw into to put it together were not even close to being lined up!
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First, I measured the wall next to the television to see how tall I needed to make it. Then I measured to see how far from the wall I could go, and how wide I needed it to be.
I wrote down all the measurements and headed to the home improvement store. -
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Luckily, my father in law has every power tool and hand tools known to man, except a table saw... which I will get to that later.
I bought all the supplies I needed. I bought plywood 3/4" 4 x 8 sheets, Luan board, brad nails and stain. -
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Next, I took my measurements and began to make the entertainment center. The first thing was the sides of the ec (entertainment center). I had a saw horse that I used to lay the plywood on. I marked the height, width and depth from the measurements I took earlier. I did this for both sides. I cut the plywood with a skill saw. Like I said, I had no table saw which would have made it much easier and straighter. I won't say the lines were perfect, but they were close.
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Next, I cut out the shelves, using plain 1X6 boards. I used two of them to get the 12" depth of the ec.
Then I used the plywood to make the bottom of the ec and the top. I wanted them to be very strong and secure. Once the bottom was made, I put four wooden blocks on the bottom, and put thick felt on it so that I could move it easily on the vinyl floor. I did not use casters because the weight of the ec would have left marks on the floor. -
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I was all ready to assemble my entertainment center. I used brad nails and screws for the larger, thicker plywood.
I then put the Luan board on the back of the ec with a cut out hole in the back for electrical cords.
I then began to place the shelves in. I used small pieces of wood, maybe 1" by 6", and nailed them into the plywood from the inside to place the shelves on. I spaced the shelves various sizes for either radios, dvr's,etc. -
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Once I had the assembled entertainment center in the house, I noticed that it was not very straight. It looked nice, but it was not as straight as I would have liked. What is a non-carpenter to do??
I had some left over moulding. I said to myself that I could use the moulding to cover up the mistakes. I used corner moulding to trim all the corners and other trim moulding to put in front of the shelves and any other area that needed it. Turns out, it covered up my mistakes and once we stained it, it looked fabulous... according to all my family.
I was delighted that doing this was not as hard as it looked.
Now my wife is asking me to build her a curio cabinet for all of her lighthouses... Yikes!
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure you use goggles when cutting and sanding your wood.
Make sure you invest in a table saw if you think you're going to do more carpentry work.
- Photo Credit Richard C Ryder
