Today In Shop
Let me entertain you.

This is perhaps the most difficult built-in cabinet project I've ever taken on. Its eight-foot length and ceiling-to-floor height made it impossible for me to build as a single unit. Therefore, I constructed the lower cabinet and upper carcass assembly as separate units in the shop and then transported them to the site for the union. I suppose the most striking features are the two turned columns flanking the upper section...

...and I designed it so they would sit in a space that would otherwise look too busy or cluttered if they contained more glass shelving. These columns are actually two pieces because the lathe didn't have the between center length of these columns.

Since it would be sitting there forever the first and most important thing to consider was where to place it in the room. That's the inherent nature of built-in furniture - you can't move it around.

The living room is 16' square and after playing with a couple of drawings I decided it'd look better in the corner with all the seating taking up the two walls diagonally opposite it.

At the same time I had to design the bottom based upon the audio and video components it would house. Of course, the glass shelves of the upper unit could hold some of this equipment but they ended up being barely 15" wide because the width of them was dictated after the space holding the TV was eliminated. Here, let's look at the conceptual drawing again...

See how the outer stiles of both the upper and lower units are in vertical alignment? I could've easily eliminated the columns and broadened the width of the shelves on either side of the TV space but doing so would have thrown the whole upper unit out of balance from the lower unit. Not a good thing, that.

I couldn't make it wider because it would project the unit further into the middle of the room. Yet another not a good thing. So, the only option left open to me was to build up and that's why it goes from floor to ceiling.

The three shelves above the TV space and the two large openings on either side of them house speaker equipment and the satellite box. The audio and video components are housed in the two large lower spaces and they have doors (not shown in above model) made from the same colored glass to help keep the dust out.

After the unit was installed I applied wainscotting to the walls (not shown in model but can be seen in the first photo) and crown moulding (described HERE) completes the built-in appearance.

It was a fun project to build and the whole family enjoys our home theater experience.