Looking for comments or suggestions

[Grandpaw]

I have remodeled my home sense hurricane Katrina and have been trying to get some idea of what to build for my entertainment center and I think I have come up with an idea that looks good and will work with the size area I have.

Take a look and give me your thoughts on my project. One picture is of the alcove or closet I built in my den for this project that lets you see the doors that will give me access from the rear and the other picture is of what I plan to build to place my home theater in.

The longer doors that are on either far side of the entertainment center will pull out similar to a pantry that would be found in a kitchen except they will have shelves to place my DVD's and CD's on them.

It will need some adjustments when the building starts but this should be close to what I would like the final project to look like.

I plan to start building this soon so comments and suggestions welcome, Jeff

[bobsticks]

What a great job of pre-planning, Jeff. That's going to have a nice, clean look and the access from the back is a feature that I'm sure you'll appreciate. Man, the only suggestion I have doesn't even have anything to do with the entertainment unit as it looks pretty solid and well thought out. How about an area rug to tame those wood floors?

[superpanavision70mm]

I agree with bobsticks about the layout and what a great feature to have rear access. My only question is about ventilation...do you have any type of cooling fans or other means of keeping your gear well ventilated through the rear?

[Grandpaw]

Thanks for taking the time to posts some comments. Both problems will be addressed. The area rug (see picture below) has already been taken care of and the ventilation will be taken care of as I start building the entertainment center out in my shop. Thanks again for your ideas and anyone with other comments or ideas please reply. I would like all the bugs worked out BEFORE I build this, Jeff

[paul_pci]

To me it seems that the non-entertainment center pic is less busy/cluttered which appeals to me, as I am moving toward prefering a more minimalist look for rooms, etc.

[Tarheel_]

2 suggestions:

1) I'd build a 'false' wall over the alcove and cutout the dimensions for the tv and an equipment rack. So, if you looking at the tv, it would be one solid wall with the tv screen and EQ rack flush with the new wall. I guess this idea would cost the same or cheaper than a nice entertainment center. Basically, your projection tv would be the depth of a plasma.

2) if you go with an entertainment center, go black in color. This color will 'conceal' itself during move time esp. at night. Using black will keep focus on the TV.

[Jim Clark]

A couple of things to maybe consider, or at least I would. Up front I will say that if you can build something like that, I'm impressed. Awesome to have that kind of wood working skill and it's just as cool to have all the tools.

1. Since you have an extra row of cabinets on the right hand side of the monster cabinet, centering the main speakers on the screen is always going to look odd. For my first HT 13 years ago we had an entertainment center built and it suffered from the same design problem, only on the left side. I really wish it had been symmetrical both from a visual perspective but also from a performance stand point.

2. From a performance stand point, black would probably make some sense but the beauty of the wood would be lost. Tragic.

3. I like the suggestion of a false wall concealing the doors. Perhaps going even further and replacing the double doors with an actual wall because :

4. Times change and a monster entertainment center isn't really so much in vogue now. A big part of this is the ever increasing size of TVs. The center just has to be so big that it overwhelms the room and to me looks dated. My tastes would run towards building a long table (base) with room for a center and equipment underneath, all centered of course. I think it would look cleaner, more modern, and really open up the room while at the same time allow you to show case your skills and the beauty of real wood.

Of course this is only based on my preferences and is what I did and I'm very happy. I had to purchase salamander pieces to accomplish my goal but I would have been much happier had I been able to build it myself. I'll dig around my PC later and see if I have a pic to post to make it clear what I'm talking about. Again, it's just my preference and not necessarily yours.

Regards,
jc

[Grandpaw]

How about this design instead

A couple of things to maybe consider, or at least I would. Up front I will say that if you can build something like that, I'm impressed. Awesome to have that kind of wood working skill and it's just as cool to have all the tools.

We will see if I can build this. I do have a 1000sq ft woodshop in my yard furnished fairly well with tools.

1. Since you have an extra row of cabinets on the right hand side of the monster cabinet, centering the main speakers on the screen is always going to look odd. For my first HT 13 years ago we had an entertainment center built and it suffered from the same design problem, only on the left side. I really wish it had been symmetrical both from a visual perspective but also from a performance stand point.

How about this new layout below (see picture below)

2. From a performance stand point, black would probably make some sense but the beauty of the wood would be lost. Tragic.

Black is out and stain is in

3. I like the suggestion of a false wall concealing the doors. Perhaps going even further and replacing the double doors with an actual wall because :

If you are talking about the doors in the rear, they will not be seen from the front.

4. Times change and a monster entertainment center isn't really so much in vogue now. A big part of this is the ever increasing size of TVs. The center just has to be so big that it overwhelms the room and to me looks dated. My tastes would run towards building a long table (base) with room for a center and equipment underneath, all centered of course. I think it would look cleaner, more modern, and really open up the room while at the same time allow you to show case your skills and the beauty of real wood.

I built this alcove or indented section in my den so everything would end up flush to the wall and NOT take up any floor space out of the room. We also want it to look like a piece of furniture. This is the reason for the extra glass doors.

Of course this is only based on my preferences and is what I did and I'm very happy. I had to purchase salamander pieces to accomplish my goal but I would have been much happier had I been able to build it myself. I'll dig around my PC later and see if I have a pic to post to make it clear what I'm talking about. Again, it's just my preference and not necessarily yours.

Regards,
jc

[PeruvianSkies]

I like the new design better, but still would question having your equipment that high up. Accessibility is key and it would be great if you can have it a tad lower and isolated on separate shelves if possible. I think if you keep tweaking it you will eventually hit the winning combination.

[paul_pci]

The top picture of the new designs brings the center speaker closer in height to your main speakers which will create a more coherent sound field for multichannel sources.

[Grandpaw]

I like the new design better, but still would question having your equipment that high up. Accessibility is key and it would be great if you can have it a tad lower and isolated on separate shelves if possible. I think if you keep tweaking it you will eventually hit the winning combination.

Actually for me this is the optimum height for my equipment. This alcove for my equipment was there before the hurricane but had about one foot smaller opening. I widened the opening to 85inches and installed the doors at the rear for access to my equipment. All of my equipment was on a shelf all the way across the opening (see pictures below). When I wanted to change DVD's or CD's it was at a perfect height. My wife and I want to conceal all the DVD's and CD's so the drawers at the bottom would work great, Jeff