A wall of audio/video casework

[Chris Hughes]

I started this a couple of years ago but the economy put it on hold.  The customer recently contacted me to start to wrap it up so I started building door fronts and doors.

This build is all MDO with a faux finish on the casework, 5/8 baltic birch dovetailed drawers with soft close Salice, and hard maple rail and style with a 3/8 MDO flat panel.  I went with a "true 32" full overlay euro design.

The unit is 24' long and dived into three section.  The center section is based around the screen width 92".  I built a freestanding credenza about 30" tall which put the center of the screen around 50".  I pulled the unit forward to house the center, left, and right channels.

The left and right sections of this wall unit are basically used to trap the screen pulled off the wall 15".  I built six columns with the base pieces finishing at 18" and the uppers going to the ceiling.  Lots of storage created.

 

 

[honeydoman]

Awesome job looks great.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[JLB builders LLC]

My kinda job. Looks great!

 

[Kevin D.]

It looks gorgeous.  Beautiful job.  Myself though, I would prefer the electronics to be up high.  Easier to use, and less apt to get infiltrated with dust.

 

[Chris Hughes]

I wanted the electronics in another room.  I lost the battle. 

I forgot to point out that the drawer and door fronts are domino constructed.  I ran a couple hundred feet of a 1/4" bead and ran it through my router table to receive the panel.  I cut the miters and went to it with the domino.  Glue up was a breeze and left the panels in the clamps for about a half an hour.  For alignment and added glue strength this was definitely the technique to use. 

 

[Vindingo]

I used these on an entertainment center with a lot of shelf pin holes.

They are tedious as hell to install but really finish off a piece nicely. 

 

[tiralie]

Looks great Chris.
What is the counter top material, it looks like stone or granite?
Tim

 

[Chris Hughes]

Thanks Tim.  I use Hanex Brionne, Aura, a solid surface material.  I used these color because when the lights are down the entire wall disappears and nothing else competes with the screen.  The opposite wall to this has the same color casework with a top that it's color is called Rhythmic sunshine.  That wall will house a hard drive and screen to cue up the media, and a beverage fridge.  That wall being behind the line of sight I wanted to use a top that would illuminate surface using the light that was present when the screen is in use.

 

 

[Chris Hughes]

Thanks Vin,

I use a similar shelf pin as well.  I use the 5mm variety without the insert.  The job of tapping an insert in each of those holes would probably kill me. 

 

[dltflt]

Looks great

 

[RDMuller]

Hey Chris, nice project.  Make sure you alert all of guys who were in Vegas for the solid surface class earlier this year.  That has to be some of the "most-granite like" solid surface I have ever seen.

Question on the construction of the top units --- what's holding them together?  It looks like all of the shelves have pins.  Are any of them dominoed in place?  Are the vertical sides dominoed (new verb) into the solid surface at the bottom?  Are there 2 sides at each vertical location, or is there only one that  has been drilled on both sides.  I am considering a very similar project for my own home.

Also -- the screen --- what brand is it?  At first, I thought it was a monitor, but then looking a it carefully, realized that it was a screen that must have a projector in front of it.  I am really going to be embarrassed if this is a LCD.  For those of you who are interested -- I will share a few observations at the CEDIA show that was held in Indianapolis in September.  This is the show for people who install home entertainment systems, home automation, etc.  It draws around 18,000 attendees(used to be 35,000).  This is a very sick business right now with the economy being the way it is for housing.  In any event, I was amazed at the number of prototypes of pretty good 3D  high definition projectors that were being shown.  Some pretty decent stuff will probably come out for $3000 to $4000.  If you go the LCD route, large 3d panels aren't all that much more than non 3d.  There really is some quality 3d content out there. I know the glasses are goofy, but on certain types of things they are worthwhile.  If 3d takes off, the cabinetmakers are going to enjoy opportunities to build custom centers that sort of disappeared when we moved to flat panels.  The 3d center in a home will be more of a theater type of thing than flat panels slammed on a wall in every room.  Sort of unrelated to Chris's project, yet it isn't.

Regards and  keep up the good work

 

[Chris Hughes]

The upper units are not dominoed.  I built this project a couple of years ago and did not yet integrate that jointery into my casework design yet.  The cases are shackeled at three points and held in place at the bottom using a cork dot.  The cork offers a no slip, no scratch mean to position the unit.  This is a euro design and as such could be removed and reconfigured easily without modifying the casework or existing walls.  The only thing that would be affected by reconfiguring this wall section is the tops.

 

[Wonderwino]

Beautiful job, Chris!  Did you get to test it out with a few brewskis and a ball game?  [big grin]

 

[Chris Hughes]

not yet Alex, this setup has been more for movie premiers than for sports.  I did however install my casework for my AV with the hopes that I will have my new flat screen at Christmas.  Hopefully I will be watching the bowl games in 3d.