DIY Built-in Entertainment Center

25 August

We've been diligently working away on our fixer-upper house. 


Most recently our efforts have been in the basement and today I'm sharing the new built-in entertainment center that we built.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


I'm beyond excited and proud of this project. I think it's one of the biggest projects I've ever taken on mostly by myself. I've done large projects with my dad before and I did have a little bit of help from my boyfriend on this one but for the most part, I did it by myself 😁


Let me just show you how this corner of the room started out and you may be just as impressed as I am, haha!


This picture just shows the old carpet and paneling on the walls. And you can see that there was a huge closet here before.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Here's that closet... it covered the whole wall. I thought it was kind of weird that you'd have a clothing closet in the basement... it's a daylight basement and I believe the original purpose was a family room so we decided that the better use of this space would be a built-in entertainment center.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center

This project took some time... about three weekends and several trips to Home Depot and that doesn't include the demo portion where we removed the trim and center wall section! 


I created a video to show how we created our DIY built-in entertainment center.



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We started this entertainment center with two of these Hampton Bay Unfinished Kitchen Wall Cabinets.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center
We probably could have used actual kitchen base cabinets rather than wall cabinets, they are deeper but also more expensive so we went with these.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Once we had those installed, I used a 1x2 to fill in the gap between the cabinets in the center.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Then we used scraps of plywood that we had left over from other projects to create the counter. We tried to use what we have on hand for most of this project but we did have to buy a few things.


We wanted to use a small refrigerator and microwave that we have so we built them into the project. In order to have enough room for the refrigerator, we had to cut out the back of one of the cabinets.

DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Now we have a place to keep beer and water and we can pop some popcorn down here too while we're watching movies! The microwave isn't in place yet, we are looking for a black one to replace the white one we currently have.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


This closet area is weird because it has a 5-inch jog in the wall for some reason. We talked about how to deal with it for a long time... we thought about trying to put a back across the TV area but that seemed more difficult since there wouldn't be anything to nail it to where the wall is recessed five inches. We decided to just work with it.

I built a bookcase on the left side that is 12 inches deep...


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


And a bookcase on the right that is five inches deeper at 17 inches deep. We had to buy one sheet of plywood to have enough to create both bookcases and shelves.

DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


I built them separately and then stacked them on top of the counter.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


We used Hardboard Tempered Panels for the backs of our bookcases.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Once those were in place, we added a shelf across the top with plywood we had on hand and then another shelf below that from a pine board to create a custom area for the soundbar.


Then I trimmed it all out with Hemlock Lattice Moulding except for the soundbar shelf which was trimmed with the front piece from some old wood blinds that were here when we purchased the house.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Then I painted the whole thing with Dark Secret by Behr. This part took forever it seemed. It really would have been easier to paint everything before building it but we were kind of winging it so we weren't sure what exactly we were doing until it was done! 😂


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Then, I realized that I could repurpose the rest of those wood blinds to create my own version of vertical shiplap along the back of the very top.


I didn't think of this idea until we had already thrown out one of the blinds and I was definitely kicking myself because it would have been cool to make a chevron pattern behind the TV area! But, the TV is so huge that not much of the wall behind it is visible anyway so it worked out fine.


I painted the casing boards and trim boards that were reinstalled around the closet opening and then got to work with those wood blinds!


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


I cut them to size and used my brad nail gun to attach them. I almost had enough to use all pieces with no holes from where the blind cords went through, but the few that I used that did have holes were just filled with wood filler before painting.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Then there was more painting to do, ugh!


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


I painted the old closet trim the same Polar Bear White by Behr as the rest of the house.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


And here it is!! 😍 You notice the jog in the wall here but once the TV and soundbar are in their places, you'll only see it at the top and maybe right above the TV a little. I definitely think painting it black helps it disappear.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Man, that was a close fit for the TV though! Whew! 😬


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


I ordered these BINO Brass Cabinet Knobs for the doors.


I can't wait to style the shelves but I've got to be patient and let the paint cure so things don't stick to it!!


Well, what do you think?! We are loving it! So far, the only issues we have with it are the reception we get, (we only have free TV and so we have an antenna that has to be moved around depending on what station we want to watch but this is an issue anywhere, not just in an entertainment center) and there is a glare during the day from the large windows on the opposite side of the room. I've ordered some light-blocking curtains to solve that problem.


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DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


The next basement project I'm tackling is the fireplace area. The walls have already been painted, that old woodstove is gone, we have new blinds, the carpets have been removed and the floors painted, and that fan is gone now.


DIY Built-in Entertainment Center


Here is what's left to do:

  • Install carpet threshold
  • Wallpaper the small wall
  • Build custom entertainment center
  • Install crown molding
  • Paint fireplace bricks
  • Install vintage fireplace
  • Build and install a new fireplace mantle
  • Install new window molding on two large windows
  • Install DIY carpet stair runner
  • Decorate!
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  1. Wow! What a job! It looks so nice now and look at all the storage space in those cabinets! Great work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! It was a big job and felt very overwhelming to start but once we got those base cabinets in place and the first bookcase done, it was easy but still time consuming!

      Delete
  2. Great work, Tania, you'll enjoy it for years!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did a spectacular build. It’s great that you were able to use so much that you already had. I think there will be people who will want to hire you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Look at you go! What a fabulous project and so well executed. Gorgeous!! Anne from Designdreams by Anne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Anne! Hey are you going to start blogging again? :o)

      Delete

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