I've been working on this one for what seems like forever. My wife bought a glass contemporary entertainment center about 8 years ago that's served us ok - it wasn't super sturdy but it did the job.
Well, 8 months ago a stork stopped by our house and dropped off a little blessing, and the super sharp glass corners on that entertainment center were not baby proof, so I offered to make a new one that sort of matched our other cabinetry.
This started out as (2) 2" thick, 5" wide by 54" long pieces of hard maple, that were ripped to 2x2 1/2 pieces, then turned on end and ripped to make 1x2 1/2 strips (that's right, ripped 2 1/2 thick by 54" long hard maple on the BT3k) for most of the wood. The thick legs were 3"x3"x32" stock (hard maple) that the Amana Forestry department had on hand (those were hard to find). I jointed and planed all the wood myself, and all the joinery you see is mortise and tenons (turned out quite well if I do say so myself).
The shelves and flat panel sides are maple ply - I cheaped out with baltic birch for the shelves inside the doors (2 shelves in there).
I bought the doors from Decore atives specialties - saved a bunch of time that way and they turned out well - although I did cut a profile in the outside of them.
Finish was a dye stain (waterbased) followed by blonde shellac, with the exception of the shelves which had wiped on poly instead (cheaper). It came out a little blotchy, but still manages to look very nice in real life.
The pictures show off the inside a little too much - I'm going to come back and stain the pieces attaching it to the wall so they aren't so obvious.
I'm happy to say that there is not a single metal fastener on the cabinet portion (plenty of drywall screws sunk into the wall behind it though, holding the built in shelf supports).
The last picture does a great job of showcasing the shimmer and depth that the stained maple has - I highly recommend that approach, although it did take a full 2 weeks for me to mix my own color that my wife would accept!
That picture also gives an idea of how my tenons fit - and if you look close you can see the rounded off detail on top of those shoulders - had a little extra sanding done on the top of the legs that required removing some of the tenons top shoulder to look good, ended up pretty neat looking (but you wouldn't even notice unless you look super close).
Well, 8 months ago a stork stopped by our house and dropped off a little blessing, and the super sharp glass corners on that entertainment center were not baby proof, so I offered to make a new one that sort of matched our other cabinetry.
This started out as (2) 2" thick, 5" wide by 54" long pieces of hard maple, that were ripped to 2x2 1/2 pieces, then turned on end and ripped to make 1x2 1/2 strips (that's right, ripped 2 1/2 thick by 54" long hard maple on the BT3k) for most of the wood. The thick legs were 3"x3"x32" stock (hard maple) that the Amana Forestry department had on hand (those were hard to find). I jointed and planed all the wood myself, and all the joinery you see is mortise and tenons (turned out quite well if I do say so myself).
The shelves and flat panel sides are maple ply - I cheaped out with baltic birch for the shelves inside the doors (2 shelves in there).
I bought the doors from Decore atives specialties - saved a bunch of time that way and they turned out well - although I did cut a profile in the outside of them.
Finish was a dye stain (waterbased) followed by blonde shellac, with the exception of the shelves which had wiped on poly instead (cheaper). It came out a little blotchy, but still manages to look very nice in real life.
The pictures show off the inside a little too much - I'm going to come back and stain the pieces attaching it to the wall so they aren't so obvious.
I'm happy to say that there is not a single metal fastener on the cabinet portion (plenty of drywall screws sunk into the wall behind it though, holding the built in shelf supports).
The last picture does a great job of showcasing the shimmer and depth that the stained maple has - I highly recommend that approach, although it did take a full 2 weeks for me to mix my own color that my wife would accept!
That picture also gives an idea of how my tenons fit - and if you look close you can see the rounded off detail on top of those shoulders - had a little extra sanding done on the top of the legs that required removing some of the tenons top shoulder to look good, ended up pretty neat looking (but you wouldn't even notice unless you look super close).
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