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by Robin
We’ve made a simple DIY media cabinet built-in – it hides so much and it was pretty cheap and easy to make!
We’re a family of nerds. We love technology and gadgets. They’re fun to play and fiddle with.
BUT, I’m the least nerdy of the nerds and I hate looking at all that mess. The chords and the boxes and the doodads. Blech. The visual clutter drives me batty.
The last project we shared was a hidden TV cabinet (pictured above). This time we’re hiding all the rest of the crap essential gadgets that plug into it.
I wish we had a photo of this TV wall just before this unit was installed. It was like a black octopus with tentacles ending in other octopuses with tentacles.
So I set about designing an affordable and simple-to-make DIY media cabinet that looked tailored and functioned well.
I had a trick in mind where we could hide all the gadgets, yet still use them, through a decorative door with a secret. Here’s how we made our custom entertainment center DIY…
DIY Media Cabinet Built-in
- We've made a simple DIY media cabinet built-in – it hides so much and it was pretty cheap and easy to make!
- Step 1: Make a Good Plan
- Step 2: Hiding the Electronics Cords
- Step 3: Turning Kitchen Cabinets into a Custom Entertainment Center
- Step 4: Hiding Electronics with Metal Screen Doors
- Step 5: Building the DIY Media Cabinet Wood Top
- Step 6: Add Affordable Door Hardware
- Other projects in our Basement Media Room Makeover…
Custom Entertainment Center Materials:
- 3 Kitchen Upper Cabinets (30×36) Ours were in-stock from Home Depot
- Home Depots are 12″ deep vs. IKEAs 15″ deep – this 3″ difference was important to us!
- Wood top: made with 2 – 2″x8″x10′ framing lumber
- DIY Reclaimed wood stain
- Faux brick panels
- Wood glue
- Door insert: Metal Sheet & Antique Brass Metallic Spray Paint
- Door material 1″x4″ Aspen
- Kreg Jig
- 1″ Melamine panels to rip for filler sections
- Euro hinge – 2 per door
- Forstner bit
- Brass look door hardware 10″ length
- Fusion Mineral Paint in Ash
How to:
Step 1: Make a Good Plan
Step 2: Hiding the Electronics Cords
Ed wishes that he did this step BEFORE we installed the brick panels.
With some NSFW language, he retrofitted a groove in the drywall behind the panels. This meant that we could run the electronics wires from our DIY Hidden TV Cabinet to the media unit invisibly.
I’m so glad he did! In a perfect world, you cut a 2-3″ strip out of your drywall, then hang the brick panel. That is definitely Ed’s suggested sequence…
Step 3: Turning Kitchen Cabinets into a Custom Entertainment Center
We decided to build our own doors after finding similar doors in stock were over $70 each. Each!
We needed six. $420 for boring, basic doors = not.going.to.happen. The premade doors weren’t going to be nearly as special.
Ed used this tutorial to build the simple, Shaker style, solid doors for the side units. We won’t repeat the same tutorial here, but below you’ll find the steps for how we built the centre doors with metal inserts.
Step 4: Hiding Electronics with Metal Screen Doors
Step 5: Building the DIY Media Cabinet Wood Top
Step 6: Add Affordable Door Hardware
Other projects in our Basement Media Room Makeover…
- Hidden TV cabinet that makes the room feel bigger and brighter (inspired by Fixer Upper and Pottery Barn – at a fraction of the cost!)
- We made a tiny, high basement window look big and beautiful (for less than $50)
- Natural wood herringbone ceiling – the ultimate gorgeous basement ceiling idea on a dime
- How to add character to boring walls with grid panelling
- A timeless (and affordable) hollow core door makeover
- The best basement floor – and how to install it
- How to build a faux fireplace that looks real (with German schmear bricks!)
- and more!
It’s going to take us some time to get all these projects finished, photographed and posted – I can’t wait!!!
In the meantime, have you seen our other Basement Makeover Projects?
We turned a closet into a basement bathroom (Featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine!) & made the coziest guest room that doesn’t feel like it’s underground.
Don’t miss a thing – scroll up to the top and subscribe to our weekly-ish newsletter for updates and sneak peeks.
Stephanie Batt
Friday 19th of May 2023
Have you needed to replace any of your electronics?? How would you do this with floating cabinets and the cords in the wall?? I’m trying to get my husband on board with this, but he can’t seem to understand how this will work.
Robin & Ed Hicken
Sunday 21st of May 2023
Hi Stephanie! It's really quite easy to change out the cords when you replace electronics. You simply fish a wire down the hole, attach it to the new cord and pull it up through. And sometimes it's even easier, if your new electronics use the same cables (eg HDMI) as your old ones. :)
Amy
Friday 1st of March 2019
I love this! It gives me an idea for my great room. Also, very clever painting the cabinets dark on the inside, we've used the same wire mesh on a cabinet door but you could see everything inside and it looked awful. You have a great blog and you're full of wonderful ideas. Thank you for sharing them!
frugalfamilytimes
Friday 1st of March 2019
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Amy!!! You made my day. 😊 I’m so happy you like our ideas and I’m thankful you took the time to let us know. Have fun with your great room project!