How to Build an Entertainment Center in Your Home

There are a lot of ideas that go into creating entertainment centers, and it’s always different for everyone based on their living room and lifestyle needs. In this guide, we will walk you through some ideas to think about when planning your entertainment center build.

1. Lifestyle

Before you start designing your living room entertainment center, come up with ideas about your lifestyle, living room, and decor.
Do some soul-searching, and try to come up with ideas about what your dream entertainment center would look like and ideas about what you’d actually use the entertainment center for. If you’re personally designing the living room and decor, you might already have ideas about what you want, and if you’ve hired a pro, make sure they’re asking the right questions.

Here’s a few to get you started:

• Where will it be located… living room or bedroom? Entertainment isn't restricted to the living room.
• Do you need console storage?
• What do you need the storage for… blankets, movies, or toys?
• Do you want open shelves for books and decor? Or would you rather have everything hidden?
• What will you be incorporating… fireplace or TV?
• What is your decor style… rustic, modern, moody, or chic?
• What kind of decor do you have in the room? If the answer is pine, then find a way to incorporate pine built-in to the entertainment center.

Think of ideas about how you truly use the entertainment space and jot things down. Then it’s time to do the overall entertainment center design.

2. Cabinets

There are two ideas you need to think about before selecting your entertainment cabinets. First, they are not all created equal; and second, they play such an important role in the overall living room design. Take a good look at your entertainment budget because this step will make or break it.
What are the different cabinetry options available? We will introduce you to three popular cabinets: prefabricated, semi-custom, and custom.

Prefabricated

Basic prefab cabinetry can be a big money saver. When it comes to prefab cabinets vs. custom cabinets, the core difference is that prefabricated cabinets are a “what you see is what you get” product. If your living room is smaller and pretty straightforward, you can probably get away with prefab cabinetry. If you choose prefab cabinetry for your living room, some options are limited, such as sizes and finishings.

Semi-Custom

Semi-custom cabinetry is a mix between prefabricated and custom cabinetry. You get the prefab quality and have some limited options for customization. Semi-custom cabinetry comes at a lower price tag than custom cabinetry. However, you can still get those simple built-in details designed, making a clean, symmetrical fit. With prefab cabinetry, these changes would not be allowed, as only standard cabinetry box sizes are available.

Custom

Custom cabinetry is cabinetry that is built for a specific job. Most cabinet shops will come out to your home or business, take exact measurements of the space, and either build on-site or back in their shop. Cabinet makers often have their pieces sprayed in a paint shop and adequately cured. This process leads to minimal cracking, increased durability, and an overall better finish on the cabinet. The only significant drawbacks of custom cabinetry are the cost and the time it takes to get them. Cabinet makers spend weeks on end building out your perfect end product.

3. Lighting

Do you need additional lighting? Perhaps you want under-cabinet lighting or lighting for your pictures, for reading, or for ambience. Once you know the style of cabinet you want to use and how much storage you’ll need, think about your lighting needs so you can put all of these elements together.

4. Molding

Do you like clean lines or more ornate details? Once you determine if you want simple molding or molding from wall to wall or floor to ceiling, you’ll want to think about other design elements, such as panel detailing or board-and-batten.

What about molding? Do you want crown molding? If so, what does that overall design style look like? Our best piece of advice is to ensure that the molding flows with the overall design of the entertainment center.

5. Paint vs. Stain

Once you have the cabinets, other design elements, and molding locked down, you’ll need to select the overall finish. Are you upcycling old cabinets? If so, paint is the way to go! Or are you bringing in a statement furniture piece with this entertainment center? If that’s the case, we’d recommend going with a stain that highlights the wood grain.

6. Hardware

Another element that is important and often overlooked is the hardware. The hardware is the jewelry on the overall finished product, and it's an area you should give a significant amount of thought, because this is where you can take your entertainment center to the next level. Bring in another accent color or tie in the room's overall design with a similar tone that already exists in a piece of furniture or art hanging on the wall.

The final design decision:Do you hire a carpenter, seek out a design and build team, or DIY? This is totally up to you, but remember to have an emergency fund for this project, as there might be some unexpected expenses.

Jamie & Morgan Molitor of construction2style, are a husband and wife, design + build, content creating team. For over 10 years, they've been tearing houses apart and creating new dream spaces not only for their clients but for themselves; starting off as a DIY home improvement blog and have since moved into a full-service interior residential design & remodeling company. MN-based but nationwide, c2s started from the ground up and now also teach their readers how they can do it too through different marketing strategies. Whether you want to DIY with their home improvement or marketing tutorials online or hire them to completely do it for you, they're an open book and here to help!