Going on in our living room.
See what I mean? Of course it won’t stay like this forever. Painting will happen, probably white for the sides with yellow for the backs. While we’re liking more modern and industrial element for this house, I wouldn’t call this look industrial. More like unfinished. More trim work, framing out the cabinets, and building doors to cover the cabinets still to come.
Let’s not forget the drawers at the bottom for ample storage.
The shelves are stationary, support cleats holding each in place.
Ultimately, these cabinets will have a similar look to the kitchen cabinets we built. Wrapped at the top with crown molding, shaker style trim on the sides, and shaker doors. Instead of glass inside, we’ll use fabric to help cut down on dusty electronics while allowing heat and sound to escape. Oh, and to hide the ugly speakers.
Speakers are ugly, but the cords are even uglier. Fortunately, Ben is a cord ninja. A one inch space at the back of the shelves makes tucking cords behind easy.
Drilling a hole just above the center shelf runs the cords along the back shelf (out of sight) through a hole, down the wall, to the TV.
Now I’ve got to go paint shelves so we can actually use them and get the bookshelf out of here. You know, between caulking/filling holes/priming in the bathroom, scraping wallpaper in the kitchen, and taking care of two crazy kids. No biggie. Haha.
What do you think? How do you store your electronics? Or hide cords?
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
I could only find one Christmas photo of it but we replaced the top drawer in a dresser with a piece of wood and use that to hold the electronics. It required a small hole in the back, which was traumatic for me since I love this piece and it has a gorgeous marble top. I also limit the number of gaming systems in the living room. We just hide the surge protector behind it or to the side.
How do we hide cords? We don’t! Our cord management is pretty pathetic right now. We’ve got our tv mounted on our brick fireplace and all of our components stacked on one of those really cheap Ikea side tables. As far as the cords go, they are elegantly draped across the front of the fireplace.
I’m basically waiting for our loft area to be finished so we can put the components upstairs. Our fireplace kinda floats away from the walls, so we can’t really hide the cords in a wall. We are thisclose to finishing the floors up in the loft, then built in shelves, then I can address the cord problem.
Nikki Kelly @ the ambitious procrastinator
What material are you using for the shelf that holds the TV? It looks beautiful. Was it expensive?
Hi Peter!
The wood is left over from our kitchen remodel at our first house. The wood is Bubinga, an African hardwood. Hope that helps!
Thanks!
Amanda
The built-ins are looking awesome! Can’t wait to see them when you’re done with all the painting and accessorizing!
Please post a picture of the whole thing from far away. I want to see how the whole creation works. Thanks.
Oh my goodness, Amanda. You’re blogging about hiding cords/wires, and we spent the day de-wiring our basement from years and years of wired being added. Need any coax/phone/component wires? http://thediligentone.blogspot.com/2012/08/wire-wire-pants-on-fire.html
i have a little question–is there any reason why you did not paint the wall behind the cabinet prior to the cabinet installation? i would think maybe that would have been easier–no cutting in, etc…but maybe i’m missing something 🙂
Hi Wilma!
Originally we had talked about putting 1/4 inch MDF over the back to smooth out the wall, so I didn’t paint it. I guess Ben changed his mind, so now I’ll just paint the wall. A little more work, but the outsides of the cabinets aren’t done so it’s doesn’t matter too much. Hope that answers your question. 🙂
Thanks!
Amanda
We have a long run of Ikea’s Besta cabinets along one wall. Basically, it’s 5 sections of these (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/90102155/#/50102157) in black-brown with three frosted-glass drawers each in three of the units for movies, and two sliding doors across the whole thing. Our electronics and cable management solution is that we have the second and third section open for our electronics, and a piece of pegboard behind with all our wires zip-tied to it. It works well!
I would put all the components in the bottom half of the cabinet, under the TV, and maybe a speaker on each side of the TV on the same shelf. I would use the top cabinet shelves for decor.
Send hubby here….pleeeeze!! I live in cord-chaos land with a man who thinks he invented them! H 😉