Home Repair - Entertainment Center Cabinets (and a Little Bit of Plumbing)

We had a strong winter storm hit Texas several years ago. What a mess. Ice coated everything and it was bitterly cold for over a week. Lots of people were without power for a number of days and frozen/ruptured water pipes were common. We were fortunate in that we didn't lose power but we did have a pipe break. Thank goodness we were home at the time so that I was able to rush outside and quickly turn off the water main to the house before too much damage occurred. We did get a fair amount of water on the floor in the living room but we got that mopped up using a pile of bath towels. LOL... it was quite the frenzy of activity there for several minutes. But then once the dust had settled we thought... now what? After many phone calls we learned that there wasn't a plumber available anywhere in the area for over a week due to all the broken pipe calls that they were currently working. I called a buddy who is a master plumber and has his own business. Same story... his folks were backed up for a long time. So he walked me through how to fix it myself. Long story short... 24 hours and 4 trips to the hardware store later I was able to complete the repair. I was the happiest guy in the world when I completed the repair and there were no leaks when I turned the water main back on. I'm actually pretty handy when it comes to this sort of thing but in my opinion plumbing is one of the more challenging home repair jobs. It is so easy to get it wrong. In celebration of my success I took the piece of broken pipe, wrote the date on it, and kept it as a trophy!

Now to compound the degree of difficulty for the repair effort the broken pipe was in a wall BEHIND a large oak entertainment center cabinet. There was no way I was going to attempt to tear into the brick from the outside so the only option was to take apart the cabinet. And while it was quite a job to rip apart the cabinet I was actually sort of glad that I didn't have a choice in the matter. The design was outdated. It was installed back when TV sets weren't very large and could only accomodate a smallish set. So as I am ripping it all apart I'm already thinking about what I want to replace it with. LOL... something that only took me several years to decide what to do and get started on it. You can't just rush into these things you know!

So here we are in 2025 and I'm designing and building a new entertainment center cabinet. Now there are tons of videos on YouTube and lots of information out there on building cabinets so I don't want to write a "how to build a cabinet" Instructable. Rather I'd like to highlight some of the smaller details (making doors, drawers, and shelves) and things that I did that were sort of different like... how do I mitigate the possibility of the pipe freezing again and being able to remove the cabinet (without destroying it) in case my mitigation efforts fail. And of course it needed to look nice as well as being functional. So grab your tool belt... let's get going!

My cabinet is 67 inches wide, 36 inches tall, and about 20 inches deep.

Materials

Two 4x8 sheets of 3/4 inch cabinet grade plywood

One 4x8 shhet of 1/4 inch cabinet grade plywood

Hardwood... I used wormy chestnut

Pocket hole screws for plywood and hardwood

Wood glue... I used Titebond 3

Cabinet hardware... hinges and knobs from Home Depot

West Systems 2 part epoxy

Pipe Repair (See picture in Step 1)

Tools

Table Saw

Circular Saw

Miter Saw

Jig Saw

Kreg Pocket Hole Jig

Drill Press

Router Table

Surface Planer

Hand Drill

Assorted Clamps

Rolling Work Table

Large Silicone Craft Mat

6 Foot Metal Ruler/Straight Edge

Random Orbital Sander (80 and 220 grit)

First step was to demo the old cabinetry. I did my best to salvage what I could and I have reused a lot of it already. I did one really smart thing when our house was being built. I took a lot of pictures throughout the process. I dug through all of the photographs and found this section of the house that showed the pipes sticking up out of the foundation. So it made it easy to determine where the pipe should be behind the wall. In fact when I cut through the sheet rock the pipe was dead center in the middle of my cut! Then I ran my hand up and down the pipe feeling for the break and found it. I was stunned (and probably really lucky) that I found the break so easily.

I bought a neat little pipe cutter tool, a piece of new pipe, and some compression fittings (pic 4). I hate doing plumbing but it really wasn't that bad. You use the pipe cutter to take out a small section of pipe around the rupture and then replace it with the same length of new pipe held together with the compression fittings. Easy peasy! I'm not kidding... when we turned the water back on and there were no leaks... I was the happiest DIY repair man in the world. Afterwards I set up a small space heater to keep the pipe warm so it wouldn't freeze again (pic 7). When the weather warmed up I tore out the remaining cabinetry in pic 8. Last pic is my trophy! Woo Hoo!!!!

I have built cabinets before but that was a long time ago and I needed a refresher course to make sure I was going about it all correctly. One of the better videos that I found on YouTube was a fellow who posts under the name Bourbon Moth. It is very thorough, easy to understand, and kind of entertaining. Here's the link. I especially liked that he used pocket hole joinery. I had purchased a Kreg jig a few months ago and this was my first opportunity to use it. Glad I did... I'm a big fan of pocket hole joinery now. Super easy to use and well suited for this type of construction.

The first step is to build a base for the cabinet box to sit on. It is recessed around 3.5 to 4 inches and creates an ergonomic feature that is called a toe kick. It allows you to stand closer to the cabinets to more easily reach things. I made the base from 4 inch wide strips of 3/4 inch plywood that I ripped using a straight edge and my circular saw. The Bourbon Moth guy used his table saw to cut these pieces but he has a nice big saw and I have a small contracter saw that wouldn't accomodate a whole sheet of plywood safely. The base is assembled using pocket holes and glue and set in place ready for the carcass... which is what the basic framework of a cabinet is called.

The carcass is made from 3/4 inch cabinet grade plywood and is a relatively simple box that you end up decorating with some cool looking hardwood. If you were building cabinets that don't need to have such a high level of finish (for example, cabinets for your garage or workshop) you could just paint them. But these cabinets will be one of the first things you notice when you walk into our front door so I want them to be as nice as possible.

I've used plywood from Home Depot and Lowes before and I have to say that I'm not a big fan. Even when you get the higher grades it's still not that great so I found a place in Dallas called Dakotas that sells cabinet grade plywood. Wow! Great stuff. First of all... it's actually 3/4 inch inch... not that weird, less than 3/4 inch dimension from the big box stores. It has attractive face veneers and it is nice and flat... not warped. So it's easy to work with, looks nice, AND it was nowhere near as expensive as the "higher" grade plywood from Home Depot.

I used an interesting type of hardwood for this cabinet called Wormy Chestnut. The American Chestnut tree was wiped out by a blight in the early 1900s and was then ravaged by insects. It was once used in old timber frame barns and cabins and today people are repurposing that lumber. It's neat stuff with a ton of character. On my cousin's farm in West Virginia they harvested all of the chestnut that was on the property a long time ago and stored it in one of the barns. It has been sitting up there for decades. He says he has no use for it and lets me take what I need. It is rough sawn so there is a bit of processing that needs to take place to wind up with useable wood for projects but it's well worth the effort. Some of the pieces had some fairly substantial cracks that I ended up filling with thin epoxy. This technique worked out quite well and allowed me to use boards that would otherwise be unusable. And with all of the worm holes the cracks just blended right in and provided additional character.

The frame is made from 2 inch wide pieces and I measured all the lengths required once the entire carcass was in place. It's held together with glue and pocket hole screws and then fastened in place with more pocket hole joinery from the inside of the cabinet. I didn't want to nail or screw the frame in place and then have to patch the holes. Also, the screws allow me to be able to easily remove the frame if I ever need to uninstall the cabinet. Note: The strips of wood in the middle of the cabinet that attach the frame will also double as mounts for the shelves that come later.

I'll go into a bit more detail on the frame construction a few steps down when I make another one for the upper level.

If you want to build raised panel doors then you will need a router table and some expensive bits. I used a Freud raised panel bit along with their rail and stile bits. This combination will result in a very professional looking set of cabinet doors. I also used them to make the doors for the dart board cabinet featured in my Dart Board Caddie Instructable. So I'd say that if you are going to be making several cabinets or cabinet-like projects then they are well worth the investment. The doors look great and once the profiles are cut then the process of assembling the doors is a snap!

In the first picture I have one of the boards planed to the correct thickness and it's time to true up one side. I made this jig for my table saw to help with that process. Once one side is straight then I don't need the jig anymore... just flip the board over with the straight side against the fence on the second cut. The rails and stiles for this particular door were cut to 3 inches wide. Afterwards I cut them to length on the miter saw.

For reference... the rails are the horizontal pieces and the stiles are the vertical ones. The rails get two different types of cuts on the router table. The first is on the ends of the rails. It's really not a good idea to try to run a 3 inch wide piece of wood across this particular router bit without some sort of a jig. I made a simple custom jig (pic 2) in this case to hold all of the rails and cut them at the same time in one pass. It worked out very well! Pics 3 thru 6 show the installation of the first router bit. It cuts a tab on the end of the rails. You want to adjust the height of the bit such that the tab is roughly in the center of the piece. Not super critical so I just eyeball it. I also use a straight edge to adjust the router fence. You want the edge to just barely touch the roller bearing on the router bit. NOTE: When cutting the rails and stiles it is important to remember that the side you want to be the face needs to be against the router table top during the cut. Pic 7 is the first pass. Next you flip the pieces end for end (but not over) and then make the second cut.

Remove and replace the first router bit with the second bit that cuts the slots. Adjust the height of the bit to match the tabs cut on the ends of the rails (pic 8). You also need to set the fence with a straight edge against the roller bearing on the bit (pic 9). Again, make sure that the side you want to be the face is against the router table when making the cut. All of the rails and the stiles get the slot cut along one side of each piece. Pics 12 and 13 show how the joint fits together. Pretty slick!

The last piece of the puzzle is the raised panel. The dimensions for the panel need to be such that the panel is a wee bit undersized. This allows it to float inside the frame and provides for expansion and contraction of the wood. Starting in pic 14 the two panels are glued up in one go here. Once the glue sets the panels are planed down to final thickness (in my case that turned out to be 5/8 inch) and then sanded smooth.

In pic 19 the raised panel bit is installed and the fence adjusted using a straight edge. This thing is a really big router bit and it's kind of scary when you turn the router on so be careful! It's best to make the cut in a number of passes and work your way to the correct depth. Another good practice is to cut the end grain sides first... you get a better result. Pic 20 show what you are shooting for. The fit should be a little on the loose side... you do not want it to be snug.

Time for assembly! Pic 21 shows all the parts dry fit to make sure it all goes together properly. In pic 22 you can see how the panel is just a tad undersized with respect to the rail. Parts are ready for glue in pic 23. Glue is only applied to the joint between the rails and stiles... not the panel (pics 24 and 25). All glued up in pic 26. Final pic... finished doors.

The top is solid chestnut edge glued with two part epoxy. I purchased a large silicone kitchen counter mat to cover my work surface during glue up. I love that thing! It allows me to clamp everything down to my rolling work table and when the epoxy is cured the mat easily peals off resulting in a nice flat surface. I made the top oversized and then cut it to fit. I couldn't wait to set the TV on top to see how it all looks. Yeah! I like it.

The doors are mounted on the face frame using softclose 1/2 overlap hinges from Home Depot. They also sell a template and Forstner bit kit and it's well worth it. Installing the doors was easy and I'm a big fan of the softclose feature. No slamming cabinet doors that make you cringe.

The process is to mark the doors using the template. Drill the large hole with the Forstner bit to accept the hinge and the two smaller holes for the mounting screws. Place the hinges in the large holes and secure with the mounting screws. Now you are ready to attach the doors to the face frame.

The doors are placed on some scrap wood to hold them at the correct height. Mark the location for the screw hole on the face frame. Remove the door and drill the two holes for the mounting screws. Then finally screw the door to the face frame. I also added a cabinet door knob... again from Home Depot. It's a sea glass knob and I think it looks nice against the chestnut.

The second level carcass is made the same way as the lower unit except that when I set it in place I turned it upside down. With this orientation I had a slot to feed through the internet cable. It's held in place by screws that have been driven into wall studs. The 1/4 inch plywood back panel has also been omitted to provide access to the wall outlets and copper water pipe. When we have cold snaps during the winter I'm going to blow warm air from a space heater over the pipe to help keep it from freezing.

Using the Kreg jig makes putting together the face frame super easy. The pieces are cut to length, pocket holes drilled, glue is applied to the joint, clamps hold everything in place, and the screws are driven home. That's it. Finished face frame set in place in the last two pics.

So box joints are definitely overkill in this application but I love them and I built the jig several years ago so why not use it? Once you have your jig dialed in and the joints fit nicely every time then it's a breeze to make them and you can assemble a box in no time at all. I used the scraps left over from the cabinet top build for my two drawers. Planed them down to 1/2 inch thickness, ripped them to the correct width, and used the miter saw to cut them to the correct length. For the setup you raise the bit (I'm using a quarter inch spiral bit) until it is just a tad higher than the thickness of the piece. This way the fingers of the joints will be just a little high when assembled and will get sanded down later. You can start with either the two side pieces or the front/back pieces. Push the piece against the stop and run it through to make the first cut and then it's a matter of stepping through the rest of the cuts. For the second two pieces you use the first piece that was cut to set the spacing for the first pass. That piece is removed, slide the cut piece over to the stop, and make the second cut. Then you continue stepping through the remainder of the cuts.

For the drawer bottom I use a left over piece of 1/4 inch plywood from the carcass back panel to make the drawer bottom. It is sized to fit a 3/16 inch slot. Once all the parts have been shaped everything is glued and clamped. Once the glue dries the drawer faces are sanded smooth and it's ready to be installed. It really is quite easy and it looks great. Sure, they're really not going to be a feature for the completed cabinet but I know they are there and I like them! I find them to be very easy to assemble and I use them a lot. It is a strong and attractive joinery method.

I left the hole that I cut in the wall to access the broken water pipe. We always seem to have a couple weeks during winter when we will get cold snaps where the temps will remain below freezing for an extended period of time. When that happens I get a tv tray table and set a small space heater on it to blow warm air over the pipe to keep it from freezing again. I'd like to be able to continue doing that so the drawers are made such that I can remove them, set the heater on the cabinet top, and keep the pipe warm. I also continued my philosophy of designing the unit to be easily removed if necessary. I made the drawer assembly modular. It just slides into place. A bit of overkill again but I had enough plywood left over and thought... what the heck, why not. I used 12 inch bottom mount door slides from Home Depot. Really easy to install... there's a QR code on the package that you scan to download the instructions.

The drawer panels are made the same way as the cabinet doors using the rail and stile router bits. Except here I tipped it on it's side and the rails are the vertical pieces and the stiles are horizontal. The right side panel is held in place with neodymium magnets and cover the area where the power plugs and internet cable are. I also cut a feed through in the face frame for the cables. I just couldn't bring myself to cut a hole in the cabinet top! The finishing touch on the drawer panels was to add the same sea glass knobs that I used for the doors in pic 18.

In the last several pictures I've installed the drawer front as well as the fake drawer front on the right.

The top is made the same way as for the main base unit. I edge glue three boards together with epoxy and sanded it down once the glue cured. It was made a little oversized and then cut to fit the area. Very pretty.

One thing I wanted to highlight here in the first 4 pics is the transformation that the rough cut boards go through when you plane them smooth and true up the sides. It’s a lot of work but you end up with an amazing result.

I noticed when I was cutting the plywood for the carcass that I was getting a lot of tear out using the circular saw. Well, duh... I had a carpentry blade installed. So I swapped that out for a blade that had more teeth and designed for finish work. That did a great job when I cut the top to the correct width. The top fit nicely and I marked the forward edge to be flush with the wall (pic 10). The last pic shows the completed top. Nice fit!

We live in interesting times now and design parameters for entertainment centers have changed radically in my opinion. You just don't need a stack of components anymore like we once did and that frees up a bunch of cabinet space. So instead of filling that area with DVD players, DVRs, tuners, amps, speakers, etc... I'm using it as an annex for all of my large kitchen appliances. Originally I was planning on making glass doors but that's when the realization hit me that I didn't need to design that space for components. So I switched to raised panels (which I like better) and now I can free up a ton of room in my overcrowded kitchen cabinets. I'll also add that our main entertainment center is upstairs but along with the television set there is only an additional sound bar. We got rid of our satellite system and stream everything. So much simpler now.

The panel for the shelf is 1/2 inch plywood and I trimmed the edges with the chestnut to hide the plies. Looks nice and does the job! The sides are mitered and a 3/8 inch deep channel is cut on the inside face to accept the plywood panel. It's all held together with Titebond 3 wood glue. Nice and beefy to handle a number of heavy appliances. I set one of the two shelves a little higher to accomodate a couple of rather tall appliances that I wanted to fit in there.

The true techno/audiophiles are probably laughing at me and disagree with my philosophy here. But hey... you can load up your entertainment center with whatever equipment you like. It's just not something that I feel like I need or would use that much but I will admit that glass doors to showcase a bunch of electronic equipment would look cool!

Wow! The cabinets turned out as good as I could have hoped for. Really nice and I love the character of the wormy chestnut... definitely a unique look. Here are a few shots of the completed unit... although I'm holding off on applying the finish at this point. Going to take a bit of a break and then work on that later. Ultimately I'll use a wipe on polyurethane. That will help bring out the color in the woodgrain as well as protect the wood underneath. I'll post some updated photographs when I complete that effort.

This is not the end... nope, I have a bunch of ideas for what I'd like to do next. I'm thinking about making some floating shelves in the recessed area on the right... maybe apply some paneling made out of thin slices of the chestnut... Oooo... accent lighting might be nice... ha, we'll see.

Cabinet making is somewhat of a challenge. There's not a lot of complex joinery or anything like that... it's just that it's a large piece and getting everything to fit properly and look right takes quite a bit of care and attention to detail. There's just so much. Having a good assortment of tools is certainly a plus especially if you are going to take on building raised panel doors and drawers. Probably not a beginner level project but definitely within reach of someone with intermediate skills or greater. With all of that said... it is a great project to hone your skills and you end up with a show piece that will enhance the look of your home. And you will save a lot of money doing it yourself. Having cabinets built is NOT cheap!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my project and maybe are inspired to create your own piece. Questions and comments are welcome... and if you do build some cabinets then please post pics below. I'd love to see your work.

Until the next Instructable...

SW