Entertainment Centers
26 project photographs — every one an AV’s Cabinets build.
A built-in entertainment center carries more visual weight than almost any other piece in a living room, and it has to handle equipment, cabling, and storage while doing it. The built-ins below were designed and installed by AV’s Cabinets to fit their walls exactly — many run floor to ceiling and integrate lighting, glass display, and closed storage.
Filed under: Entertainments Archives
Building around electronics that keep changing
A media wall has to solve three problems a bookcase does not: heat, cable, and obsolescence. Components in a closed cabinet need somewhere for warm air to leave — ventilated backs, open plinths, or grille panels — because an amplifier in a sealed box runs hot and fails early. Cable routing is planned into the carcass rather than drilled in afterwards.
Obsolescence is the interesting constraint. Televisions grow, components shrink, and a unit built to the exact dimensions of this year’s equipment is a unit that fails in five years. Adjustable shelving, generous openings, and a screen area sized with headroom keep the joinery useful long after the electronics have been replaced.
The same construction covers the rooms next door: home offices with real desks and file storage, libraries with proper shelf depth, window seats with drawers underneath, and fireplace surrounds that tie a whole wall together.
Entertainment Centers — questions, answered
- Will my components overheat behind closed doors?
- Not if the cabinet is built for them. Ventilated backs, open plinths, and grille inserts let warm air escape, and the layout keeps the equipment that runs hottest where air can move. It is designed in at the drawing stage, not retrofitted.
- Can you build around an existing fireplace?
- Yes, and it is one of the most common briefs — flanking bookcases with a surround that unifies the wall. Clearances around the firebox are part of the design conversation, and anything structural is confirmed before cabinetry is built.
- What happens when I replace the television?
- The opening is sized with room to grow and the shelving is adjustable, so a larger screen or different components do not mean rebuilding the wall. Designing tightly around the equipment you own today is exactly how these units get dated.
General questions — cost drivers, process, licensing, hours — live on the main FAQ.
Other work we build
- Kitchen CabinetsFully custom kitchen cabinetry — designed, built, and installed.
- Bathroom VanitiesCustom bathroom vanities and bath cabinetry.
- Custom DoorsCustom wood doors, built by hand.
- Home BarsCustom home bars and wine storage.
Consultation & design selection
Talk with Andrey about your entertainment centers project.
The time spent at the beginning of the process is critical — you look at as many options as you want until the design of your new or rebuilt space is right.