Arts & Craft Style Entertainment Center

[John Branam]

I saw something simular to this at a high end store and thought I could build that. I designed it to fit my TV and room. The wood was from a pile that was sitting in someones drive exposed to the weather and he told me if I came and got it I could take it all. Half was red oak the rest was qs white oak. In these pics the glass panels had not been put in the doors yet.

[Dewey Torres]

Pretty good score on the free wood. Not sure how much of it looks A&C to me besides the hardware. Kinda surprised 56 folks before me viewed this and you had no comments.:confused:

[John Keeton]

The price on the wood was certainly good.:D I like the way you bookmatched the panels in the doors, and while the general overall feel could be characterized as A&C, I would have to agree that it is probably more of a hybrid design. It does work, however, and you should be pleased with the result.

[J. Z. Guest]

Very nice. I like the quarter sawn grain.

I'm about to attempt an E-center myself, and one of my concerns is how am I going to move it when I'm done. The thing is going to be HEAVY. How did you do it? Did you do final assembly inside, or just recruit some local muscle?

[GERALD HARGROVE]

Very nice design, with a custom feel. Great score on the wood.

[Jim Kountz]

Nice job on the doors, I like the overall piece and it serves its function perfectly. I think you could be right in calling it A&C since they really didnt have entertainment centers, but if they did it would probably look something like yours!!
Again, great job!!

[John Thompson]

Simply a great job of grain matching as it would be difficult to match the way you did without careful selection through a volume of lumber. And.. I like the way you handled the ends of the E center. It reminds me of a few pieces from the A & C works by Liberty & Co. in England during the era.

And I don't feel overly concerned that you refer to the piece as A & C. You are faced with opting for an older style vs modern with the the task of blending it with modern electronic components. I am in the middle of doing the same thing with a computer desk-hutch at this very moment. Not an easy task if you like the A & C style as compromies have to be made to accomodate the equipment.

I won't get into an argument over what is A & C as I saw this debated elsewhere not long ago. I will add that A & C was an era of craftsman that rebelled against factory assembly line furniture in the overly ornate Victorian style. It cannot be defined by a certain feature such as slats.. corbels.. exposed joinery as Greene & Greene.. a type of hardware.. etc.. etc.. etc.. It depended on who the designer was and simply how they interupted what they were after.

During that era there are numerous designs that many aren't familar with and might draw the same comments if you reproduced them to a tee. So.. call it what you will as I see it. The bottom line is you did a nice job of compromising keeping the lines clean.. design simple and blending an older style design with a modern era electronic device so.... Kudo's for you! :)

Well done....

Sarge..

[John Branam]

Very nice. I like the quarter sawn grain.

I'm about to attempt an E-center myself, and one of my concerns is how am I going to move it when I'm done. The thing is going to be HEAVY. How did you do it? Did you do final assembly inside, or just recruit some local muscle?

I actually was able to get this from my basement shop to the family room with just my wifes help. It is fairly heavy though.

Thanks everyone on the comments/compliments this is the first peice I have done that I felt was good enough to post pictures.