Hickory and Cypress Nickle Gap Entertainment Center

I know that i always enjoy seeing what others have built and i also know it takes a good bit of effort to document and post such items to i'm usually good on asking questions and poor on posting results. So i'll try and make some amends.

The wife asked me to "finish" our unfinished basement. it's about 2200 sf of projects and i'm doing most everything. Not doing dryway or hvac but apart from that i've got plenty to keep me busy...which to a large extent i enjoy.

One project is an entertainment center. This is a 3 story house and this entertainment center area was originally going to be a fireplace (it sits right below the fireplace on the floor above so that dictates the form factor).

Here's the project area i was focused on for this task. A few points to know. The house is a timberframe house and much of the wood for various projects did come off the property. It was my first time having a sawyer come out and my first time drying, etc wood and very much a learning experience. One thing you'll notice in the pictures of the finished area are 2 large 12x12 Hickory posts -- those did come off the property. In fact all the big timbers in the basement -- most all white oak -- came off the lot and i felt for the framers who man hanlded those 12x12x12 white oak posts.



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i normally use Visio for most of my drawings but used Sketchup for this which was great for Tammy (wife) so that she could visualize what i was planning

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i wanted to build a partially recessed place to put all the "entertainment" stuff -- Xbox, receiver, DVD and who knows what. I also did not want to have to a bunch of break out boxes for cords. I wanted essentially each cavity to have AC and have an easy way to run cables between cavities.

I was struggling w/what kind of wood to use for the faceframe and top of the recessed entertainment area. Tammy suggested Hickory to match the two large posts on either side which i thought was a great idea. I still had plenty of hickory that had been sitting out for the past 13 years and was curious to see how it cleaned up. That was actually pretty satisfying to pull that old wood out, mill it and put it to good use. So the faceframe, shelves and top are all of the same tree that those big posts came from. i took more pictures of this than you care to see but i was excited that wood that looked so bad resulted in such a nice end product. NOTE: i recall watching it come of the woodmiser many years ago and i was amazed at how nice it looked when the old tree was cut up.

here's some pictures of that whole process

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Continuing on...

I finished the Hickory with oil based poly and i used cypress for the back and sides of the entire center. This was my first experience with Nickle Gap form factor but i really like it and another post where someone was asking about shiplap led me to post the results of this project. The wood is cypress which is very prevent in SC and i used it throughout my house -- trim, ceilings, etc. So it goes with the rest of the house.

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i also built a vanity for the bathroom -- i posted a ton of questions -- and it was my first attempt at inset doors/drawers. Turned out really well.

Still on the list are
- a second bathroom vanity
- tile bathroom and do all the finish plumbing for the bath
- build 2 mirrors
- build a set of kitchen cabinets -- more like a galley kitchen in the basement so not a ton of cabinet work

and i'm sure Tammy will think of plenty before i finish the above. (it never stops...be she's good about tools)

Very, very nice. I really like the finish! Has a nice clean, fresh look. Well done.

Beautiful Bob, nice job!

Very Nice job Bob, It looks so warm and comforting!

Building some cabinets out of Hickory for the first time. It is an amazing wood.

I bet your wife is happy!

Wow, Bob, you’ve got a beautiful basement! Great job on the entertainment center. Nice choice of woods to fit well with the room.