DIY TV Stand

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When we first moved into this house I was more into the Farmhouse style because it wasn’t so popular at the time and I hadn’t really found my own style yet. We bought this TV Stand below, it was really cute, but once my home style had evolved I was trying to move away from the farmhouse style, plus I just really love designing and building furniture.

I came up with a design plan for a new TV Stand. I drew it out with measurements and figured out what I needed to buy from the store. I even included a spot for our Sonos Sound Bar.

I made a Home Depot run for everything I needed. I also had some scrap plywood already at the house.

Moving a 3/4in 4×8 sheet of plywood around on your own when you’re 4’11 isn’t easy, but I make it work! These clamps help me move it around by myself too! I pulled the plywood out of the bed of my truck and propped it up on scrap 2x4s to make it easy to cut with my circular saw.

I drew a cut list on a piece of paper so I knew how to cut the plywood so I didn’t waste as much.

Then I cut it down with a straight edge guide that I clamped on, as shows below.

I added pocket holes to the wood and brought it inside to put it together with pocket hole screws and wood glue. It’s pretty simple, its just a box to begin with.

Then I put together the middle and installed it with more wood glue and pocket holes. I made sure the pocket holes were facing towards the sides since the top middle area would be open and visible, plus it’s easier to install this way.

I also added shelves to the left and right side. I added edge banding before installing the shelves so the end would look nice instead of it just being a plywood edge, you just iron on the edge banding, it’s pretty simple. I installed them with pocket holes on the bottom of the shelves since they wouldn’t be visible.

Once that was done it was time to put together the face frame with 1/2in poplar boards. I took my measurements, allowing the face frame to stick off the bottom and the sides by about 1/16-1/8in but it would be flush with the top since there would be a countertop going on. I used my kitchen countertop as a workbench for this. Whatever works right??

I did a test fit to make sure it fit just perfectly and then glued the edges and attached it with my brad nailer.

I built the top out of 1x6s. I put them together with pocket holes on the underneath side and then routed the edges. I attached the top to the cabinet by screwing up from inside the cabinet.

I brought the cabinet outside to stain it with Early American by Minwax. I always use these gloves when staining because they don’t tear as easily as some other plastic gloves. Side note: always leave your stain rags laid out to dry before throwing them away, they can spontaneously combust and cause a fire.

While I was staining it the Amazon guy showed up with the legs for it! Perfect timing! I stained those and got them installed on the cabinet and I was so excited! They were PERFECT!

Then I got started on the doors. I drew out plans so I wouldn’t mess up on the sizing. Measure twice, cut once right? I bought 1/2in overlay cabinet door hinges, so the cabinet doors needed to be 1in larger than the opening of the cabinets.

I used 1×3 poplar and cut it down to size with my miter saw for the stiles and rails.

I made grooves in the sides of the poplar for a place for the panel to slide into. You can see here that one pass of the table saw wasn’t enough for the panel to sit into, so I moved my fence over and made another pass through with each piece.

On the rails I went all the way through.

But for the stiles I didn’t want the groove to show on the end once the doors were put together so I didn’t let the blade go all the way to the ends.

I used plywood underlayment for the middle panel. Usually I use brown board for this, but since I was staining it I needed plywood.

I put the stiles and rails together with pocket holes. There are plenty of ways you can do this, this is just the way I do it right now, I will try different ways down the road I’m sure. I started with 3 sides and then test fit the panel before adding glue and putting the whole door together.

It fits! After this I took them apart, put wood glue in the grooves and put them back together and screwed the last side on.

Right now I have shaker style doors, but I wanted something a little fancier than that! I’m going to route them.

And this is what the edge looks like after it’s routed.

I didn’t want to route the inside of the doors because that’s a lot more complicated. I ended up adding trim pieces to the inside of the doors cut at a 45.

I didn’t attach the trim just yet, I stained everything first so that I didn’t have to try to get all the stain into the hard to reach grooves of the doors.

I attached them with wood glue and short brad nails. When I added the cabinet hinges the holes needed to attach them ended up going through the routed edges a little.

I just used walnut wood filler to cover it up and now you can’t even tell.

The last step was to add cabinet door bumpers for a softer close.

What do you think? Do you love it? Is this something you think you could build? I’ll be working on adding the plans for this to my Etsy shop soon!

All my living room links here.

Next up, full living room reveal!