White Oak Fireside Built-Ins

This was a project for my sister and brother-in-law. I did not do the mantle. My work is the floating shelves and cabinets. To be completely honest, I’m not a huge fan of the style here, but we were looking to make built-ins that fit with the current home design and aesthetic. My personal taste (modern, sleek) therefore had to take a back seat. Additionally, some colors between the hardwood edge-banding and shelf faces came out a bit “drastic” due to the nature of material choice. My goal was to keep the cost down while designing and building as high-end of a finished product as I could with these restrictions.

For the main bodies of the cabinets and shelf tops and bottoms, a white oak-veneered combo core (MDF-plywood) was used. The cabinets and shelves were then given a solid white oak frame and face, with edges rounded over with a 3/16” router bit. The same was done for the cabinet doors which were made with a shaker-style with a 1/4” thick white oak panel for the internal face. All parts were then stained in Golden Oak, then finished with 3 coats of an oil-based satin polyurethane varnish.

Additional electrical work was done to place two new outlets behind the cabinets and an ethernet plug-in to provide wired internet access to this area. Wireless, motion detecting lights were also added to the shelf bottoms to provide ample display lighting for anything placed on the shelves.

The ultimate goal with this project was to create the foundation for an entertainment center, provide additional storage for the home, and make this space more accessible. I look forward to seeing how the clients adapt this work to fit that need in the future.