As I'm fairly good with computers and fairly poor with drawing I knew I wanted to find some sort of CAD software to work with in designing the TV stand. Doing sketches on paper got old very quickly and didn't really give me any idea of space requirements. So I did some searching for free CAD programs and the first thing I found was Google SketchUp. Now I'm probably pretty late to the party on this one as it's already in version 8, but man is this an awesome program. I watched all of the beginner tutorials and that pretty much gave me enough tools to start designing. Here one that shows off a lot of the useful features for those who may be interested:
One of the greatest things about this application is the ability to share and import models and the library that's already available. I was able to import to-scale models of almost all my electronics that will be housed in the stand which made it really easy to see exactly how they would fit.
Now on the Design itself: I have fairly little experience working with wood so I wanted to keep the design simple and within what I thought would be my skill-level. It's also a nice coincidence that Sarah (my wife) and I have a fairly modern style, we tend to prefer simple and clean to overly ornate and decorative.
Key Requirements of the Design:
1. Must hold all electronics (360, PS3, Wii, Receiver, Cable box, and HTPC)
2. Must have built in wire management including networking
3. Shorter the better, aiming for only 18" high
So here's my first draft (I have since modified it but I will save that for another post)
Cabinet with Doors Off
Cabinet with doors on
Looking at tons of other TV stands, I liked the look of the receiver in the center. It also made sense from a wiring perspective as everything runs into the receiver and then out to the wall. Game systems on the right, cable box and HTPC (not shown) on the left and a drawer in the middle to hold controllers, games, movies, etc. Dimensions are 60" wide, 18" high and 20" deep.
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