Designing Building Plans for Custom TV Stands
Designing and constructing your very own tv stand is often preferable to shopping for tv stands in the mall or you local electronics store. But figuring out how to approach the project and organizing you thoughts into logical steps often proves daunting. To help with that, I have put together a few guidelines for drawing up building plans and constructing a custom tv stand of your own design. So, here goes.
Measuring
When building custom tv stands, the first step and most vital is making sure you measure properly. Ideally, you will already know where your stand will reside once finished and you can base your measurements on that location. If you’re not sure were it’s going to go, you best bet would be to base measurements on the size of your TV, adding an additional 30% in width and depth for growing room. Here you are primarily concerned with three dimensions: width, height, and depth. Make sure you add additional depth for wires, and additional height for shelves if you intend to house any media controllers below the TV.
Estimating Materials
Once you have the basic dimensions of your stand, go ahead and draw a sketch of it on paper. This will help you decide on the look of your stand, and features such as shelves. Then, you will need to measure out each piece based on your drawing. You will want to plot these on grid paper or a computer in order to figure out how many board or sheets you will need to purchase on your trip to the hardware store. Don’t forget to account for things like cabinet hardware and trim.
Deciding on Materials
If you are going to commit to a building project such as designing a custom tv stand, you are going to want to use quality materials that will not break down or wear out over years of use. Most quality commercial tv stands are built out of solid hard woods, such as birch or oak. You could use a partical board material, such a melamine, but over time you may end up with sagging shelves or premature wear relegating your hard work to the city dump. If at all possible, buy your wood panels in standard sheets. You can make your shelves out of the scraps from those sheets, and you will save money by cutting it yourself. Lastly, if you intend to paint your tv stand ultimately, it will not matter if you are mixing woods. You might consider going with cheaper woods for the portions that carry less weight.
Cutting
One of the most important steps in the process of building a tv stand is cutting out the pieces. The old carpenters adage of “measure twice, cut once” certainly applies here. I suggest using a table saw for cutting, as it is nearly impossible to get a clean and straight cut otherwise. Pull out the document or computer diagram where you drew out the pieces on the wooden board. Measure and cut the sheet long-ways first. The short cuts will be easier and you will likely have spare board if you mess up on them. But do your best not to mess up the long cuts. A pencil is helpful to mark key cut lines, and it can be erased or painted over later.
Assembly
The key to assembly is glue - wood glue. You can’t nail straight if your pieces aren’t stable and in proper position. Therefore, it is necessary to set every piece with glue first, then use pin nails to secure the boards. A nail gun is more than helpful here. Also, it looks unprofessional if you have any cut edges showing, so you will want to measure and cut trim pieces to cover them up.
Finishing
To make your tv stand look like tv stands you see at the neighborhood furniture store, you need to add a few finishing touches. First, you will want to sand any rough places, specifically edges that are sharp or fresh cut. Sand with a circular motion or use a rotary sander; use fine hand-held sandpaper for hard to reach areas or detailing. Second, doors are a nice touch and I would suggest purchasing pre-crafted doors that fit your stand. The hinges and magnets can be bought at any hardware store. Finally, you will want to either stain or paint your tv stand. Stain will usually look nicer, but know that you will see the wood grain showing through and thus you will need to have built your stand with the same wood type throughout.
With that, I bid you good luck.
Building a Custom TV Stand: What You Should Know
So you finally have your brand new flat screen sitting eagerly in your living room, waiting for an occasion to display its color depth and image quality. Your wife says you can’t leave it sitting on the floor like that. What to do? You could buy a stand for it - nope, you’ve already spent enough money on that thing as is. You could mount it on the wall - nah, you’re wife is 8-months pregnant and all of your buddies are out of town this weekend, who would help you get it up there? Well, I guess you could always build one - I mean, you are pretty handy right?
Before you get out that circular saw and duct tape, here are a few things to consider when building your own TV stand.
1. Start with a Guide
Often the instinct is to start measuring and create a design from the measurements. This is problematic in many ways, but suffice it to say that you would be better off starting with a some sort of template or guide. If you have schematics for the TV stand you want to build, perfect. If not, find a set of plans that are close to what you want to build. Then measure and make modifications to those plans based on the measurements of your specific media system. Sites like buildeasy.com and diynetwork.com have free plans of commonly built items, as well as tips on how best to approach the project.
2. Purchase, Rent, or Borrow the Correct Equipment
Having the right equipment can make a project easy or extremely difficult. Consider trying to tighten your bicycle wheels without a torque wrench - it may well be impossible depending on the type of bike you have. For instance, trying to cut wood planks evenly with a hand saw is much more difficult than when using a circular table saw. And trying to paint without using an appropriate grade of sand paper first will leave you with less than stellar results. Do a bit of research online or at your local hardware store to find out what tools are needed for your project. If you cannot purchase them outright, inquire about renting them or ask your brother-in-law to borrow his. Attempting to build a custom TV stand with just a hammer, nails, and few two-by-fours could leave you frustrated and less a few hours of your life.
3. Ask for Help
Don’t be a hero. In projects like this, where something of value is being built that will be a visible element of the family home, pride is always involved. Often the builder hopes to work in secret, under cover of night, to construct a masterpiece to be unveiled at a ceremonial time of his choosing. Well, you can certainly do that, but you risk much. Especially if this is one of your first construction projects, seeking advice or assistance from others more experienced at this type of work could pay off significantly. Another hand for steadying a wood beam - another eye for ensuring a proper cut - these are indispensable in emerging with piece of furniture you can be proud of. And even with the help, people will still know who thought of it 