Very nice!

Thanks!

Since you used Birch ply, what did you use for staining
and how did you do it.

Nothing fancy, just basic homecenter finishing supplies.

I sanded to 150 grit, then used a shop vac to clean up any sanding dust.

Next came a coat of MinWax Preconditioner. This reduces the splotchy
appearance and helps the different wood types stain more evenly.

Within 15 minutes of applying the preconditioner, I applied a single coat
of Varathane "Golden Mahogany" stain. None of my local home centers
carries Varathane stains, but several of the smaller mom and pop hardware
stores do (i.e. True Value).

I like to use staining pads for both the preconditioner and the stain.
These are basically just a sponge covered with a cloth material. It seems
like the stain comes out more even when I use them. The home centers used
to carry them, but now I only see them at the hardware stores. In a
pinch, a cotton rag works too ("staining cloths" at the home center, AKA
T-shirt material).

After wiping off the excess, I let the stain dry overnight. Then I
applied three coats of Minwax Gloss Polyurethane (oil based). I let each
coat dry about 6-8 hours, and sanded lightly with 220 grit paper between
each coat (vacuuming any dust before applying the next coat).

Where did you get your plan, did you
just come up with it on your own?

It is my own design, based mostly on the experiences with our old
entertainment center and proportioned around current TV sizes.

I had vertical drawers for CD's and DVD's in our old entertainment
center. While they had a certain "gee-whiz" factor, I never could get
them to work right despite trying a variety of drawer glides. So I knew I
wanted standard drawers this time around.

Our old entertainment center was over 8 feet wide, made up of three
sections side by side. These were heavy and bulky to move around, and
resulted in an uneven top with seams between the sections. This time
around I wanted a single smooth top, which meant 8 feet maximum (using
standard plywood sheets). I cut the plywood to 94", so I could still
miter the ends of an 8 foot board for the face frames.

Our old entertainment center was 24" deep to accomodate our old TV's, but
the depth wasn't needed for the plasma (or LCD's, or DLP projections for
that matter). I went with 16" depth this time since my stereo receiver is
about that deep and a four foot wide sheet cuts into thirds nicely.
It's only 8" shallower than the old center, but it makes the room feel
much larger.

The 16" depth meant the DVD's would need to be arranged in side-to-side
rows, so I based the width of the drawers on three DVD's with 1/2"
spacers in between. This also works out nicely to accomodate four rows of
CD's.

The height of the base section (28") was based around the drawer fronts
(1x8 boards), and to accomodate a center speaker and my stereo gear.

With the width, height, and depth of the base section determined, I
simply looked up the sizes of various TV's, and added a couple of inches
to the largest each way for ventilation. That determined how much was
left for the width of the side shelves.

I ordered the black ball bearing drawer glides from Orvis. They were
advertised as being "over-travel" glides, but are in fact just full
extension glides. They still work fine for my purpose, but over-travel
glides would have been nicer.

It took 3 sheets of 3/4" birch ply, 1 sheet of 1/2" ply, and 2 sheets of
1/4" plywood to build the entertainment center.

Anthony