- Get the gamer who has it all a place to put it. It can be a major challenge keeping the area around the television and game consoles organized. Your ready-made entertainment center was not designed to accommodate all the controllers and consoles you own. They spill from the front in a coiled mass, waiting to trip the unwary and snag in the vacuum cleaner. With a little planning, you can wrangle them back into place for good.
- Measure all of your game consoles, DVD player, sound system components and your television screen. Make a scale paper model of each component, and arrange everything on a poster board until everything has a logical place that will seem natural to use when you make the full-size version of your entertainment center. Check lines of sight between any available seating in your living room and the intended location of your entertainment center. If necessary, change the dimensions of the entertainment center to ensure that there will be no blind spots in the room where you will not be able to enjoy all your media.
Use plastic loop tape to keep controllers up off the floor, ready to use. Glue the looped tape along the full length of the front edge of the top of the entertainment center, and along the front edge of the main shelf where the television screen will sit. Glue dots of plastic loop tape to the backs of each controller. Simply slap the controllers along the tape, in the same order from left to right as their corresponding game platform. Put the controller for player one on the far left, with player two, three and four to the right of the prior controller. For long controllers, such as those for the various guitar and rock band games, use a strip of loop tape. Keeping the controllers off the floor keeps them from tripping your or other family members and prevents damage by enthusiastic pets and young children. - Entertainment centers can be any chosen dimension, but 6-by-7-by-2 feet is close to standard. Place the most valuable or vulnerable pieces of equipment up on higher shelves and more durable pieces at lower heights. Drill any needed holes before assembling the entertainment center. Countersink all holes so that screws lie flush with the wood. Sand away burrs and imperfections, using coarse, medium, fine and extra fine sandpaper in succession. Use your choice of stain, varnish, lacquer or shellac to give the wood your desired finish, then apply several coats of clear acrylic.
Use brass screws when assembling fine furniture, including entertainment centers. Make several Masonite or plywood mock-ups of any project before making one using more expensive materials. This will allow you to practice the correct use of each hand or power tool. Unless you are going to upholster a piece of furniture, it is better to use fine hardwood than cheap plywood in your construction.
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