We also wanted something contemporary yet rustic. That's when we came up with the idea of using wall cabinets and adding a warm look with wood. To capture the low profile look and the needed depth for the stereo components, we used full depth, 15" refrigerator wall cabinets from Ikea. They had great styling at a budget price. They also had nice complimenting hardware for the feet and pulls. The slow closing hinges were a nice addition as well.
For the wood, we really wanted something rustic with good character. We were able to find some beautiful aged barn wood from a local who salvages barns. The siding was from a local barn that was 150+ years old. We loved the idea of using local history. We liked the character so much that we didn't do any fabricating, we just cut the siding to length and fixed it to the top of the cabinets.
I decided it needed a little more to complete the look so I added a small back splash. Unfortunately, I bought the last 2 pieces of siding so I had to do something a little different. I found some white oak barn flooring that had saw marks from the milling years ago. The back splash complimented the top perfectly.
Something that also helped make the look very clean, we managed to conceal all wiring and components. When creating an entertainment space, consider wall mounted speakers and spend the extra time to hide your wiring and components. Running in wall speaker wire is not bad with the right tools. You can also store all those stereo components behind closed doors by purchasing an RF capable remote. The RF remotes transmit through most surfaces and it's really nice cutting down the remote collection to a single universal remote.
The overall look ended up costing less then many entertainment centers out there and it is more functional.
Randy
