Custom Builds · 6 weeks

Fluted Media Console

Built around the room, the equipment, and everything the client needed to hide

"The room couldn't fit a standard-depth console. Going shallower meant losing storage — so we made it taller instead. Every internal dimension was dictated by the client's actual equipment: a specific speaker, gaming systems that need airflow, and a preference to see as little of that equipment as possible."

Fluted Media Console
The Problem
The room couldn't fit a standard-depth console. Going shallower meant losing storage — so we made it taller instead. Every internal dimension was dictated by the client's actual equipment: a specific speaker, gaming systems that need airflow, and a preference to see as little of that equipment as possible.
The Outcome
A custom console that fits the room exactly — shallower than standard, taller to compensate, with sliding fluted doors on the sides and an open center section that lets sound out and air in while keeping the clutter hidden.
Role
Designer, Fabricator
Process
Rows of rounded wooden dowels laid out in the shop — the material that becomes the fluted sliding door panels
Fluting Stock
The door material before assembly — individual rounded dowels laid edge to edge. Each sliding panel is built from these, glued up into a slatted face that reads as texture from across the room and resolves to precise, consistent geometry up close.
Console fully assembled outside before delivery — fluted sliding doors and lattice screen in place
Pre-Delivery
Assembled and staged outside before delivery. The fluted sliding doors are in position, the lattice screen sits on top — first time seeing the whole piece together. Proportion, door travel, and overall fit all confirmed here before it goes into the room.
Three-quarter view of the console in the room — fluted doors closed, lattice screen and TV above
Full View
Three-quarter view from the left — the full piece in context. Both sliding door panels read as a single textured surface, the fluting casting fine vertical shadows. The decorative lattice screen above fronts the speaker; everything else is out of sight. This is how the room looks when it's put together.
Close-up of the right side of the console — fluted dowels in warm raking light
Fluting Detail
Raking light on the right half — this is where the fluting stops being a pattern and becomes a material. Each dowel casts its own shadow, the shadows shift with the time of day, and the grain runs through all of it. The lattice screen above carries the same logic: open geometry, warm wood, nothing hard-edged.

Some projects come with a clear brief and a CAD model. This one came with a room that didn’t fit standard furniture, a list of specific equipment, and a client who knew what they wanted to see — and what they didn’t.

The room couldn’t accommodate a console of normal depth. Rather than fight the space, we went shallower and added height to recover the storage. That one decision changed every other dimension in the piece.

Designing Around the Equipment

Before drawing anything, I inventoried what needed to live inside the console: a specific speaker, a couple of gaming systems, and the usual tangle of cables and accessories that comes with a full entertainment setup.

The gaming systems drove two requirements that pulled in opposite directions. They needed enclosed space — the client didn’t want to see them — but they also needed airflow or they’d overheat. The speaker had the same tension: it needed to be somewhat concealed, but sound has to go somewhere.

The answer was a three-section layout. Left and right bays get sliding doors — fully closed, completely hidden. The center section stays open but gets a decorative screen detail that makes the functional gap look like a design choice rather than an afterthought.

The Sliding Doors

The client specified two things upfront: texture on the front, and sliding doors. Fluting was the natural answer — it reads as texture at a distance and resolves to something precise up close. The sliding door mechanism needed to clear the shallower-than-standard depth, which took some fitting work to get right.

Building to the Room

This project was more build-as-you-go than some others. The constraints were dimensional — specific heights, specific widths, specific clearances for specific objects — rather than being driven by a 3D model. Once the overall case dimensions were set, every internal detail was fitted to what actually needed to live there.

The result is a piece that couldn’t exist as a catalog item. It’s exactly the right size for that room, that wall, and that equipment. Nothing standard about it.

Value Created
  • Built to the room's actual constraints — shallower depth, taller case — rather than forcing standard furniture into a space that didn't fit it
  • Internal shelf spacing measured around the client's specific equipment before a single cut was made
  • Open center section handles both the speaker's acoustic needs and the gaming systems' heat dissipation
  • Fluted sliding doors conceal the sides completely — cables, equipment, and clutter disappear
  • Decorative screen detail on the center opening makes a functional gap look intentional
  • Consistent fluting language ties this piece to other custom work in the home
Skills Demonstrated
Client brief translationSpatial problem solvingCustom joinery and caseworkSliding door hardware and fittingBuilt-in design for specific equipmentSurface treatment and finishing
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