How I made a huge, floating, entertainment center

Okay wow...this was a really hard project for me (I also don't have all the right tools so had to find ways around it).

I am incredibly picky in my decorating, and it has been driving me crazy for YEARS that I have three focal points in my family room - the TV, my Taxidermied zebra, and a fireplace mantel. 

I saw this gorgeous entertainment center on Pinterest, and I wanted to make one similar to it...

I love how it made two focal points (TV and that white wall mounted thing) into one focal point.

Well, I didn't have a forge to make those custom iron looking hinges/strips/circles things, but I could at least get the concept down.

I started with three 8 foot boards (16" deep) from Lowe's. I am making one the top, one the bottom, and slicing the last one into two cabinet doors, and two end caps. 

The two center doors will be framed with cloth, as I want the remotes to be able to beam in there without a problem.

My two end caps

I basically made a long box, then glued and clamped it together.

I cut out these 2x4s as frames to attach the door hinges to.

I thought about it more, and decided that it needed more framing to make sure it held the weight of our electronic systems, so I put the 2x4 lower on the inside, and screwed braces to really stabilize everything.

Here are my center cabinet doors - the ones I wanted to have fabric inners. I glued and clamped them, and countersunk little brad nails for some more stability.

Stained the inside...

one coat

Stained the outside...

Two coats...

Stained the doors

And the hardest part was trying to get the cabinet doors SQUARE, and to attach hinges while keeping them square. It took hours of screwing (and not the fun kind!) to get these right. Does anyone know how to install hinges and keep your doors straight? Cause I'd love to know how.

I didn't wipe my wood glue very well, and you can see where the stain didn't take because of it.

I literally hot glued some fabric to my cutout doors: 

Screwed those to their hinges, and here is my finished entertainment cabinet!

I had to have the doors overhang just a little, because I wanted smooth fronts and the dimensions worked in such a way that it was less trimming (because I didn't have a table saw!) to get the doors looking right. 

And here is how it looks in our living room! It made the zebra and TV into one focal point, so I could handle two points in the room (this and the fireplace) and not three (gag).

And since I wrote this post, we had to move to an apartment, and here is how it looks in an apartment:

I am SO HAPPY with this entertainment center! I like being able to vacuum underneath it, and the way I am able to balance my zebra head and TV into one focal point really matters to me. It isn't entirely square, as I didn't have the right tools, but I can't wait to remake this (with the RIGHT tools!) and it will be even more awesome!

This Entertainment center holds our printer (left cabinet, PS3 and Stereo (center cabinet), and DVD's, CD's and PS3 games (right cabinet).