Clovis Custom Cabinets builds entertainment centers & media walls to order in Clovis, California, and installs across the greater Fresno area.
What a media wall has to solve
An entertainment center looks like a cabinetry project and behaves like an equipment enclosure. Three things decide whether it works, and none of them are visible in the finished room:
- Heat. Receivers, consoles, and streaming boxes generate real heat. Sealed into a closed cabinet with no path for air, they run hot and shorten their own life. Equipment bays need ventilation, whether that is open backs, vented panels, or a grille
- Cable routing. Every cable has to get from the screen to the equipment and from the equipment to power, and it has to be possible to change a component in three years without dismantling the cabinetry. Chases and access panels are designed in, not drilled in later
- Depth. AV receivers are commonly 17 to 20 inches deep before you allow for the cables behind them. A shelf built to a standard bookcase depth will not take one
What we build
- Television walls. Cabinetry planned around the screen size, with the mount blocking built into the framing so the television sits flat rather than standing proud on a bracket
- Fireplace built-ins. Flanking cabinetry and shelving either side of a fireplace, which is the most requested version of this project in Clovis living rooms
- Floating shelves. Solid shelves with concealed steel supports, spanned and sized so they do not deflect under weight
- Closed media storage. Doors for the things you do not want on display, with ventilation where equipment lives behind them
- Display shelving. Adjustable, for the mix of books and objects that actually goes on it rather than a fixed spacing chosen at design stage
- Full wall units. Floor to ceiling runs that treat the whole wall as one piece of joinery, scribed to the ceiling and the walls
Fireplace built-ins, and the part that is not negotiable
Cabinetry near a fireplace has to respect the clearances to combustibles in the fireplace manufacturer's own listing. Those clearances vary by appliance, so they get read off your specific unit's documentation at design stage rather than assumed. If the documentation is not available, that gets resolved before we draw, not after we build.
Mounting a television above a fireplace is a common request and worth a conversation. It raises the viewing height, and depending on the appliance it can put the screen in a rising heat path. We will tell you what we are seeing on your specific setup.
Design decisions worth making early
| Decision | Why it has to be early |
|---|---|
| Screen size | The opening is built to it. Upgrading to a larger screen later can mean rebuilding the surround |
| Component list | Bay depth and height come from the actual equipment. A console and an AV receiver need different spaces |
| Soundbar or speakers | A soundbar needs a shelf at the right height that does not block the screen or the remote sensor |
| Power and data locations | Outlets behind the cabinetry, and any relocation, are work for the appropriate licensed trade and are far cheaper before the build |
| Open or closed | Doors carry the labour. Every door is a separate assembly to build, finish, hang, and adjust, and this is the biggest single cost variable |
| Lighting | If you want integrated lighting, the wiring path and driver location have to exist in the drawing. Retrofitting it means opening finished work |
Entertainment center or home office?
These two projects use similar construction and solve different problems. An entertainment center is living room cabinetry: television, fireplace, media equipment, and display. If what you need is a desk run, work storage, or a library wall, that is our home office and built-ins page. Plenty of houses want both, and when they are built together the shelving details and finishes can be carried between rooms deliberately rather than nearly matching.
