I am looking for advice on what wood to use for my next project. I am looking at building an entertainment center like the IKEA besta series. It will be completely wall hung, and I will be painting it. I will be making the doors for the unit with just a wooden frame and cloth to help with ventilation. This unit will be going in my basement, but it is a finished basement that I have not encountered any moisture problems. I would like to create something similar to this Unnu inspired media bench - IKEA Hackers with a thicker wood for the bottom and top, but that concerns me with weight. The TV will be wall hung, so it doesn't need to support that, but I do plan on putting our receiver and gaming consoles inside. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to the forums!

Are you going to paint it white also? If so a smooth surface wood would be the choice. MDF might be a good choice for the large pieces and popular or aspen for any face frames. I suggest not making the tops any thicker than 3/4", but make the face frame the thickness you want.

 

I have not completely decided on color, but white was definitely an option I was leaning towards. Thank you very much.

 

Not having seen the store bought piece [other than pic] I question the need to use thicker wood. Often the store bought stuff uses particle board covered with whatever to make it look nice, I'd likely use the same thickness but with plywood instead of PB. I agree that 3/4" should be the max thickness, the face frame can be used to make it look thicker.

When you get ready to finish the piece holler back and we can advise you as to what coatings will work best for your desired finish .... and anything else you might need.

 

The thickness is just for look. I originally planned on not face framing the piece and using the upper and lower pieces for the look I desired, but now may use face framing to create the look. Why do you suggest plywood? Wouldn't MDF be much easier to paint in the end? I am mostly just curious, and the knowledge I'm sure will come handy for any future projects.

IKEA is even worse for their choice of "wood" this particular piece is almost hollow inside. There is a honeycomb type of design inside.

 

Yes, MDF paints better than plywood. Probably shouldn't but I include MDF when I say plywood