DIY Media Cabinet – Anthropolgie knock-off for a fraction of the price!

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Do you ever “window shop” on Pinterest and find something truly spectacular? You love it, you want it, and then…you look at the price.

That was my best friend with this stunning Samuel media console from Anthropologie. The intricate door details added some serious wow-factor, but it came at a price.

Rather than buy it, she gave me the chance to build it and now I get to share the plans for this amazing DIY media cabinet with you!

The beauty of these plans are that you can use them to make a modern TV stand with sleek lines and simple doors, or you spend a little extra time to make these unique statement doors.

Alright, let’s start DIYing! 

Tools

• Drill
• Miter saw
• Circular saw with track
• Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig
• Kreg Shelf Pin Jig
• Kreg Jig
• Brad nailer
• Electric sander
• Optional: Table saw

Cut List

Measurements are always more accurate if you measure and cut as you go through your project. The following measurements serve as a guide and may differ slightly from your actual measurements.

FOR	BOARD SIZE	QUANTITY	LENGTH (IN)
Top	1×6	3	66.25
Legs	2×2	5	7.75
Bottom frame (sides)	2×2	2	14.5
Bottom frame (front/back)	1×2	2	63.25
Bottom supports	1×2	3	16
Bottom	3/4″ plywood	1	63.25 x 16
Sides	3/4″ plywood	2	16.5 x 15.5
Middle pieces	3/4″ plywood	2	16.25 x 15.5
Back	1/4″ plywood	1	64.75 x 15.5
Shelves	3/4″ plywood	2	20.25 x 16 1/8
Middle Shelf	3/4″ plywood	1	22 x 16 1/8
Doors	1×6	8	16 3/16
Back supports	1×2	4	1.5

Overall dimensions: 24″ tall, 66.25″ wide, 17.5″ deep

Prefer printable plans? Grab your DIY media console plans HERE.

How to Make a Modern TV Stand

New to DIY? Download our free 5 Steps to Getting Start with DIY guide!

STEP 1: MAKE TAPERED LEGS

Cut your legs using a homemade taper leg jig. Since these legs are too short to safely cut with the jig, you’ll want to taper either end of 2 of your 2x2s before cutting them down to size. Set aside the middle of each board for future cuts.

We set our saw to 5-degrees for these legs and had the taper end approximately 6″ up.

Once you have the four main legs cut, adjust your taper jig so that it tapers a little bit less of the leg. We don’t want to cut off too much when we cut the middle leg. Rather than tapering on the front and side, taper the middle leg on both sides.

STEP 2: DRILL POCKET HOLES 

Pocket holes are the foundation of most DIY furniture. Become a pocket hole pro in less than an hour in Pocket Holes: Explained.

Using the 3/4″ setting on your Kreg Jig, drill pocket holes into the 1×2 bottom frame pieces, the 1×2 bottom supports, and around every edge of the bottom.

Use the 1.5″ setting for the pocket holes in the 2x2s.

STEP 3: ASSEMBLE THE TV CONSOLE BASE 

Start by attaching the front frame to 2 legs using glue and 1.25″ Kreg screws. Repeat with the back frame.

Then attach those two pieces together by connecting the legs with the 2x2s. Use glue and 2.5″ Kreg screws for these. As you’re bringing these pieces together, assemble them around the bottom so that you don’t have to worry about squeezing the bottom in afterward.

Use 1.25″ Kreg screws to secure the bottom to the 1x2s and 2x2s. The top of the bottom should be flush with the top of the 1x2s, 2x2s, and legs.

STEP 4: ADD THE MIDDLE LEG

To add the middle leg, drill a countersink hole into the middle bottom support board. Make sure you drill through the side that doesn’t have pocket holes! We used our Kreg pocket hole drill bit to make the countersink hole.

Once you countersink it, pre-drill and screw your leg to the middle of your board. Make sure the leg is positioned so that you can see both of the tapered sides when looking at it straight on.

STEP 5: ADD THE BOTTOM SUPPORTS

Center the middle support. Each side of the middle 1×2 should be approximately 30 7/8″ from either side of the bottom.

The other supports should be placed 14.75″ from each side of the bottom.

Attach with 1.25″ Kreg screws.

STEP 6: MAKE THE TOP

To make the top of the TV console, drill alternating pocket holes on the 3/4″ setting.

Then attach using glue and 1.25″ Kreg screws.

STEP 7: DRILL FOR SHELF PINS

We used our Kreg adjustable shelf pin jig to add holes for adjustable shelves. We opted for 3 holes near the middle, but you can add as many or as few as you’d like.

STEP 8: ASSEMBLE

Using glue and 1.25″ Kreg screws, assemble the main TV console structure. The sides should be flush with both the front, back, and outside edges of the 2x2s.

The top should be flush with the top of both sides.

The middle pieces should be placed 22 1/16 in from the outside edges of the sides. They should also be indented 1/4″ from the back.

STEP 9: MAKE THE SHELVES

Cut your shelves down to size and then apply edge banding to the front of each shelf.

STEP 10: MAKE THE DOORS

After cutting the 1x6s down to size, apply a generous amount of glue to the side of 2 boards.

Clamp the 2 boards together and wipe off any glue that seeped out. Let them dry overnight, or for at least one hour. Repeat to make the remaining 3 doors.

After 24 hours, you can sand the doors to get the seams nice and flush if needed.

STEP 11: INSTALL THE DOORS

To install the hinges with ease, we used the Kreg concealed hinge jig.

Once the hinges were installed on the door, we placed 3 paint swatches underneath each door to keep them slightly lifted off of the base. You can add more if you need to to get the top of the door flush with the top of the TV console.

Once you get the right height, position your door so that it’s flush with the side and clamp it into place. Then screw the hinges to the TV console.

We like to install the doors before painting or staining to make sure everything fits. There’s nothing more frustrating than thinking everything is good, staining it, and then come to find out that you have to trim a little bit off the sides and re-stain a whole side.

After you get everything fit and adjusted, you can remove the doors and the hinges to make staining/painting easier.

STEP 12: MAKE THE HANDLES

First cut your 1/4″ plywood down to 5.5 wide. Then mark the center of the board all the way down on both sides.

Set your miter angle to 50-degrees and cut your board. You don’t have to be too exact this cut.

Then flip your board over and line it up so that when you cut your board, the point is lined up with the line you drew in the center of the board.

Finally, set your saw back to 0-degrees and line your saw blade up so that you’ll end up with a triangle and a rectangle. The triangle should be approximately 3.5″ from the tip of the point to the end.

Once you have four triangles cut out, cut 4 – .75″ square dowels down to 2.5″.

Glue and clamp a dowel to each of your triangle pieces. It should be centered along the long edge of each triangle.

After an hour, you can unclamp your handles and spray paint them. We chose Krylon Fusion All-in-One in Metallic Gold.

STEP 13: ADD THE DOOR DETAILS

The doors have two main details: carvings and dowels.

Carving the doors is pretty straightforward if you have a hobby kit or Dremel. We attached the round headed bit to carve.

Put some tape to mark where you need to stop since the middle is not carved. This doesn’t have to be precise. I marked mine with tape that was angled from 1.5″ in on one side and 8″ in on the other. Again, this doesn’t have to be precise. You just want to make sure you carve far enough in so that it’s carved up until the dowels and not too far where the carving enters the middle area.

Cut one side of a spare 1×2 to 35-degrees on your miter saw and line it up with the corner and edge of your door.

Clamp it in place and carve along either side of the 1×2. Then move the 1×2 and line it up with the other side of the line. Clamp in place, carve, and repeat.

For the dowels, start by cutting them down to 2.5″ long. You’ll need 62 – 2.5″ pieces for each door. Before cutting, be sure to check out this post on how to safely cut small pieces of wood on the miter saw.

Then you’ll need 13 pieces ranging from 1/2″ – 5″. I made each piece approximately 3/8″ smaller than the piece before it.

STEP 14: STAIN + SEAL

Before staining and sealing, cut 4 – 1.5″ pieces from spare 1x2s. These will be used to hold in the back.

You can add them in before staining and sealing, but I prefer to install them after to avoid dealing with areas that don’t stain well because of glue.

We stained ours Minwax True Black and sealed it with three coats of Matte Polycrylic.

The plywood only needed one coat of True Black stain, but we added a second coat to any solid oak boards to get them to be a darker, more consistent color. Check out more tips to get the best stain finish.

STEP 15: FINISH THE DOORS

Make sure to grab some strong glue that dries clear for this step.

First, glue your 1/2″ dowel halfway down on the side of your door that has the hinges on the back. Then glue a 2.5″ dowel in the top and bottom corners of the other side. They should be flush with the sides and top/bottom respectively.

Let those sit for at least 15 minutes before moving on.

Now that the glue has partially set, you can clamp two straight boards to your doors. These will be your guide as to where to place your dowels. They will give you consistent spacing.

Clamp them so that they are lined up with the top/bottom of the middle dowel and the edge of the top/bottom dowel on the other side.

Then start gluing your dowels into place. Keep your dowels straight and lined up with the spare boards you clamped as guides.

If your 13 dowels that aren’t 2.5″ aren’t quite long enough to hit the edge of both of the scrap boards, center them up on the one placed before it.

When you get where there is only 5-8 dowels required for each side, mock up the spacing of the remaining dowels before gluing. You might find that you can squeeze in all 32 dowels, or you might find that you can only fit 31 and need to space them out slightly to avoid an awkward sided gap at the end.

Once all the dowels are glued in place, it’s time to add your handles. We just glued ours with Titebond II. Position them so that they are centered and so that the dowel lines up with the side of the door. Clamp for at least 30 minutes, but ideally, let the handles stay clamped overnight.

STEP 16: HANG THE DOORS

Once everything is nice and dry, you can re-install and adjust your doors. I always recommend getting the 3-way adjustable hinges so that you can the doors hung up exactly how you want them.

We were so impressed with these hinges. They’re adjustable and super soft close!

STEP 17: ADD THE BACK

Before installing, you can use a 1.5″ drill bit to add holes in the back of your TV console. These are great for running cables and wires through the TV console to hook up to the TV itself.

To install the back, start by installing your 1×2 blocks. Add one to each corner of the TV console, making sure to inset them 1/4″. We just glued ours in place and left them clamped for an hour before continuing.

Then nail your 1/4″ plywood back to the 1×2 blocks and to the back of the middle support boards.

There you have it! Now you know how to make your very own DIY media cabinet. I love that you can keep it sleek and modern or add some fun detail to the door to make it really one-of-a-kind!

If you are looking for another DIY TV console plan, check out these plans. They’re one of the most popular plans on our website!