Media Console

As you can see in this picture:

There's a lot going on in the family room. A lot of woods, in a lot of different tones. Our (obvious) tendency is to choose dark woods because we both prefer the look over that of a natural pine or oak or something. For us at least. In this corner of the house, there's currently the dark ash of the hardwood, the rustic-y pine of the media console and the golden oak of the mantle. Not too far away is the Pier 1 stool I gushed about yesterday, the dark couches and hopefully one day soon, a nice area rug to lighten the space up.

Eventually, we're going to rip the mantle and black tile down, install stone along that middle section and put a big honkin' plank mantle across it.

Sort of a combo of these 2 pics:

(Obviously with different decor, it's just hard to find pics of what I mean and I'm not an 80 year old living on a farm)

Anyways, that's in the future and not really related to this post, but it just gives indication of the direction we're going.

So...although tremendously practical, the current media console just isn't very pretty in that space. Hubs and I both like the idea of a corner unit there, but it'll need to be shorter to account for the window. The other night we were chatting about it and he or I or both came up with the idea that we could make it ourselves! Brilliant!

Hubs has proven himself very handy, so as long as we allot the project sufficient time so he doesn't get sick of it and just "get it done" I'm sure it'll come out great.

Here's the current console close up:

Which currently holds and will need to continue to hold our stereo equipment, DVDs and CDs as well as another piece of equipment that will control our built-in speakers once we ever get them hooked up. Although it would be great to house some books and other things in there, there just won't be enough room once we shrink it down a bit.

Our thoughts are a cross-inspiration of the current console as well as the new stools in the room. (Is it clear yet how much we love them?).

Here's the idea board I've been working on:

It's similar in idea to the current one, and basically the same in shape, just shorter.

We've added a drawer to house remotes, etc.

There will be doors so everything won't be on display as soon as you walk into the living space. The doors will have a wooden frame with a panel of dark wicker or rattan in the middle to tie it into the room even more (An example of which is that big patch of dark on the right hand side of the image).

Also, if it wasn't already painfully obvious, we'll be staining it a dark brown. Good lawd we need that area rug soon! (PS-have you any idea how expensive area rugs are? Sheesh!)

Clearly, we don't know what direction to go with the handles though.

The alternative, of course, is to sand and stain the current one a darker stain, and put doors on it (ideally). Then just forego the drawer and use a basket for remotes and stuff like that. I'm certainly not opposed to that idea, and God knows hubs and I have a bit of experience refinishing wooden pieces (our whole dining room set), so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. We'll see though-that may have to be the temporary solution until we have the time and budget to build one properly.

Thoughts???