Home Entertainment Steps

Intro

Leading you to…
the perfect entertainment center design, balancing style, functionality and cost.
We have designed and built hundreds of entertainment centers, each one unique and carefully designed by working closely with each customer. Allow us to share our vast experience with you, so that you can learn and benefit from our experience and that of our hundreds of customers:
Let’s get started!
Simply follow our thirteen easy steps, viewing our photographed examples as you go, and answer the listed questions. Then, provide us with the dimensions of your space (or call us for a house call to take measurements) - and we will develop design drawings for you. Through discussions with you, we will improve the design until you tell us it is perfect for you. We will then send you a priced proposal, with detailed specifications, offering to build exactly what you want!
(We do all this at our expense and our risk. Whether or not you place an order, our reward is the knowledge that we have educated one more family as to MAPLETREE’s vastly superior service and capabilities, knowing that you will be telling your friends about us and that you will contact us for any future furniture needs. This is the only reimbursement we expect. Our mission is the building of good, long-lasting relationships in our community and we have proven that this approach is a win-win, in the long term.)
As you proceed along the thirteen steps, click on the links to our Photo Gallery to see examples of design elements that you can incorporate in your entertainment center and to help you make decisions as to what is best for you. (The linked images will allow you to return to these Design Steps - to continue the design process.)
After you walk through the Design Steps, e-mail us the results and give us fifteen minutes on the phone with a tape measure and we can talk you through the dimensions we need – or call us to schedule a house call. (In either case, after our initial quotation, we always visit the home before a customer order, to check dimensions, optimize the design, and make any necessary adjustments.) However, to start the design process, this is typically not necessary, as our extensive experience usually enables us to envision and sketch your space by means of a teleconference and your tape measure. Test us! We will pleasantly surprise you!
*We have recently launched this upgraded site and are still in the process of finalizing this section. Please bear with us: There are a few examples, links, and photos to be added soon.

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STEP ONE: DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE
It is important to “FUTURE-PROOF” entertainment center cabinets, by designing them to accommodate future needs as well as your immediate ones. Here, our vast experience comes into play. Our designs achieve this goal by (a) allowing room for expansion; (b) providing for future additions; and (c) providing for future conversion. Remember that your furniture (if built to MapleTree standards) will last for generations, while audio-video technology is rapidly changing. Let’s make sure that your great grandchildren praise you for looking ahead! Here are four examples of “future-proofing” parameters that we consider in designing entertainment centers:
A. Plan to accommodate larger televisions in the future, allowing room to grow (Santilli).
B. Plan to accommodate different types of televisions. Our cabinets can convert from floor-based big-screen televisions to table top televisions, plasma televisions and LCD televisions. (Santilli)
C. We can hide the expansion space (around the television) with an attractive snap-on removable wooden frame that you can remove or replace when you buy a larger television. Our customers call us when they get larger televisions, and we fabricate a new, thinner frame to suit. (Druggs)
D. Even if you do not have “surround-sound” now, we can design your cabinet so that you can later accommodate a subwoofer, center channel, left channel and right channel. This can be done either by providing space in the cabinet or by designing the cabinet for future additions.
E. Whenever possible, we make provisions for future additional components and games.
F. We recommend designing entertainment centers for future different functionalities (in whole or in part), such as storage armoires, wine-serving centers, and curio cabinets, to give you maximum flexibility and to make your investment as sound as possible.
Remember that MapleTree’s furniture will last for centuries and, in the future, you (or your heirs) don’t want to be saddled with a piece of furniture that only fits antiquated equipment.

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STEP TWO: LOCATION
What is the best place for your television? Which way should it be oriented?
If you have not already decided this, or if you would like us to apply our experience to confirm your planned location, we can help - by developing an overall plan of your room and experimenting (on paper!) with different television locations and orientations – and different seating arrangements. Our AUTOCAD drafting software makes it easy for us to do this. Here are a few of the parameters that we consider in determining a television’s optimal location and orientation:
A. Seating Arrangements: Ideally, the locations of sofas and chairs should be suitable both for conversation (without the intrusion of a television) and for television viewing.
B. Number of viewers: Design both for viewing by two people (husband and wife) as well as by larger groups. This can be achieved by allowing the television to swivel.
C. Expanded viewing: People often want to be able to watch the family room’s television from the kitchen.
D. Traffic corridors and traffic patterns: Site the television so that traffic does not cross between the television and its viewers. Avoid constricting doorways with cabinets in close proximity.
E. Fireplace considerations: We have designed so many cabinets to accommodate televisions and fireplaces that this website has a section dedicated to “Televisions with Fireplaces”, to enlighten you as to the variety of possible approaches.
F. Window locations: Consider (a) avoiding window “glare”; (b) avoiding the blocking of window lighting by adjacent cabinetry.
G. Room architecture: Consider locations of bulkheads. Avoid a “crammed” look (Goitz Entertainment Center)
H. “Centerpiece” considerations: Do you want the entertainment center to be a dramatic attractive centerpiece in the room (Megaludis Entertainment Center) or do you want to downplay the television, making it subtly “dissolve” into the woodwork (Dickenson Entertainment Center)?

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STEP THREE: FIREPLACE ON THE SCENE?
Skip to the next Design Step if there is no fireplace in the vicinity of the television.
Our design drawings will help you to find the optimal location for your television. We will develop design drawings for the various different locations that are likely candidates. The decision will be driven, in part, by the spaces you have available beside the fireplace, and the size of the television you wish to fit, now and in the future. But first, to help you to decide which is best for you, view the examples that are linked below. Then, in the next Design Step, we will separately address the options of (a) freestanding furniture and (b) built-in cabinetry. In the case of the former, we recommend that we design the cabinetry so that, in the future, you can re-orient the cabinet and/or the television.
Here are the most popular television locations and orientations, with links to photographed examples:
A. TV over the mantel (Jochem, Jewell, Berger, Priebel, Eckels, Morreale).
B. TV beside the fireplace, in a free-standing cabinet (Cesario).
C. TV beside the fireplace, in built-in cabinetry (Corsi, Wolfe, Santilli, McCarthy).
D. TV on side, wall perpendicular to the fireplace (Santilli-original).
For Options A, B and C, we typically develop designs that provide left/right symmetry, with matching cabinets on the left and right sides of the fireplace. This can be achieved even if the television cabinet is angled, while the opposite cabinet is parallel to the fireplace wall.

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STEP FOUR: FREE-STANDING OR BUILT-IN?
You actually have four options, not just two! They are as follows:
A. FREE-STANDING FURNITURE
B. 100% BUILT-IN
C. COMBINATION OF FREE-STANDING and BUILT-IN, and
D. “APPARENTLY BUILT-IN” (Looks built-in, but you can take it with you!)
Think this over carefully, because many people, at first, think that they want “built-in” cabinetry, but later find that MAPLETREE’s “Apparently Built-in” (built-in, but easily removable) is a better investment. We can build your entertainment center so that it can be relocated to another home in the future, while appearing to be permanently “built-in”. For examples of our “Apparently Built-In” option, view Dickenson Entertainment Center. If you like this approach, select “D” in our Design Request Form.
Why is this a wise approach? What if a future buyer of your home wants to use the room for another purpose? What if he or she has completely different tastes (e.g. traditional versus contemporary)? What if your son or daughter wants to (eventually!) inherit your home entertainment center to take to his or her home? What if you eventually move, and want to take your entertainment center with you? We consider it our duty to look after your long-term interests as well as your short-term needs, and so we ask questions that you may not have considered and we strive to ”future-proof” your design, making it flexible for the future.
In Pennsylvania, the securing of cabinetry to your house walls, no matter how minimal and removable the attachment is, allows us to tax only the materials component of the furniture, resulting in great savings in sales tax, while still enabling you to relocate the furniture in the future.
Perhaps your requirements necessitate having some of the cabinetry permanently built-in. “Option C” is the answer for you, with some components built-in and others transportable. For examples, view Berger Plasma-Over-Mantel and Eckels Plasma-Over-Mantel. For these projects, we provided free-standing component cabinets, in the form of free-standing pieces of furniture.
All MAPLETREE entertainment centers are completely pre-assembled in our shop, and then re-assembled in your home, typically taking less than a half-day to install. If you live out of state, we make it easy for local installers to install our home offices or we can arrange for affiliated firms to deliver and assemble your MapleTree furniture.
Of course, if the only option that makes sense is a 100% built-in approach, you have come to the right place! For examples of our permanently built-in entertainment centers, view McCarthy Fireplace Cabinets, Wolfe TV-Fireplace Cabinets, Santilli TV-Fireplace Cabinets and Morreale TV-Fireplace Cabinets. For these applications, we suggest a design that is classic and timeless, and not overly ornate or overly “contemporary”, so that the built-in is universally appealing, becoming a value-added asset to your home.

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STEP FIVE: CABINET CONTENTS
A. Television, Components and Speakers
• Use our Components Checklist to give us the data that we need to develop your design drawings. Our drawings will show the television that you are considering placing in the cabinet. (Good sources for TV shopping are www.BestBuy.com and www.Sony.com. These sites provide dimensions of televisions.)
• We design for the largest available size of each type of component, to give you flexibility, so we don’t need these dimensions, unless you are severely restricted in available space.
• Don’t have the time to fill out the Components Checklist?! If you are working with an audio/video firm, put us in contact with your contact and we will work with him or her. Or, give us a call and we can talk you through the key questions in a few minutes over the phone.
• Can’t specify the television size until you know what size television will fit in the available space?! This is a common roadblock, and we can help. Please refer to the next Design Step.
B. Display Areas for Curios, Books, Photographs, Collectibles
Let us know how much display space you would like, or how much wall space you want to fill. For examples of the integration of display areas and entertainment centers,view Wilder, Shah, Dickenson.
C. Media Storage: We offer fully-extending drawers to hold your DVD’s, CD’s, VHS tapes, etc. in an organized manner. View Elliott Entertainment Center.
D. Covered storage: How much covered storage space do you need?
E. Other Uses: We have incorporated wine bottles, wine bars, wine chillers, refrigerators, and much more in our entertainment centers! (Santilli, Combination Entertainment Center and Wine Bar)

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STEP SIX: MAXIMUM TV SIZE?
Skip this step if it is not relevant to your situation.
Especially in the case of televisions in corners, between doorways and windows, we are often asked, “What size television can I fit in our space?” (We have found that husbands usually want the biggest television that will fit - and we are accustomed to helping husbands and wives arrive at a “win-win” resolution of any difference of opinion!) Tell us the space that you have available and we can answer this question, showing the largest television in our drawing. For an example, view the Horvath Corner Cabinet.

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STEP SEVEN: CABINET TYPE
What Entertainment Center configuration best suits you?
Options include:
A. Low Television Stand, housing components (Walters, Stover,).
B. Component cabinet, for wall-mounted plasma/LCD televisions (DiStazio Plasma, Glover Plasma, Priebel Plasma).
C. Single Cabinet, housing television and components (Bamonte, Hanselman).
D. Corner Unit, Single Cabinet (Douglas Corner Cabinet, Kornick Corner Cabinet, Horvath Corner Cabinet, Marucci Corner Cabinet) These cabinets can be angled as required, and need not only be at 45 degrees.
E. Corner Unit, Triple Cabinets (Home Show model, with drawing).
F. Corner Unit, Wraparound: Dickenson
G. Convertibles: Corner units convertible to straight units (Jane Wolf)
H. Triple Cabinets – Television in center, with symmetrical flanking cabinets (Sandonato, Martelli, Jessica Glover, Wilder, Santilli, Hilliard)
I. Five-piece Wall System
J. Built-In
K. Televisions with Fireplaces (See Design Step 3)

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STEP EIGHT: STYLE
We are known for our creativity, versatility and ability to read minds! We design in styles that range from those listed below and extend to “NEVER BEEN TRIED BEFORE!” We can also match any existing piece of furniture that you own – or have seen somewhere. Challenge us! Try to describe what you have in mind, or give us some links to websites that are close to what you’re seeking.
Our final design for you will be unique (your own personal style), but, to enable us to get started, tell us which of the following is closest to the style you would like:
A. Traditional (Milano)
B. Contemporary (Jones Entertainment Center, McGarry Entertainment Center, Glover Plasma TV Cabinet,)
C. Classic/Timeless (integrates with a wide variety of styles) (Martelli, Sandonato, Jessica Glover)
D. Ornate (Megaludis)
E. Mission
F. Early American (Bamonte)
G. Other

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STEP NINE: VENTILATION DESIGN
Your cabinet must be designed to remove the heat that is generated by components. This is achieved by a combination of (a) enabling hot air to exhaust; and (b) enabling cool replacement air to enter the cabinet.
Our cabinets are designed with “virtual” chimneys” (in the rear) that generate convection currents that carry hot air up and out, simultaneously drawing cool air in at the bottom, so that your components are constantly flushed with cool air. Without this ventilation planning, your components will overheat, causing interruptions in operation and/or damage, shortening their life spans. In some cases, where needed, we provide ventilation fans to increase the flow of exhausted hot air.
Our shelves are shaped to create a virtual chimney in the rear (sketch). This also provides room for cable interconnections. For air exhaust, in built-in cabinets, we provide louvered outlets in the cabinet tops. For cool air intake, we provide hidden slots in the baseboard or decorative openings in the baseboard. For freestanding cabinets (with a gap between the house wall and the cabinet back, we provide air exhaust and intake ports in the backs of the cabinets.

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STEP ELEVEN: SUBWOOFER ACCOMMODATION
The rigidity of MapleTree’s constructions enables us to locate your subwoofer on the cabinet floor – or even on the top of the cabinet! Some people prefer the subwoofer to be located on the house floor, and, for these applications, we provide an opening in the cabinet floor. (This also allows you to fit larger subwoofers in your cabinet!) Subwoofers can fire out the front of the cabinet (through a door with a grill-cloth panel) or through the side of the cabinet, through a grill-cloth panel in the cabinet side (Hilliard, Krebs).

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STEP TWELVE: SPEAKERS’ ACCOMMODATION
Ideally, the center channel, left channel and right channel should be approximately in the same horizontal plane, so that in movies with movement from side to side, the sound does not appear to spike up or drop as the speaker allocation moves from side to side. We can hide speakers behind black grill cloth (See Arians ) or the speakers can be in view on open shelves (see Matty)