Wall-Mounted Mid-Century Modern TV Cabinet Build

Today I’m building a wall-mounted mid-century modern TV cabinet.

It Starts With the Wood

Before I cut a single board, I spent time just laying everything out and looking at the grain. This is one of those things that separates an okay project from a really good one. Getting the grain direction right and making sure it flows nicely between boards all matter for a good custom furniture design to take shape.

Since this is a modern, clean design, I also paid close attention to sapwood. Sapwood gives you a more rustic, natural look, which is great for some projects, but not this one. I cut around it wherever I could, and any board that had a lot of it got faced to the inside, where it wouldn’t be seen.  Walnut boards inherently have a fair amount of sapwood.

When I ran the boards through the planer, I favored taking more off the sapwood side rather than splitting it evenly, which I know goes against the usual advice. But sapwood is less stable than heartwood, and in practice, I’ve never had a problem doing it this way. The boards still come out flat.

Glue-Up and Milling

Once the boards were milled and squared, I did a standard long-grain glue-up for the panels. I used dominoes, not for strength really, but just to keep everything aligned while the glue set on those long boards.

One habit I’ve built is always leaving a little extra width on a glued-up panel. That way, I can run it over the jointer one last time and then trim it at the table saw to get it perfectly square and exactly to width.

Cutting Parts to Final Size

When I cut the parts to the final length, I ran into a small issue with my miter gauge fence, which was a bit short for the longer pieces. The fix was simple: I attached a stop block to the fence and positioned it so the workpiece clears it before the blade engages. No binding, no kickback risk, and I get a consistent length every time, especially when I’m cutting multiples.

For the miters, I wanted table-saw-accurate cuts, so I used the same glue block method I’ve used on past projects. It gives me a bigger reference surface to ride the fence on, which makes a real difference on long, awkward parts.

Details That Make the Design

Before assembly, I added a small decorative back bevel to catch the light. I used an auxiliary fence here to give the cutoff somewhere to go so it doesn’t get pinched between the fence and the blade.

For joinery, I used floating tenons throughout; appropriate for a true mid-century modern piece. I worked my way around the whole cabinet, plunging mortises with the Domino. My twin turbo vice was perfect for this kind of work, wide jaws, solid clamping, no fuss.

Test Fits and Assembly Order

I always do dry test fits as I go. Not just to check that things are square and snug, but to work out the order of operations before glue is involved. Once you’ve got glue spread, it’s not the time to be figuring out which clamp goes where.

I glued it up in subassemblies, starting with the end divider, which makes the whole process a lot more manageable. For the miter joints, I used CA glue to attach clamping blocks at 45 degrees so I could get a clean 90-degree pull from my clamps. When the glue dried, a tap with a hammer popped them right off.

The Back, the Dado, and the French Cleat

I cut a dado all the way around the back of the case to house the French cleat and the backer boards. This hides the wall behind the TV so you’re not seeing drywall framing it.

To keep the tear-out clean, I scored along the cut lines with a marking knife before routing. I also made a custom base plate for the router so I had more surface area on the narrow edge — steadier cut, less chance of tipping. I took it in several shallow passes down to final depth, then cleaned up the corners with a chisel.

For the back frame, I did a subassembly before fitting it into the case. It’s a long piece, so I had to use clamp extenders — basically a way to link two bar clamps together end-to-end. The French cleat itself is about a half inch thick, ripped down so it sits flush behind the frame, completely hidden. The wall-side cleat rests in that recess, and the whole mounting system disappears.

Decorative Shelves in Wenge

For the accent shelves on the ends, I used wenge. These shelves wrap around the front of the divider, so I cut a notch at the table saw and finished the inside corner at the bandsaw to get a clean 90.

I pre-finished all the parts before final assembly and taped off the glue areas. Gluing onto a finished surface doesn’t bond well, so that extra step is worth it. The shelves dropped right into their dados, and I put a couple of brad nails in the back to hold things tight since there’s no dado on that end. The nail holes got filled with black filler that disappears right into the dark streaks in the wenge.

The Finished Piece

And that’s it. A clean, wall-mounted mid-century modern TV cabinet built entirely with floating tenons, with wenge accents and a hidden French cleat mount. The whole thing comes together from careful grain selection at the start to those small finishing details at the end, and that’s really what makes it work.  Custom furniture built in Colorado and shipped to Las Vegas.

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