[Fran Lu]

I will be finishing my basement where my home theater set up will reside. However, here is my dilemma:

I have two support posts that are roughly 6' apart. I will be recessing the wall in between these two posts to accommodate my Plasma as well as my speakers and reciever. My initial thought is to build a 4-foot wide shelving unit to house my receiver and DVD, as well as use as a base to place my center channel speaker. On either side will be for the two speakers and stands. All the wiring will be run through the wall and the rears of the equipment accessible on the other side of the wall.

However, I have a 2-year old who, as I'm sure you all can guess, likes to get into things. I could place glass doors in front of the 4-foot shelving unit, but it's a bit of a pain to always have to open the door to access the DVD player to change discs. So, I would love to move the shelving up if possible so she's not messing with everything. The only other place that I might be able to house my receiver and DVD would be to the right of one of the posts. The only issue there is that on the other side of the wall is the laundry room - more importantly, the dryer is right there. Ideally, I would put a removable access panel to minimize the dust and such, but am not sure how "dust-tight" that will be. I'm not exactly sure how excited I am about having a ton of dust and lint in such close proximity to nice equipment.

Reason that I want built-in shelving that is flush with the wall is because space is a premium. I can't put anything to the left of the other post, as there's a door there into the laundry/storage room.

So, what suggestions do you guys have? Glass door and call it a day?

[Torgny Nilsson]

I suggest that you find a shelf system on casters that will allow you to hook up all your components and then just roll the whole thing into place in the recessed nook you mention. I got a "Manhattan Shelf" from roomandboard.com that works great, but it is steel and about 7 feet wide, though I think they make a more narrow one. It makes it a breeze to connect components, swap components, etc.

As to the glass issue, I have the same problem with my kids. But I decided to just risk it. They have never caused any real damage and I hate the idea of glass doors that I have to open each time I want to insert a cd or dvd.

Good luck.