Thanks, Teresa. Would love to see photos of your home. I'll have to do a search later. Squirrel, it is antique pine. I do not cut directly on the counter at all. When needed, I use a cutting boards either on the island or next to the range. Don't cut directly on the granite either. We are good about wiping away water splatters after washing hands or dishes. I have never left a glass sitting on the counter overnight, so I don't know what that would do. The guys just asked me about that when they were here installing the tv cover. The pine is finished with Good Stuff for Wood which is FDA approved for food prep surfaces. I order from the below link. Have only recoated twice in 27mths. I clean the island with a damp sponge and have started using Lysol wipes too. Here is a link that might be useful: Good Stuff for Wood

So apparently my email notifications still don't work. They never have, actually. Anyway, some replies and thoughts: It's not symmetrical now; there's a door to the left of the fireplace. I had a fixed lens on my camera for that pic, so I'll try to get a wider shot later. I can't do any of those lovely symmetrical built-in ideas we see in bungalow pictures. There's no (good) way to get electricity above the mantel. So a permanent TV there is basically out. On the other hand, there's an outlet in the floor directly under that high window, perfect for wiring a built-in. The chair is sticking 10-15" into the doorway already, depending on the angle. It's not really a problem (it's a wide french door) and it's really worth having a chair there. 6 more inches might make it a problem though. You're right - a shallow cupboard doesn't look as odd because the depth can't be easily seen. The lack of one on the other side of the fireplace gives it away a bit, though. It's not, I don't think, an awkward spot for the TV. The picture above was taken over the corner of an L-shaped sectional. So the sectional is basically facing that corner. I suspect this is an improvement that would be appreciated, not removed, by a future owner. Most people want TVs in the living room, and the over-the-fireplace is going to be difficult for anyone. (It's an exterior masonry wall, plus the chimney is there.) And a well-done built-in would really add to the character of the house. Any sort of sound system is going to be really awkward with the TV in the corner. Probably would have to just deal with the TV's built-in sound. It would be nice if the TV was actually in the corner, at an angle, when in use. I'll have to think about if that can be done with some clever slides or something. I wonder if I'm deluding myself about the occasional-ness of use. Maybe I'd watch TV more if there were one in our cozy living room. Maybe that's a bad thing! (edit, I just measured and the bricks are 9" from the wall. 6" is probably the smallest I could make a cabinet to house a TV but I could go slightly deeper.) This post was edited by elofgren on Thu, Jul 18, 13 at 12:37

We had a similar situation when we moved into our home, with the placement of the windows on one side and doorway on the other. We have a two-story ceiling in our family room and the proportions were a challenge for me. After looking at many consoles and media centers, we decided on a built in wall unit that we could match to the existing trim and wasn't much more than some of those modular console sets. It was nice to be able to decide on the dimensions with our taller ceiling and while it took longer to have it built and installed, we don't regret it at all. The electronic components are "hidden" in the cabinets and we got some additional lighting into the room by putting lights in the top part of the unit. I can totally relate to not being able to find the exact kind or size of cabinets you're looking for, so if you can find a cabinet maker in your area, maybe you could compare that quote to the price of some of the units you've found that would also work in your home. Good luck!

How do you feel about barn doors? Totally get it if it's not your thing, but that would be an inexpensive way to do the doors, at least. You'd need your shelves to be 2x the TV cabinet width - or you could do bypass barn doors, but that's trickier. I also wanted to do something similar to hide our TV, and I thought sliding doors might work for us (they cover whatever cabinet they're in front of), but you'd need 2x TV cab width for that for sure. This is what I was thinking for ours (sorry for the link to a blog): https://jenwoodhouse.com/modern-sliding-door-entertainment-center/  Your other option would be to have the cabinet company just do bookshelves on either side and leave the TV space open. The bookshelves would be pretty inexpensive, I think. You'd just need to figure out how to cover the TV space. You could mount shelves above the TV on the wall if you wanted to fill that space. Just spitballing here, but those are some ideas.