First thing to determine is how much of the EC is actually wood. If you have part of the EC made of a laminated board, it won't stain, but can be painted. If you build furniture and are familiar with stain, then sanding, prep, stain and top coat will be a major undertaking. If you don't build furniture, then the job will be a major undertaking and then some. I envision 5 piece EC as being large. Me personally, if you can't live with the golden oak, then paint it. If you have to stain it, let a professional do it, or consider selling the EC and buying a new one that is the color of your liking. Painting over stain is a challenge because it is hard to get paint to stick to the existing finish. That is my short answer, the long answer is to long for this forum. If you decide to paint it, go to a reputable paint store like Sherwin Williams and get instructions from them on how to paint over an existing finish. Good luck!

Wow I LOVE all these perspectives! My DH just wants 1 - keep it for a Long Time, 2 - must hold ALL components with plenty of air circulations and no glass, 3 - I do not complain once we have whatever solution we decide ;-) As much as I like the IDEA of upcycling/re-purposing some cool item from CL -- and I do love much of what I see people create -- my DH is not really interested and I do not have the stick-with-it-ness to do the work in a timely manner (we have a 5 and 9 yo, very busy boys) OR the VISION to hone in on exactly the right item and create the perfect solution. The red wicker dresser we currently use WAS an attempt at re-purposing a CL item. I painted the dresser and bought a custom glass top. I thought a dresser would be great because of all the storage. I thought red would be great to add fun color/eclectic-ness to the room It just really isn't working (for me, DH doesn't love it but it generally meets his criteria). And before that, we had bought a CL oak stereo component cabinet that I tried to stain (fail), then paint (better) but then it had smoked glass doors and DH didn't want to use the doors...and, honestly, it was fugly and unbalanced since we only had the one. In fact, the only CL furniture I've been truly happy with are our bed, my kids' beds, and a very small buffet that is perfect for our small house. BUT -- the buffet was a project piece that I never even started, just use it as-is. I bet I bought it about 10 years ago now. I even posted about it here on the Decorating Forum and got some amazing ideas for how to fix it up! I love it because the back is finished so it doesn't have to sit against a wall (though right now it is). We started to take off the door hinges, and that's it. I believe one door has only one, instead of two, hinges. It's so crazy...I couldn't get started on the project and then decided we needed the storage so put things into it "temporarily" but never did anything beyond clean it. I just start more and more and more and more...anyway I digress (oh I hope my DH doesn't tell me I have to do that buffet project before we can do the living room, but he might!!!) Tibbrix -- Built-ins would be cool, but we've poured too much money into permanent things for this house when I really hope to move. I do not see this place as a forever-home. I just want the room to feel a bit more spacious, look more balanced, and have less clutter and less in-your-face components. mtnrdredux -- I do see them on CL -- a LOT -- but generally they look like they would be kind of dominating. After looking more carefully at the examples I've seen on Houzz that I like...I do not think they are standard entertainment centers. The space for tv is large. Here are some examples of what I thought looked nice: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/ocean-club-sliding-door-point-break-entertainment-chest-contemporary-living-room-miami-phvw-vp~21520095) [Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Pompano Beach Furniture & Accessories Baer's Furniture [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/entertainment-paint-grade-traditional-family-room-dc-metro-phvw-vp~448127) [Traditional Family Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-family-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_720~s_2107) by Church Hill Cabinets & Cabinetry Kent Cabinetry and Millwork Inc I suspect these are all either custom and/or built-in. tinam61 -- In comparison to the rest of the room, the wall that I'd want to put an entertainment center or media console IS a big space...it's the largest open wall space in our house. But the room is pretty narrow, so I worry that a large unit will just make the room feel even narrower. We're planning to remove the carpet and install wood or bamboo flooring, and I want the direction to be oriented to make the room feel a little wider :-) (this will all be part of re-doing the whole room). robin_dc -- the open shelf space is tall enough for everything (assuming the Wii can lay on it's side, maybe it can't). I think DH wants to replace the Wii with something else in the future, guess we'll have to make sure it can also lay on it's side! I love your suggestion of a mock-up...I'm going to start hanging onto boxes to make a mock-up. I've made so many poor furniture choices for that room (the dresser, the couch and chair that are too big for the space...other things that aren't in there any more). The coffee table DH hates, says it's a piece of trash (it was sort of trash)...not sure if it's going to stay or go, but right now it's taken the place of the piano because it needs to hold some of the electronics :-P I'm the kind of person who can't really know if something works or not unless it's actually in the space. That's pretty much a detriment to interior decorating! Do you have any advice on how I can decide if the scale is okay? AnnieDeighnaugh -- That's a pretty nice guest room! I do feel like the EC dominates the wall, though, and I could see that being an issue if we go that route. I'm definitely leaning toward a console type solution at this point (since I'm ruling out built-in/custom). arcy -- sounds like a really nice piece! I started a s/o thread, really leaning toward the long/low media console idea and now I want to be sure I get the correctly proportioned piece :-) Here is a link that might be useful: s/o thread This post was edited by melle_sacto on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 13:25

It all looks really nice so far! A cheap diy to get a moon gate ring/garden arch is to buy a used hay ring off Craigslist in the "farm and garden section" and use it for your garden. I've seen them as cheap as $40 around here but I live in a area with a lot of horses etc. They look like this (see link). You just bury part of it or cement it in. They are big and heavy duty. You will need a truck to haul them in. https://www.google.com/search?q=hay+ring&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=638&tbm=isch&imgil=5Jz4J9PD6VwnJM%253A%253BrbzJJTeADn1cZM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.fivestarmfginc.com%25252Fhay-ring.htm&source=iu&pf=m&fir=5Jz4J9PD6VwnJM%253A%252CrbzJJTeADn1cZM%252C_&usg=__6I28hO9E6aETRk3QS8nBj09vglA%3D&ved=0ahUKEwiJ68GOqKLQAhUJjFQKHQ3cA7sQyjcIfA&ei=gpEmWImiKomY0gKNuI_YCw#imgrc=5Jz4J9PD6VwnJM%3A

Ah, I don't see the disharmony between the floor and the furniture you have shown us, on my monitor. The light oak floor is very neutral IMO. The way people get into trouble with mixing woods seems to be when they try to bring in the driftwood, the grays, the artificial white, or the very red. Those shades are pickier about playing nicely with natural wood tones. I have an oak floor that was left natural when refinished, but has darkened to more golden (some would call it orangish) tones over the past 20 years. Still, it is living happily with my 1930s era mahogany dining pieces, my very very old, very dark wood secretary, my 1990s ash wood table, dark cherry end tables, and so forth. However, that is just my opinion - and my house -- if you feel that the wood elements are disharmonious, or the floor color is ugly to you, of course you can restain. But, to preserve the prairie feel of your house, I wouldn't make any drastic color change (like going very dark) -- just tweak the tone to one that works better for you.