We have been working on our house for a few years now, and are now trying to wrap up the last room, the family room. Originally we wanted just tower built-in's on each side of the fireplace to hold A/V equipment (receiver, disc player, game console, etc), but it didn't look right with the cathedral ceiling. Now we are leaning toward just lower built-ins. The room is measures 20' wide by 15' deep. The main reason for the thought of built-ins was to house this AV equipment and for a place for bookshelf speakers to sit. The extra storage would be nice too.

Bids from a couple cabinet makers show 3 cabinets on each side of the fireplace, each with two doors. We plan on having the inner-most pair of doors fitted with decorative metal/mesh to allow ventilation for the electronics. Each cabinet measures 26.5" wide. Things I'm struggling with right now are:

1) Is six cabinet doors on each side too much? The inner ones would have the decorative metal inserts.

2) Would drawers be a good addition for media storage, and if so, should each section just have 3 equal-size drawers? My wife is leery of having more "junk drawers" form in the house, but we do have a legitimate need for them (movie disk storage, game console accessories, etc.).

3) We wanted to just do lowers now and figure we could always add uppers later on if needed. Is this a good idea?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! Thank you!!