Furniture maker Jim Moose designs a tansu-style entertainment center.

This tansu entertainment center was fabricated with solid cherry and finished with Moser Danish Oil and Minwax paste wax.

Jim Moose of Moosewood Furniture located in New Castle, PA, created an entertainment center in the design of a tansu, a Japanese-style chest.

Moose says that he has always been intrigued by curves and Oriental furniture. He came up with this design because the client had a large master bedroom and wanted one piece of furniture to replace a pair of dressers and an entertainment center. “It was to be the visual counterweight to a king-sized walnut bed,” Moose adds.

The tansu design was a natural choice because according to Moose, it has historically been one of the focal points of the home.

This particular piece is fabricated with solid cherry with ½-inch birch plywood in the back for structural support. It is finished with Moser Danish Oil and with a Minwax paste wax. The unit has three sections: the base, the drawer units and the TV case. The TV case houses a 42-inch rear-projection TV. “The sides are constructed of 22, 2-inch-wide boards, cut one-degree out of square and edge-glued with an internal battan,” Moose explains. “Each side is grain matched, the interior side shelves actually brace the curve. The bi-fold doors are grain matched side to side with applied horizontal moulding, and the vertical moulding covers a piano hinge.”

Moose says that the center medallion of the entertainment center is fabricated from curly cherry.

“There are 16 pieces, dry jointed and butterflied front and back. This is basically a circular raised panel, split and overlapped. The round moulding is lap-jointed and screwed to the door,” he says.

A unique feature is that the TV case is designed for air movement. Moose says that there is a 1-½-inch air space between the drawer cases and the top that allows air to enter a slot in the TV case floor, and the top of the TV case has a series of holes for the hot air to exit.