The middle of the 20th century produced a revolution in understated stylish consumer design, some of which lives on today. The reality of living in a 1950s or ’60s house was probably to be surrounded by the usual mess of possessions from many past decades, but the promise was of a beautiful sleek and futuristic living space. Central to this in most homes would have been the TV set, and manufacturers followed the trends of the age with cases that are now iconic. Here in 2026 we put up with black rectangles, but fortunately there’s Cordova Woodworking with a modern take on a retro TV cabinet.
We’ve put the build video below, and it’s a wonderfully watchable piece of workshop titillation in a fully-equipped modern shop. While we appreciate they’ve put the design up for sale, we think many Hackaday readers could come up with their own having already been inspired. One thing we notice over the originals is that they use “proper” wood for their case, when we know the ’60s version would have had veneer-faced ply or chipboard.
The result is a piece of furniture which nicely contains the modern TV and accessories, but doesn’t weigh a ton or dominate the room in the way one of the originals would have, much less emit that evocative phenolic hot-electronics smell. We’d have one in our living room right now. Meanwhile if you’d like a wallow in mid-century TV, we have you covered.
Kinda neat. Throw an orange or green 1970s knit runner cloth over the top.
Nice retro, nice “how to be good carpenter”. I only miss live screen on in the video. And of course the cloth and maybe a flower pot on the top.
The empty space inside could host a toaster…
that empty space is theoretically prime real estate. many years ago when i replaced my twin 19 inch CRTs with LCD panels, i put them on sliding platforms that i could push aside to reveal shelving where i kept various things that i often forgot about. the descendent of that shelf is where i now keep old Pentium II processors and analog multimeters i cannot bear to throw away
It needs a “rabbit ears” antenna.
That goes without saying.
As does that.
Great Build. This is great place to make a note for a hacker looking at doing this sort of thing….
Modern TV panels rarely have good speaker drivers. I have found that if you cut the internal speaker wires and put them onto external speaker binding posts on the back of the TV…. Most cases you are looking at ~20 watts per channel and you get a fairly good sounding Class D amp…
Ever since i started doing it, I put large book shelf speakers on the TV and they always make it sound better.
With this build you have a bunch of space at the bottom of the cabinet to make a really good ported three way system just using the TV amp. Just Try it out for yourself… You will keep doing it.
This should be standard on even a mid-end tv. But that would interfere with the sound-bar market, which is a must-have if you want anything above low-res audio with your 4k HDR brighteness-of-a-thousand-suns screen.
I like the idea, but I’m not willing to operate on my TV just yet.
You just don’t get how easy it is….
Keep thinking about it… Once you do the first one… You do them ALL.
Trust me, It’s a super easy mod.. i just poked three holes per terminal block and screwed them right onto the back… tucked in and clean…. Then you can use any set on the tv.
My Bravia sits upon an organ bench that has a pair of car speakers mounted into the underside..
Frankly it a real boom box… no extra gear is needed and it’s 60 watts. All from the HDMI plug.
When i need more power i add the TOSLINK and my speaker set. then i get the 5.1 thing on top of the bench sound.
Finally a good spot for my little family of Romanian glass fish.
Decidedly envious of Cordova’s shop and woodworking skills.
I guess the TV was made to his customer’s specifications. Still, I wouldn’t call many of the 50s or 60s TVs stylish. Well, not in comparison to the truly beautiful, hand-made or cast, art-deco radio cabinets of the 30s.
I wonder why it is we can’t seem to afford real things any more, and must be satisfied with the plastic ‘toy’ version, mass-consumer item?
Because, back then, people wanted a pretty furniture with useful extras. That integrated seamlessly into the home.
Since the 90s (if not earlier), it’s about buying appliances. Big difference in mindset/needs.
Many provider of latest tech had to figure this out the hard way.
For example, there’s that story about one seller who was baffled when elderly couples in his store asked for a new TV in a wooden cabinet (music cabinet).
The response was that the TV perhaps could be shoehorned into such a cabinet, but that this would be a special custom order.
Music chests with built-in TV aren’t bad, either! :)
They have doors that can be closed, often, so they look like an innoccent piece of furniture.
Furniture is only innocent if it’s bolted to the wall.
” much less emit that evocative phenolic hot-electronics smell”
Sounds like a pretty glaring oversite!
Glade is missing a market opportunity.