Refinishing Built-In Entertainment Centers: A Fresh Look for Your Living Space

If your built-in entertainment center is solid but dated, refinishing it is usually the best value. It keeps the custom fit you’d pay a lot to rebuild and gives it a new color and a smooth, factory-style sprayed finish. We refinish built-ins the same way we refinish kitchen cabinets: doors and drawer fronts go to our shop to be sprayed, and the cabinet itself gets the same steps in your living room. It’s priced like a kitchen, by the number of doors, drawers and panels, and it’s often added to a kitchen refinish so everything matches.

Refinish or replace a built-in?

Refinish when the boxes and shelves are solid, the size still fits your TV and how you use the room, and it’s just the color or the dated wood finish that bothers you. Replace or rebuild when the layout no longer works (a niche built for a tube TV, for example) or the boxes are damaged. Sometimes the middle ground is the right call: refinish the cabinet and have the old TV niche reframed to fit a modern TV.

What about building a new one?

A new built-in entertainment center is a custom cabinet piece, almost like a small kitchen or bar: base cabinets, uppers or open shelves, panels, trim and a countertop. With us, new built-ins start around $6,000 with a basic countertop. The price depends on the number of cabinet boxes, the number of shelves, and the style and design: a simple run of base cabinets with a top costs less than a wall of cabinets with glass doors, lighting and crown. New is the better call when there’s no built-in today, the old one doesn’t fit how you use the room, or the boxes are damaged.

Colors that work on built-ins

• Match the walls or trim for a built-in that blends in: a soft white like Snowbound, or the same warm gray as the walls.
• Go dark for a focal point: navy, charcoal or deep green behind a TV hides the black screen when it’s off. Here’s how Iron Ore, Tricorn Black and Urbane Bronze compare.
• Match the kitchen in an open floor plan, so the living room and kitchen read as one space.

Here’s a short list of Sherwin-Williams cabinet colors that also work on built-ins, and you can browse colors in our Design Portal.

What sheen?

Satin is the sweet spot for most built-ins: it wipes clean and doesn’t show every fingerprint or glare from the TV. Matte hides more but shows scuffs; high gloss looks sleek but shows every flaw and every smudge.

Small upgrades while it’s apart

• New hardware. Old holes get filled before priming if the new pulls are a different size. Here’s how to choose cabinet hardware.
• Soft-close hinges while the doors are off.
• Trim or panels to make a plain built-in look more finished.
• LED strip lighting on shelves, which needs a power source planned ahead.

How we refinish a built-in

1. Doors and drawer fronts come off and go to our shop. The cabinet stays in place, and we protect the floor and the room around it.
2. Everything gets a chemical sand to cut old finish and grime, then a physical sand.
3. Holes are filled, then two coats of shellac-based primer, with filling again before the second coat. Shellac blocks tannins in wood from bleeding through a light color.
4. Two coats of a 1-part pre-catalyzed finish, sanded between coats to build the right thickness.
5. Doors go back on, hinges are adjusted, and you get a touch-up bottle in your color.

Here’s the full process, step by step. Sprayed finishes carry a 2-year warranty against blistering and peeling.

What does it cost?

Refinishing an existing built-in is priced the same way as a kitchen refinish, by the number of doors, drawers and panels, so it’s usually far less than building new. A new custom built-in starts around $6,000 with a basic countertop. For reference, kitchen refinishing with us starts at $5,000, and most medium kitchens land between $8,000 and $10,000. Adding a built-in to a kitchen refinish is usually the most cost-effective way to do it, because the setup is already happening. Most refinishing jobs take 5 to 7 working days.

Frequently asked questions

Can you paint a built-in entertainment center?

Yes. We spray it with the same primer and pre-catalyzed finish we use on kitchen cabinets, so it looks factory-made instead of brushed.

Can you refinish a built-in in place?

The cabinet stays in place and is finished on site. The doors and drawer fronts go to our shop to be sprayed.

How much does a new built-in entertainment center cost?

With us, new built-ins start around $6,000 with a basic countertop. The final price depends on how many cabinet boxes and shelves it has and the style and design.

Can a built-in be resized for a bigger TV?

Often, by reframing the TV opening. It’s done before the refinish so the new framing gets the same finish.

Where do you work?

Across Pinellas County, including Largo, Clearwater, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Belleair and Seminole.

Have a built-in that needs an update? Book a free consultation. I’ll look at it, tell you whether refinishing makes sense, and send you a written price. Bayshore Remodels is licensed (CRC1335471) and insured, with 500+ projects across Pinellas and Tampa Bay since 2021.