Custom TV Entertainment Center with Shiplap & Electric Fireplace in Pecan Park, Jacksonville FL

The Project

This custom TV entertainment center came together in a Pecan Park home in Jacksonville, Florida, a newer neighborhood on the city's Northside where open-concept floor plans and vaulted ceilings are practically standard issue. The homeowner wanted a focal wall that could carry the room: hold a large flat-screen TV, frame a wide electric fireplace she already owned, and bring some real character to a living room that felt unfinished without it. What we built is a fully built-in shiplap feature wall with painted millwork, crown molding, a natural wood mantel shelf, and a raised fireplace platform. The kind of piece that looks like it was always meant to be there.

You can see in the before photo above what we started with. Smooth drywall, standard baseboard, two outlets. Nothing else. Plenty of potential, zero personality. That was about to change.

The Challenge

Here's where it got interesting. The living room in this Pecan Park home has a dramatic vaulted ceiling that climbs on an angle right over the feature wall. Reads great in the room. But it creates a real design puzzle: center a built-in on the wall itself and it often reads visually off-center once your eye factors in the slope above it. The homeowner felt that tension right away and wasn't sure how to move forward. We went back and forth on designs for a bit before landing on the right approach.

The breakthrough came when we showed her a previous project we'd completed with the same vaulted-ceiling problem. The key was designing the entertainment center as a self-contained, framed unit. Its own architectural element, not something trying to span wall to wall. Give it bold crown molding at the top and strong vertical borders on both sides and the eye accepts the piece on its own terms. It stops fighting the ceiling rake above it. Once she saw that reference project, she was on board, and we moved forward with confidence.

The other wrinkle: the homeowner supplied her own three-sided electric fireplace insert and her own TV. So our framing and finish dimensions had to be built precisely around units we didn't source ourselves. Measure right up front or fight it on install day. We measure right.

The Build

We started the way we always start, with a solid structural frame built directly off the wall. The framing photo below shows the lumber skeleton taking shape: a rectangular platform at the base to receive the fireplace insert, and a tall vertical frame above it sized to the TV mount and the shiplap panel field. You can also see the electrical rough-in. The homeowner's electrician relocated outlets and ran the TV power feed inside the wall, so the finished piece has zero exposed cords.

With the frame locked in, we skinned the face with horizontal shiplap boards. Shiplap earns its keep on this style of entertainment center. The clean lines and subtle shadow gaps give the wall texture and depth without competing with the TV or the fireplace flame effect. We ran it consistently across the upper panel field, the side columns, and the lower fireplace surround so the whole piece reads as one.

The during photo above shows the shiplap fully applied and the first coat of white blocking in. You can already see it coming together. The crown molding cap at the top is fitted and coped, which is what gives the unit that furniture-grade, built-in quality. The lower platform that cradles the three-sided fireplace insert is framed with a raised panel base and its own shiplap wrap, tying it back to the upper section. Nail holes filled. Seams caulked. Ready for finish coats.

One detail worth pointing out: the natural wood mantel shelf sitting between the TV zone and the fireplace zone. Instead of painting everything the same bright white, we left that shelf in its natural finish. A warm, light-toned wood that breaks up the white millwork and keeps the whole piece from reading flat. It also gives the homeowner a practical landing spot for décor, remotes, whatever the room calls for.

The Result

The finished entertainment center gave this Pecan Park living room a clear focal point where there wasn't one before. What had been a plain, slightly awkward vaulted wall now anchors the room.

Look at the after photos and a few things stand out. The crown molding at the top of the unit draws the eye up and frames the vaulted ceiling instead of fighting it. The shiplap field behind the TV gives the screen a clean, textured backdrop that looks intentional with the screen on or off. The natural wood mantel shelf sits cleanly between the upper and lower zones, and the wide electric fireplace below throws that warm amber flame effect across the room. A bare wall can't do that.

From the side angle you can see how well the unit sits in the room. The vertical column borders create clean edges, and the raised fireplace base, shiplap-wrapped on the face, grounds the whole piece to the floor. Nothing reads stuck on or temporary. It sits as a permanent architectural feature of the home, which is exactly what a well-built built-in should feel like.

The wider room view tells the full story. The vaulted ceiling that once made this wall feel difficult to design around now works in the unit's favor. All that open space above gives the crown molding and the overall height of the piece room to breathe. Duval County homes don't always get ceilings like this, so it's satisfying when we can build something that uses what's there instead of working around it.

Ready for Your Own Custom Entertainment Center in Pecan Park?

If you're sitting in a Pecan Park living room looking at a blank wall, or a TV on a stand that was never supposed to be permanent, this is what's possible. AVP Construction JAX designs and builds custom TV entertainment centers throughout Jacksonville and Duval County, built to your room's specific dimensions, ceiling height, and style. Vaulted ceilings, off-center walls, customer-supplied fireplaces and TVs, whatever curveball your floor plan throws at us. We build around it.

We also handle custom accent walls and millwork if other rooms in the house need some character too. Whatever the project, we'll work through the design with you the same way we did here. Back and forth until it's right. Then the first board gets cut.

Reach out to AVP Construction JAX to talk through your project. We serve Pecan Park, Jacksonville, and the surrounding areas, and we're glad to show you what your wall could become.