Did you know that 2012 marks the 100 year anniversary of Japan’s beautiful gift of 3000 cherry trees to our nation’s capital? These trees have been blooming through March and April for a century, filling Washington, D.C. with their fragrance. In honor of the centennial celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, we’re taking a look at cherry TV lift cabinets! Here are 3 we think you’ll agree are quite lovely.

Black Cherry

Here’s a gorgeous, luxurious black cherry TV lift cabinet with gold leaf trim molding from Nicholas Anthony Custom woodwork. It’s got one of our Nexus 21 swivel lifts installed so the TV can be turned to face in any direction. That’s important on a cabinet that’s designed to be a room’s centerpiece. We bet the back of this piece of furniture is just as nicely finished as the front.

Solid Cherry

This is a custom TV lift cabinet project from our partners at Precision Built, LLC. The three drawers on this solid cherry wood media center aren’t for show. They actually do open and close – showing you what a slim profile our lift has and how little space it takes up inside the cabinet. Precision Built enjoyed the simple installation process and their customer is thrilled with the outcome.

Cherry Stained

You don’t have to actually chop down a cherry tree to get the look of cherry furniture. We’ve got a very cost-effective option in our Classic TV Lift Cabinet Collection. The Beaumont Series cabinets are crafted out of alder (a rapidly renewable hardwood) that is hand finished to look like cherry. Yours will arrive with the swivel TV lift already installed. All you have to do is mount your flat screen on the lift and plug it in. You can be watching your favorite program in minutes!

If you liked our recent post about TV lift furniture that serves a dual purpose, you’ll appreciate this project posted on YouTube by Schrocks Custom Woodworking. It actually has an interesting back story. The homeowner had an old fashioned rear projection TV placed in this spot originally. They wanted the entertainment area turned into a built in bookcase. That’s a great choice for right next to the fireplace. It makes the living room look cozy and retro – a place to curl up on a winter’s night with a favorite book. At the same time, the homeowner didn’t want to eliminate the modern entertainment function of the room. So, they chose a popup lift for inside the bookcase. That’s a good example of how to use a hidden, automated lift to create two entirely different looks for a room depending on whether you want to watch TV or not.

Are you wondering how the TV lift gets into the bookcase? This earlier video shows how the front of the bookcase was built separately and the lift installed before the entire piece was attached to the wall shelving unit. You even get to peek down inside the hidden compartment to see how all the components are arranged. If you’re planning on doing a similar project, it gives you a good idea of how to stage the work so installing the lift is as easy as possible. Putting it in when you still have 360 degree access to the compartment is a very smart idea.

This is one project where a hinged lid actually enhances the finished look of the lift. It flips back to neatly cover up the bottom row of books, creating a clean canvas around the TV screen. From a distance, the seam in the closed lid is virtually invisible. We think it’s a wonderful job!

This week’s partner highlight post features The Custom Shoppe in Wisconsin. They turned to Nexus 21 when they could no longer get the lifts they used to install in the past. Think for a moment about what that means for the customers who had those old lifts. If the manufacturer is out of business, customers will get no warranty support. That’s just one more reason to do business with a company that’s here to stay!

Here’s what The Custom Shoppe says about one of our most popular lift models:

“The L-39 TV Lift is an excellent choice for your flat panel TV. Utilizing Nexus 21′s superior LIFT COLUMN TECHNOLOGY, this model accommodates screen sizes up to 55″ (can handle up to 120 lbs total TV). Even though this lift has a compact profile (only 30.2″ high when retracted), it has a tall extension and is super smooth, ultra quiet, and only takes 25 seconds to fully extend!” To see the full technical specifications for the L-39, go here.

We’re proud to be in business with another American company. All Custom Shoppe furniture is crafted per your specifications, making each piece unique. Like their website says: “This is America’s Heartland where solid wood is combined with solid values.”