Building my son's first wall-cade – looking for feedback and wood recommendations
Situation: I'm a father of a young kid and want to introduce him to gaming in a couple of years. I started learning arcade cabinet building a few months ago (with the help of this sub-reddit) and recently finished my first bartop using pre-made plans. It was mainly a learning project, and I even managed to sell it afterwards.
Now it's time for the real deal: designing the wall-cade that will eventually hang in his bedroom. Of course, it's for educational purposes, but also to let him enjoy videogames from the retro catalogue (and show him the ones I grew up with). Maybe it is the start of a nice hobby together! Maybe not... and I am all okay with that.
My goal is to build a cabinet that isn't flashy or overly "arcade-like," but instead has a calm, relaxing appearance with toned-down colors. Since he'll also use it as a video-station, a full vertical monitor (not tilted) is essential. I also want the artwork to be easily replaceable.
The cabinet will be powered by a Raspberry Pi 5 running Batocera and will use a 19-inch Dell 5:4 monitor. Sanwa buttons/stick and a 2inch trackball.
Although my CAD skills are still fairly limited, they've been good enough to create the first technical drawings and renders, as you can see. I also have direct access to a 50cm×50cm CNC router, 3D printing, and all the necessary tools. I've already ordered the internal components, and they're currently in transit, so hopefully I can start construction later this month.
The renders are straight out of the CAD software. No AI was used to create them.
Does anyone have advice on what type of wood to use? I'd love to keep the natural wood grain visible rather than covering the cabinet with loads of stickers.
2026-07-02 Edit: Thanks for all the input! It's been great to see everyone's different perspectives on this project. It has really encouraged me to rethink certain aspects before going all in in the workshop!