It took me 6 hours just to sand and restain a very small table my wife's grandfather made for her many years ago. Of course, since it WAS small, I couldn't use a power sander for most of it. It was back breaking work, but you should have seen her face when she saw it. We built a custom AV stand for our new TV. While it WAS marginally cheaper (just wood and paint, my father in law has ALL the tools), the results are FAR superior to what could be bought. It is exactly built to the specs I needed, it has none of the problems with furniture built for looks, not function, and I'm just plain proud of it. When I sit on the couch, my eyes are level with the exact center of the screen, it has room for my 2 tivos, 2 DVD players, HD DVR, VCR, amp, and PS2/Wii with wireless router ans slingbox hidden behind the PS2 and Wii. All this and the stand is only 3 inches wider than the footprint of the TV.

So yeah, it's better to build if you can, but be prepared to spend a LOT of time designing and figuring out exactly how to do it. Furniture quality wood is expensive. You don't want to change your mind halfway in. Be prepared to spend a LOT of time carefully building. Also, you have to be careful what materials you use. My brother in law painted his AV rack with the wrong paint. He accidentally grabbed pipe paint, which is more like a vinyl coating than actual paint. Everything that sits too long in the same place gets stuck to the paint. It IS shiny though!