Carpentry and Woodworking - Designing and building a custom dartboard cabinet

Hi everyone! New to the board and thought I'd seek out some advice. On what in particular? I dunno. :D

I intend to build a dartboard cabinet as I haven't seen one that I like. I have never built one before so I have drawn up some crude plans and will use them for the basic shape and size. I'm also going to halfway "wing it".(I'll get to that) Instead of using the inside of the doors to house the darts I am going to have a "drawer" that will do this. I intend to have the drawer face pull down (think: oven door) and a shelf that rolls out with the darts lying on it.

I haven't quite figured out what I will do for lighting as I want this to be a complete unit. The lighting must be a part of the cabinet. I have found some mini disk shaped halogen lamp units that I think will be ideal. I just have to think of a way to utilize them in an asthetic way. I absolutely do not want to run a spotlight for this project.

The wood.
I think I want to use Oak for the cabinet. As for the board behind the dartboard, what would be a good relatively soft wood to use? I will be lining the inside of the board with black felt, so this boards appearance is a moot issue.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I've been kicking around my dartboard cabinet design for quite some time, just have to finish the basement before I can work on the fun stuff. Anyway, I too plan to use oak for the cabinet, and the back will be poplar with 1/4 cork adhered to it. I totally agree with not storing the darts in the door, (my darts are to nice for my beer buddies to grab), so I was also planning to put in a flipper door, but instead of one drawer, I was going to split the cabinet and on one side have a two pull-out trays one on top of another (felt lined) for the darts, and on the other side have a drawer for the flights, wrenches, markers, etc... I also don't intend to put a chalk board up, but a dry erase board. Would seem to be cleaner to me.

As far a lighting goes, I looked at the hockey puck lights, but the halogens get really hot. I really like the fact they are on a rheostat, but the heat thing really bothers me. I'm thinking about either going with the style of light thats used to illuminate works of art and putting it up under the top front of the cabinet, or go with the recessed incandescent like is used in a curio cabinet. You can see them at rockler.com.

Hope this give you some good ideas.
Chris

The hockeypuck lights are exactly what I was considering as well! LOL! I hadn't thought of the heat issue. That's definitely going to require a little more thought.

I had also considered a picture light above or below the cabinet but the thought of an errant dart has high or low has disuaded me from that. I'm going to have to find a way to install lights inside the cabinet.

Hmmm.....

If I was to use the picture light above the cabinet, I would just use a wide enough stile to attach and conceal the light with room to adjust it. I plan on putting some type of filligree (sp?) on the top, so a wide stile shouldn't detract from the looks. I agree with not have an external light if I can help it. I don't plan to be in the house forever and don't want to have to depend on installing track lighting or some such wherever I go.

Chris