How do we go about making the center section larger for a bigger tv?

Have you considered putting a peice of wood over the center and putting a wall mount for the tv on it

That would be advice, also. I did that with my built in and it looks terrific. I can tilt the tv so I store extra candles, books etc in the shelves behind the tv.

Could cut the verticals back using a circular saw for the verical cut as much as possible then a multi-tool to flush cut the horizontal cuts and finish the verticals, I can't really tell from the pic but looks like the vertical boards go all the way to the top of the piece so there would be no way to hide the fact that they were cut out, unless you put a new face fram over the existing. Would have to be done slowly and meticulously to get best results.

I am betting everything was hidden and nailed from the back. I like the idea of just covering the space but then you have to worry since you are moving the TV somewhat closer to the heat source unless this is an electric or unused fireplace.

We had the same problem what we did we completely cut the upper portion out so now we just have a flat Square platform an rv sits on top. We sanded it a little and added some stain, good to go

the day my husband bought our beautiful $1500 entertainment center and realized our tv wouldn't fit, he took a saw to it and made it fit. The unit was too heavy to keep moving. Looks great with a little stain for the raw ends.

We did one for a couple who were on vacation for a month. Basically we removed the middle section and lowered the top down to the next section and the top was where we set up their TV. We cleaned up the finish and stained it dark to bring it up to date, and they ended up having the same area underneath for their DVR and miscellaneous items they had before. They were delighted with the results and saved $300 they were going to spend on a new unit. Sorry but I am retired now so can't come over and solve the problem for you.

It appears that your built-in is just like ours. If so, there are three upper 'boxes'. The center one, and a triangular one on each side. Those were attached to the base piece and the whole thing was then moved into the corner. Face trim at the side probably hides shims, gaps, and attachment points. My guess is that the top boxes are attached from the under side. The fireplace wasn't yet installed, so it is screwed to the base from the fireplace opening.

If you removed the fireplace, that's how you would remove any part of the top. The problem is, you arent just removing the center box, you also would have to remove the inside 'wall' of each triangular piece to have a true opening. You might as well build/buy a whole new system!

We did like so many have mentioned...framed in the upper section and surface mounted the tv. It is what it is, and I hate it! It removes all depth that the original entertainment center had. It's now just a wooden wall with two black boxes. One is the fireplace and the a black box hanging on it is the tv.

Here is a pic of how ours turned out. My husband just purchased a bracket which extended from the back and allows us to swivel and pull out for plugins. Hope this is helpful....it was the perfect solution for us and we didn't have to cut wood.