I take great pleasure in finding a great piece of furniture and making it even more wonderful by giving it a face lift. For some time now I've been wanting to find a new TV stand, since we've previously been using our coffee table to hold the TV. The future stand had a few requirements: it must be solid wood, it had to be tall enough that Zayden couldn't reach the TV, it needed to have storage underneath for entertainment needs, and it had to be $100 or less.
I was browsing through Salvation Army one day with Z and I came across this:
BEFORE:
It was labeled as "furniture cabinet" and sold "as is"..... I had to admit-- it looked even worse in the store under those horrible florescent lights. It had scratches and knicks, and clearly, at one point, had a drawer on the top, however said drawer was no where in sight. BUT the best part, in my opinion was it was only $12. Yes. I could work with that.
It was sturdy enough, solid wood-- no cheap flimsy laminate on this bad boy, it was tall enough so Z wouldn't be able to reach the TV, and it had an adjustable shelf for storage underneath. The wheels in my head started turning and so I brought it home.
Tyler wasn't sold at first....
HALFWAY THERE:
Half way through the project Tyler still wasn't sold on it. I kept reassuring him that it would be great.
After sanding, 15 coats of primer, a new top shelf, and molding, and a few coats of polyurethane... it was finished!
AFTER:
I already had the big basket on the bottom shelf. It now houses all of Z's toys which used to be in the ottoman. The top two shelves I found at Michael's and they were the perfect storage for DVD's.
The new top shelf, which used to be where the drawer was now is the perfect spot for our DVD player and laptop.
And to add a little splash of color I decided to spray paint the underside of the shelves blue.
All in all I love how it turned out. Tyler finally agrees that I was right. In total I spent $48 to refinish it (including paint and other supplies)-- but it was a project worth doing, in my opinion. It probably won't be a TV stand forever, but it is versatile enough that it can be used in many different places in our home and future houses, and for many different purposes... A kids' room storage cabinet for toys, a closet organizer for clothing etc.
With that said, Tyler's most favorite part of our new TV stand is what now sits on top of it...
A new 47" flat screen TV. We came home with it Monday.
Tyler insisted that we get a new TV for our new stand and right before March Madness.... :)
I have to admit, it looks pretty classy. And how perfect that we both got what we wanted... although, I have to add, my item was significantly less than what Tyler's cost. ha ha.
Happy DIY-ing everyone!
2 comments:
I am always so impressed with your ability to see see the worth of items that others would see as potential 'garbage'. It makes me think of all the furniture we've gotten rid of over the years for not 'matching', to only replace them with more expensive, cheaper material sorta stuff. Very impressive. If only I was so creative :) You do realize that if you found any sorta time outside of your three handsome boys, you could have quite the little business on your hands of 'refinishing' items and selling for quite the profit. Great job Kati!
You're so sweet. But your brain has other skills which *I* do not possess... like the ability to use math, or any kind of science-y sort of stuff. Remember when you tutored me in HS?? Yeah....You're a genius, too Hoku, just in a different way. Thank you, though.
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