Family Room TV Cabinet

This past couple of weeks I have been working on a project for myself - a 'new' tv/stereo cabinet.  This is our old one....the top was always a dumping ground, and thankfully I don't have a photo of this inside, it would hurt your eyes, lol...it contains an old-school stereo piled 5 components high, plus records, cd's, photo albums and whatever else got dumped there...plus the stereo was too deep for this cabinet so the doors never shut properly.  Time for a change!

 I still like the actual piece of furniture, and want to paint it at some stage, but it just didn't work to store the stereo, dvd player, dvds, etc.  Plus I wanted some reasonably attractive toy storage for the kids...as much as I'd like toys to stay in their rooms, they don't, and they play with their stuff more if it is right there in the family room. So, this is what I found, and what I did with it:

Some of the peeling veneer strips I glued back down, some I removed completely...now it is painted, you'd never know.

First thing I did was give it a really good clean, with hot soapy water and jif.

Here it is with the smooth surface sealer on it.  This was the first time I have managed to paint outside for months....I loved it!

I wanted to paint over the handles and backing plates but was planning on removing them to do it...the ones on the drawers came off ok but the ones on the cupboards wouldn't budge.  I also left the cupboard doors on for this project as I wanted to paint over the hinges....a conscious decision rather than laziness...I promise!

The cabinet had super ugly feet on it, and I had been wanting to try something with trim and this was just the thing.  I removed the plastic feet (they they are lying on the floor above) and cut a piece of trim to fit around the front and sides of the base.  I also made some shelves to fit in each end cavity, as luck would have it, I found some seagrass baskets that looked like they were made for the spot I had in mind for them.

My first attempt at a corner mitre cut and I didn't have any room for error, I only had enough trim to get it right the first time!  I just used a hand saw and guessed 45 degrees as I don't have a mitre saw or mitre box (but they are on my shopping list!)

  Once the timber was cut to size, I glued it in place and put a few nails into predrilled holes to hold it while the glue dried, then removed them (except for one that I banged all the way in, doh...live and learn!)

I painted some dark wood stain over the pine before I painted it off white, because I wanted some of the dark to come through once I distressed it, to match the rest of the cabinet that had a darkish veneer on it.

Those blocks underneath are the new 'feet'...not that pretty but they work, and you'll never see them once the cabinet is upright anyway!

Here is the shelf in place, I also painted stain over the front trim which I planned on distressing once painted.

And here it is, finished and full of toys!  The stereo and dvd don't fit in the cupboard but I have taken away the bits of the stereo that we don't use (the tuner, record player and cassette deck) so I don't really mind the cd player on show (for now!)  

I distressed and 'antiqued' the cabinet by sanding then dry brushed a beige paint over the off white, then rubbed it with a damp cloth.

Sorry it is blurry....almost-4-yr-old boys don't sit still for long, especially when they want to build a train track!

I am very pleased with my 'new' piece of furniture...now I just need to paint everything else in my family room white to match!

I am showing this off at

and

xx Karen