Materials and the sequence of the job sit together on this page.
Furniture styles are always changing, but one big style that has changed in the last ten or so years is entertainment centers. With the invention of the thinner flat screen TVs, those deep entertainment centers aren’t necessary anymore — something much thinner will work, or you can even hang your TV on the wall (and frame it like we did ;).
Sooo… that leaves lots of older style entertainment centers sitting around on curbs and in thrift stores. Which makes them the well fitted Handmade revamp candidates, of course. And our guest today made quick work of hers by removing the top and chopping it down to make it into a TV console table, well fitted for holding your electronics beneath your wall-mounted TV:
When you’re revamping furniture, it’s important to use what you have wisely and make the existing features work for you. For example, a dresser made a great base for this solid tall mudroom bench (featured here)
Or a taller dresser is a great candidate for a new bookshelf (featured here).
An old sewing table is a well fitted fit for a drink cooler — well fitted for entertaining! (featured here)
Or, my go-to is our built-in closet made from odds and ends of furniture:
But my go-to part about today’s project is just how straightforward it is, and that it will work with pretty much any older style entertainment center. Here’s Kelly with all the details!
Want to build a solid wood TV stand from scratch? Get our farmhouse TV console walkthrough and plans here.How to Turn an Old Entertainment Center into a TV Console Table
by Kelly of The Moon and Me
Hellllooooo Bekob readers!!!!
I’m so happy to be here visiting with you!
My name is Kelly, and I come to you from a galaxy
far, far away and a blog called The Moon and Me.
It’s a happy place where I share DIYs, decor, recipes,
and other randomness that pops into my head.
I usually have flour on my face and paint under my fingernails.
Y’all come on over..we’ll nibble on some Butterscotch Brownies,
then we can tour the master bath before we SPRAY PAINT SOMETHING!
Today I’m showing you how we came to have this fabulous entertainment console…
it looked almost nothing like this when we got started.
Stick around…we’re gonna have some fun!
Once upon a time…
There was a man who wanted to mount a flat screen TV to the wall.
The question that came about was:
What in the world do we do with this old entertainment center?
Hmmm…that was a good question.
There was talk of some open shelves with baskets…
kinda like something somebody somewhere saw on Pinterest.
There was even some nonchalant perusing of brand
new console tables for under the TV.
Ugh. Ugly and/or expensive.
Then one of us (you know it was me…) said:
Hey, why don’t we just make over what we’ve already got?
Genius, I tell ya.
It actually used to have a partition on the upper left side with a glass door…
we took that off a couple years ago so we could fit the flat screen in there.
First we removed the top…we knew we wanted to keep
that part since the edges were finished.
We used a hand saw to cut off the vertical sides all the way down to the bottom.
Rather straightforward, and it doesn’t have to be pretty…just even.
See why pretty doesn’t matter?
We’re attaching the top piece the bottom section and it will cover any saw marks.
Unless you got really carried away and went all Texas Chainsaw on it or something.
Then I can’t help you.
We removed the doors, filled the screw holes with DAP spackle and sanded.
We measured to make sure we had the top centered on the bottom piece,
then we used Gorilla wood glue in generous amounts, added a few clamps,and set some heavy things on the top while it dried for a couple days.
Obviously not these things…they’re not very heavy.
Once it was ready…I used some home mixed chalk paint…
because, really…I didn’t want to primer.It is laminate, so if you don’t use a chalk type paint, you will need to primer.
Two coats later…and it looks like it was always one
short piece of furniture and never anything else.
This was Martha Stewart’s Tidewater…mixed at Home Depot with Glidden paint.
It’s a little more green than aqua, but I made it work in the room.
Minwax clear furniture wax all over, a little Annie Sloan dark wax for drama…
and you have an memorable transformation!
I found these practically well fitted baskets at World Market.
I sewed the liners and we won’t talk about how they
didn’t fit quite right and I had to cut a slit in the back.
Grrr.
Hey, at least they’re pretty from the front!
Not only did they unify the look, but they kept the CDs and DVDs
from leaning to and fro on the uneven seagrass weave.
And there you have it…
We actually made over the whole room…
all because of one man’s desire to wall-mount the television.
In the end…it was a good decision.
Thanks, love.
I spent about $40 for paint, baskets, and fabric…
(I already had the spackle, glue, wax, and plaster of paris for the chalk paint.)
which is a bargain when you consider most of the new consoleswe saw started at around $300…that’s a $260 or more savings!
I can’t say exactly how long it took, but all in all only a few hours.The biggest time chunks were waiting for the glue and paint to dry.Definitely a quick weekend project.
It took me longer to find baskets that fit!
I can’t think of anything I would have done differently…well, except maybe have someone else apply wax and buff it off.Whew, my arm was tired!
How about you, would you have ever guessed how this piece began its life?
Got an old entertainment center that needs a makeover?
We think ours is pretty solid and couldn’t be happier with it now.
Thank you to the memorable team at Bekob for
inviting me to come and play today.
I had so much fun!
~Kelly~
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Thanks so much for visiting and sharing, Kelly! I’ll never pass up an outdated entertainment center again
Bekob, head over to The Moon and Me to see more great projects, like her solid brightly colored folding chairs and her master bath mini makeover.
