Turning a Media Cabinet into a China Cabinet

I've sat down probably half a dozen times and started to blog about our vacation a month ago, since it's the next "event" in our lives that needs to be recorded, but I never seem to finish because I have so.many.photos. You're surprised, aren't you?

So instead of posting that novel, I think I'll post my little project from a couple of weekends ago. Also known as "the project that revived my ability to paint."

Originally, we were given an entertainment center meant for one of those big wide screen tvs, which was basically 2 tall cabinets, and a shelf that ran along the top. Given that we have a 32" tv, it doesn't qualify as "big wide screen" television, but I had a different bottom for that, so boost the sucker up a bit and it all fit perfectly into our entertainment center area in our living room. It fit fine. It looked....ok. But who am I to leave well-enough alone?

In the last year I've been attempting to redesign our home, room by room. I wanted things to fit better, and to be better organized. I started with the master bedroom.


Only one bedside table. A long dresser we never used. What you don't see pictured is an armoire with another 32" tv. It was ancient - Chuck's dad bought it when he still lived at home. We rarely used it. But we had tons of books that we needed room for, the bed was too high for the kids to crawl up and down on, and they LOVED to climb that footboard and scare the bejesus out of me. So, adios old furniture. Chuck was a bit sad, as he picked that bed frame out for me for our second Christmas together. It's the memory/thought that counts, though, right?!

Anyhow, with the money from the sale of that furniture, and watching for some major sales, I managed to compile this together:



Matching nightstands, with plenty of room for books, and even matching lamps. A much lower bed for the kids, with a padded back to recline on while watching movies/blogging on the laptop. 2 storage ottomans for storing the linens. 2 bookshelves. What you don't see is the matching desk and file cabinet in the back. We got a big computer monitor, also, so we can watch movies on it.

I also sold my dining room set. It was also a little sentimental to let go of, but it was worth it to not watch the kids beat up the antiques anymore!




With the money from the 2 sales, I replaced it with a table with more seating, which also fit our dining room space better. But what was missing was something in each of the 2 corners of the room - and I was still lacking storage.





Thus I started eyeing my media cabinets...

I stuck one in the corner and decided, it'll do. We had taken off the glass doors up top, but I would bring them back. Here's what it looked like:


The new dining room furniture is a dark "mocha" brown. So, I decided, as I mentioned in the last post, to try to match it with paint. It took a couple of days, but here is the final result:








Much better.


I am not done, per se, but it's usable. Still need to repaint those metal holders on the glass. Also, I may replace the backs, as you can see the hole through the bottom shelf. But for now, I actually have 2 of these, matching and completing my dining room. I have no idea why I haven't taken a pic of the whole room, but I will...

Now to get a different entertainment center....hmm...... ;-)