what to do with an old entertainment cabinet
Don't tell me there is nothing you lot can practise with an old entertainment center.
Our "How would you repurpose an quondam entertainment centre?" contest turned up nigh 40 clever ideas for giving new life to these seemingly "outdated" monstrosities.
The virtually popular suggestion was to convert one into a cocktail bar, but other ideas included transforming them into sewing centers, scrapbook and arts and crafts stations, stand-alone pantries and simple garage storage space.
Plans were also submitted for a unique kitchenette and several reworkings that updated the units into attractive and functional mod entertainment centers.
The most unusual thought was to use one every bit a breeding ground for monarch collywobbles.
The winner received a $150 gift card to the Habitat ReStore, and all of the other entrants featured here received tickets to the Feb. 9-eleven Nashville Home and Remodeling Expo at Music Metropolis Center.
Hither are some of our favorite re-use ideas:
First place: Habitation office with desk
Coleen Schamante of Murfreesboro is our winner for creating a desk and dwelling house function storage unit out of a large wooden entertainment centre for a mere $32, using the doors to make a desktop.
"I had a cute, solid oak and custom-congenital article of furniture that I couldn't only go rid of. We needed a new desk, then why not?" said Schamante.
She removed the two center doors and the hardware similar tracks and hinges and measured from the bottom of the cabinet (where the Television receiver used to sit) to the flooring and cutting one of the doors to that size as the desk support. "The other door would exist cut to whatever size yous want the desktop to be," she said. Use L-brackets to attach the cut door to the wall unit and the support. Then, have glass cut to fit and place it on superlative of the desk, said Schamante, whose biggest expense was the glass.
New look for Boob tube wall
Nashville fireman Kenny Peek took a xx-year-onetime Broyhill Fontana wall unit of measurement and sawed off the summit to transform it into an updated contemporary piece for the den in his Joelton home. The project involved removing the tiptop shelving of all three pieces of the original unit of measurement and attaching the bottom pieces together to make one 9-foot-long bank of cabinetry. Creamy white pigment and the addition of ane/16-inch tigerwood laminate flooring to the top completed the new unit. Then, he mounted a 5-past-10-foot slice of fiber board to the studs on the wall behind the chiffonier and added matching laminate for the backdrop for his lxx-inch Idiot box. Peek's full expense was $266.
Peek said at first he had tried to sell the original unit "only nobody wants them. I couldn't requite it away." When he looked at new cabinets and found prices approaching $5,000, he decided to tackle a conversion. "Nosotros were tired of it but I liked the bottom, so I just chopped the superlative off and came up with this."
Betty's bar
When her new l-inch Goggle box would not fit into her entertainment center, Betty Neuhoff of Nashville turned it into an attractive bar for less than $150, with just a few unproblematic steps.
"The furniture was too prissy to get rid of and also expensive. And so I came up with the idea to plough it into a bar in my recreation room," she said.
She added a mirror ($75) to make it look larger and then added a simple wire vino rack ($25) and lighting ($150). And so it was simply a thing of stocking the bar. She added, "We added blackness Granite (optional) to wearing apparel information technology upward and not worry about ruining the wood surface; that was a choice."
Christina's instant pantry
Christina Bozenka of White House made a pantry out of an entertainment centre that she bought off Varagesale, an online garage auction site. "When nosotros bought our home, we had a contractor give us an estimate for calculation a pantry and it was over $1,500. So I made a pantry," she said, noting that she simply added shelves and a lazy Susan and painted it within and out. Total cost: less than $l. And she wins some tickets to the Nashville Home and Remodeling Expo.
Abbie's pantry
Abbie Ridley of Nashville also had a smashing pantry thought, turning an sometime forest cabinet into a cute pantry, using paint, baskets and amend shelving.
Garage treasure
Karen Krieger of Mt. Juliet had the simplest and cheapest re-use of all — just use an old amusement center "as is" in a garage for storage. Krieger got extra points (and some tickets to expo) for having gotten her cabinet free by picking it up from a mall parking lot near a dumpster. She flagged downwardly some passers-by to help her load the heavy wooden piece into her husband'southward truck and has been using information technology ever since to store stuff in her garage. "The amusement centers would be even better than the piece I got," she said, noting that they would provide even more storage space. "I don't know why people don't use these entertainment centers in their garages for storage." Cost: Gratis.
Function organizer
Irene Parent of Falls Grove started with an amusement center she bought 15 years ago at a hotel resale store and recently spent $57 to turn information technology into an role organizer.
"When we moved ii years ago to our current house, we had an opening in our habitation office the perfect size for the amusement center. So, I decided to repurpose it for the space. With built-in shelves for baskets, it's slap-up storage for office supplies. Part of the TV opening I left for our printer, with a shelf for extra paper at the top. The other side fits our office safe. Plenty of drawers for organizing important papers, envelopes, pens, pencils, staplers, etc." Her expenses included waterbase polyurethane for $15, knobs for $10 and baskets for $32.
Sewing middle
Roxy Birkmaier of Spring Hill converted an old amusement center into a well-organized sewing center with a identify for her sewing car, supplies and even an ironing lath for $160.
Scrapbooking center
Molly Schenk of College Grove purchased an armoire off of VarageSale for $thirty and then bought pegboard, pegs and wire baskets for $30 at Lowe'southward. 3 decorative baskets were purchased at Hobby Foyer for $5, with a forty percent-off coupon. The end outcome is a scrapbooking center with everything she needs for about $65.
Bonus room organizer
Later on painting an old entertainment centre, Karen Stewart put it in her "kid's living room" to concur all of their lath games and other things. "I utilize baskets to concord things like former photos, Pokemon cards, canvas music and more."
Gift wrap station
Diane Wall created a gift wrap station with compartments for rolls of paper and lots of accessories and supplies like bows, ribbon and scissors. "What a peachy mode to organize and keep everything nether 'wraps'!" she said.
Hatching hutch for Monarch collywobbles
This has to be the nearly original reuse: Barry Jones of Hendersonville suggested salvaging the lesser part of an amusement center to use as a TV stand and so moving the summit pieces exterior to a covered porch and adding screen and fabric to brand a Monarch butterfly hatching hutch. He didn't actually make the hutch but said it could be designed to "permit monarch butterfly eggs to progress through their four stages of development from eggs to mature collywobbles."
Kitchenette in a cabinet
Melinda Heltsley shared a neat idea for a kitchenette that she had seen in a B&B in Texas, made from an amusement centre.
"The owner had created a little 'kitchenette' that fit into the décor perfectly and was very useful as a mini kitchen. As you lot can see past the photos, there is a small refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, sink, set of dishes, ice bucket and a shelf for condiments and other often used items."
She noted that she didn't have the need for such a kitchenette, merely the concept would work well for a "brusk term rental unit without regular kitchen admission, a human being cave, in-constabulary quarters or even for an adult child that moves back habitation!"
Other ideas
Other ideas included creating a dresser, a bathroom organizer, a game closet, a display case for a collection of owls, and a garden shed - accomplished by adding a tin roof to the summit of an old unit that was placed exterior.
Reach Ms. Cheap at 615-259-8282 or mscheap@tennessean.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/mscheap, and at Tennessean.com/mscheap.
About the contest
I invited readers to ship ideas for the "What would you practise with an old amusement middle?" project, the estimated cost of the transformation and, if possible, pictures of the finished project.
Nashville Domicile and Remodeling Expo
The 2018 expo occurred Feb. 9-11 at the Music Metropolis Center. Tickets are $x at the door, or $8 online. Exhibitors include companies specializing in floor, landscaping, countertops, windows, drinking glass, doors, bathrooms, tiny houses and mattresses. Plus at that place volition be workshops and seminars, including a Friday, February. 9, talk from Ms. Cheap. More data: nashvillehomeandremodelingexpo.com
Source: https://www.tennessean.com/story/life/shopping/ms-cheap/2018/02/02/13-clever-new-uses-old-entertainment-centers/1057343001/
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