Upcycling: TV Stand/Cabinet

After refurbishing our dining set (see my blog post here:  kristinlafollette.blogspot.com/2015/06/upcycling-our-new-dining-set.html), Justin and I knew we would be working on more repurposing projects in the future.  We saved almost $500 by refurbishing our dining set and we were able to customize it with the color and design we wanted.

We've needed a new TV stand for awhile.  The old one we had was given to us by my parents when we first got married, but it was recently starting to become a bit unstable.  We found an old cabinet at Goodwill for $25 and thought it would be perfect as a TV stand, so we brought it home as our next upcycling project.  The exterior was in rough shape, but we knew it would look great once we sanded it down and gave it a few coats of paint.

We decided it looked better without the doors on it, so we took them off and Justin sanded the cabinet down in our driveway (he did the sanding on our porch last time and it made a huge mess!).

Our receiver for our TV and stereo was too big for the cabinet, so Justin cut a bigger hole in the back to accommodate it.

We love bright colors, so we made another trip to Home Depot to see what color we wanted for the cabinet.  We settled on a bright antique yellow.  I painted the cabinet, which turned out to be quite the project.  The light color didn't cover very well, so I had to use three coats of paint so the wood didn't show through.  Once the paint dried, Justin put two coats of polyurethane on the cabinet to protect it.

Here's what our setup looked like in the living room before the "new" TV stand/cabinet:

Here's the setup with the upcycled TV stand:

I love the cabinet and it brings a happy pop of color to our living room!

Total time to sand, paint, and apply polyurethane:  1 week

Cost of cabinet:  $25 at Goodwill
Cost of supplies:
     Orbital sander:  free (we borrowed it)
     Paint:  $8 at Home Depot
     Sanding block, paint brushes, and polyurethane:  $0 (we had everything left over)

Total cost of upcycled TV stand/cabinet with custom color:  $33
Cost of a TV stand from Art Van Furniture:  $499

Money saved:  $466

Justin and I love working together on these projects and saving money in the process.