DIY Dresser to Entertainment Center

Spring is in the air. The windows are open. The kids are playing outside. What more could a Momma with a brain full of projects want?! It is time to start.

Today I am working on a DIY home decor project. I am turning a pretty awesome dresser that I purchased at a garage sale last Summer into our entertainment center.

Before

See the before picture above. This is how I found it at a garage sale. I had my eyes open all season long and was excited when this one popped up. Before, I was assuming that I would end up finding a plain old wooden dresser that would need a fun color coat of paint or two and all new hardware. I knew about how much I was willing to spend on such a thing. When I saw this cool red dresser that was already painted well AND had decent looking handles AND came with two baskets?...I was shocked. The price was $170, which is more than I would usually spend on a used furniture item but when I took into consideration the time that I would save on getting another item to the same condition, it seemed like a no-brainer trade to me. So, there she was, all pretty like, but still needing my touch to make her just right. All of those eye-sore electronics and cords would have a home very soon.

There are three items we want to be housed in this unit: the receiver, the PlayStation whatever and the XBox thing-a-ma-jiggy. I chose to remove one drawer and both baskets, as they were good size openings for our electronics. I will be using those two baskets somewhere else in the house. But that's a project for another day.

The two basket compartments were already finished nicely on the inside so I only had to build a cubby in one drawer space. A not very aesthetically pleasing hole in the dresser so I had myself a little project. Yay!

Family trip to Home Depot!

The twins are really enjoying Home Depot trips. I predict two handymen!

I purchased a piece of sanded plywood that is 1/4" (thick) x 2'x4' in order to make two sides and a bottom for the cubby. They even cut it for me in the store. Cost for the wood: $9.92.

I put the boards into place and used a few finishing nails to secure them. And then it was time to use power tools. Double yay!

I wanted all of the cords for our electronics to go out the back of the unit. That means I got to drill holes into the back panel. I used a hole saw attachment for our drill and put a hole in the back of the three electronics compartments.

Now all she needed was some paint in her plain wooden cubby. I decided on Saffron Strands (yellow) by Behr. I love this color and had some leftover from our Music Room Makeover project. A penny saved...

After

I am very pleased with how she turned out. I will take a better 'after' picture when we have the living room painted and the electronics installed, but for now this one will have to do. We are also going to have the TV mounted up onto the wall above this piece. I can't wait to have it nice and organized. Thank you so much for reading and please come again!

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Music Room Makeover

Well, we are moved into our new house and are all very happy here. It has been a literal life changer, for the better. Plenty of space for the seven of us and our dog and two cats. I have come along in the unpacking process nicely and we are down to the last boxes of random crap and junk that we are not quite sure if or what to do with yet. So, I'm feeling pretty good about all of that.

I purposely scheduled our house warming party for this weekend, one month and a couple of days since we moved in. It might be a little soon but I know myself very well and having a strict deadline for the unpacking is exactly what I needed to push myself to get it done.

We decided we are not going to do any real decorating, painting or projects before the party, with the exception of one room...the Music Room! I decided that this room should be painted right away, in case anyone decides jamming at some point during the party is a good idea. Music equipment can be a pain in the arse to haul around and we don't want to do it any more than we have to.

When we looked at this house during the showings, we knew right away that this particular room would make the perfect practice space. It is completely underground and has no window, great for keeping loud music from bothering our new neighbors. There is no real ceiling which I think is kind of cool, for what we are using the room for. It was painted a plain old beige color when we moved in; nothing spectacular to look at. A clean palette. I LOVE color and decided to pounce on the opportunity to try something new and bold.

I was at Home Depot a couple of months ago and decided to grab one of every paint brochure they had in anticipation of the new house...and who am I kidding? I really just wanted to drool over and dream about new paint colors. I found a color combination in a Behr brochure and felt it was perfect for this room. It would look great with the lights on or even with the lights dimmed down or with rope lighting, which is pretty fun when people are over playing music. Here is a snap shot of the page from that brochure (I apologize, the pictures in this post are not as quality as I wish they were):

Image from a Behr brochure

The colors are Majestic Orchid, Saffron Strands and Broadway. For the orchid color, I chose a satin finish with the hopes that fun lighting will reflect off of it nicely. Our room already has some built in shelving and a door panel for the utility box so I thought these colors would spiffy up the music room nicely. Here is how it turned out:

Now, all we have left to do is hang up some awesome rock and roll posters, mount guitar hangers to the walls and plug everything in. We will have a drum set soon, we just have to go pick it up and I'm pretty sure I saw those rope lights rolled up in the garage somewhere. That's it.

I love it so much. I find myself just sneaking in there and looking around a couple times a day just to soak it in. Ahh.

Thanks for stopping by and...Rock On!

** If you want to know more about the paint colors you see here or to keep up with my future home decorating projects, please stop by my Pinterest page and follow me. I have some fun DIY projects coming up in the near future. I would love to share them with you!
http://www.pinterest.com/ginnylouden/