For awhile now I had been thinking that I wanted to replace my large entertainment armoire in my living room with a Sofa Table. Only those things are EXPENSIVE. Even on craigslist, they were more money than what I wanted to pay. It sounds crazy but I began praying that I could fine one for a decent price. It wasn't something I desperately needed, so I knew that I couldn't justify spending much on it.
Until one day in August I was driving home after an Allergy shot, and passed by a wooden stand out for trash by the road. I turned around and came back for it, because even though it looked bad at the time, in my head I had a vision! I am SO glad I stopped and got it! My Vision went perfectly and it was even easier than I thought!
Let me tell you, trying to get it into the back of my truck was slightly awkward!
I took these pics after I unloaded it to show to Mom and Audra. I had to laugh when my Mom emailed back with something along the lines of it's going to take a ALOT of work, but you might be able to make it look decent. haha, thanks Mom!
My vision was for a shabby chic sofa table to put my tv on top. I was really excited about the lower shelf, and even more excited about the top of it. I have grand plans to put greenery and lights there at Christmas time. Oh it's going to look so pretty! But I am getting ahead of myself.
First I had to clean it. It smelled BAD. Like, really bad. It had some dried food on it, gross, and just smelled terrible. I washed it within an inch of it's life. Next step was to put primer on it. Thankfully it had been sanded and was super smooth so I didn't have to do any of that! I had a can of spray primer so I used that all over.
It was BLAZING HOT when this was going on, and there was no way I was going to paint outside and die from the heat. So I took tarps inside and put them over my kitchen floor so I could paint in the ac. It worked wonderful! I got two pints of paint from Ace Hardwear on their 99 cent pint sale. Holla! I knew I wanted a light blue but couldn't decide which. I finally decided on Haiku Blue, but I put on a slightly darker shade of paint first, as I figured the wood would soak up the paint pretty quickly. It was a good choice! After it dried the next day I put my Haiku Blue on and fell in love.
The finished result!!! I LOVE IT!! The Blue changes in the light, sun and flash of the camera. At times it is a really light blue, almost white. Other times it is darker like these pictures, thanks to the flash.
It is exactly what I wanted! We are probably going to cut a board and add a second shelf in the middle since there is so much space.
While we're on the subject let's discuss the hanging tv. Sweet Mercy. I wanted to hang my tv on the wall since it would not be behind armoire doors, i.e. it is out for the whole world (AKA my students) to see and touch. I wanted it up so that they wouldn't be able to touch it, and so i could fully decorate on the top.
I can't even tell you how much it took to get it up on the wall. First I didn't have the appropriate tools to get the plate on the wall, I ended up having to borrow the right size of socket from my Dad. Then, once it was finally up, the tv was so close to the wall that you could not get a hand OR a screwdriver inbetwen the tv and the wall to screw in the locking screw.
My Mom was able to find and paint a board to go on the wall, so we had to take the plate off, install the board on the wall and the plate on that and then we STILL had issues getting that doggone screw in. And that is with my Dad's crazy long screwdriver! It is finally in and I am never moving that tv.
So Happy with my new cute table, and only spending 2.00 for it!!
Next project will be upholstering the free craigslist chair I got a few weeks ago! Tis the season for DIY!
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