The Cabinet

I'm not sure what the official name for this piece of furniture is. Console, maybe? I've been jokingly referring to it as the "entertainment center." When I first said this, my kids were like, entertainment center??? I imagine they were picturing something with an ice skating rink, a bowling alley and a movie theater. Sorry kids, it's just a place to stick the tee-vee.

Back in June, I got C a flat-screen TV for Father's Day because he's a good guy who doesn't ask for much and he really, really wanted one, and after all, he did buy me my laptop for my birthday. So I bought him one (LED for energy-efficiency) and took our third hand-me-down television to Goodwill.

Part of my Living Room Overhaul Phase II plan was to get something for the TV to sit on, and after we got the new TV it became, well, not imperative, because it is after all, only a TV, but somewhat more urgent, since the piece of furniture our old TV sat on was too high, so the screen was at the wrong angle and everything looked dark (I know, I know, first world problems).

So, back in August, when I bought the cabinet for the basement at the unfinished furniture store, I also picked up this piece.

It's been sitting in the barn all this time, waiting for the perfect alignment of time, energy and good weather (since it's an outdoor kind of project). Finally all the stars aligned this past three-day weekend.

C helped me sand it (see? I told you he's a good guy) and I painted it with milk paint (my favorite way to finish furniture). The back and the drawer bottoms are made with some really ugly cheap wood, so those I covered with some dark brown Roman glass fabric (that I love!). I briefly considered making a cozy for the TV (you know, visually demote it from its central location in our living room) out of the same fabric, and had temporarily draped the fabric over the TV before I cut into it. Z kept asking why there was a curtain on the TV and I said to hide it and he wisely said, "it just makes it more obvious," which was exactly what I had been thinking.

The top drawer is devoted to our VCR (yes, we still have one of those) and the remote controls and the bottom drawer holds C and M's various music books and accessories. The left side of the cabinet holds all of our musical instruments (except the guitars, ukeleles, mandolins, piano, drum set, ai yai yai) and the right holds some games that had been collecting dust on the floor underneath another piece.

Now I need to move on to the corner there. I'd like to get a nice bookcase to help contain some of the toy and book clutter that accumulates there. I have my eye on one at the antique shop that might fit the bill.

And after that...a new couch!

Edited to add:

The paint is this Milk Paint, color marigold. Totally nontoxic, easy to use and clean up. Love it!

The unfinished furniture store is Mill Stores in Scarborough.