The TV gets its own home

Let me just start off this post by saying I am not a big fan of TVs.  They are large, they dictate the layout of a room and they usually look like a big black hole.  I am glad we finally joined the new millennium and got a flatscreen — now it’s a big black hole that doesn’t require as much depth to store. 

So . . . our nice TV was just hanging out on one of our slatted tables before, without a real place to call home.

Which wasn’t great because the mess of wires (my pet peeve — can somebody please make all these electronics wireless please?  Please!!) were gathering dog hair underneath.  Great.

So, one fine day JT and I were out and about and we drove by the antique mall.  But I can’t drive by an antique mall without going in, so in we went.  (My favorite place is Treasure Aisles on Big Bend near Manchester.  Then, next door is the Big Bend Antique Mall so you can hit two spots without even moving your car.  Pretty sweet.)  It was at the BBAM that we spotted this gem —

It was a little rough but the width was right to fit in our space (I wish there was a spot for a bigger credenza but unfortunately 32″ was our max).  Plus it was already designed to hold speakers in the space below so it seemed to make sense.  AND it was only $24, another bonus. 

I got my tools out and went to work . . . Sadly it really did take all these things above to get this cabinet all gussied up.  JT used the drill to make some clean holes out the back for wiring.  I stripped out all the nice faux brick 1970s shelf paper and attacked it with a sock hand and Feed-n-Wax.  The Howard’s Feed-n-Wax has been my favorite thing for bringing a nice luster and sheen back to old wood.  It works wonders!!

Another nice detail of our media cabinet is that it was already on wheels.  I greased those up with some WD-40 and now we can swivel the cabinet around depending on if we are sitting on the sofa or at the table (yes we watch TV while eating.  Deal with it). 

Here she is all cleaned up . . .

I changed out the knobs for something less ornate, buffed that cabinet to a shine and let her rip.

All our devices fit nicely inside, including that pesky antenna and all the channels still come in great (we don’t have cable folks.)  And because you all know how I feel about those pesky wires, I included a shot of how I wrangled them on the back.  We zip-tied the plug strip to the handy little ledge midway down the cabinet and now none of the wires dangle to the floor to get mixed in with the dog hair.  Add a little painters tape to keep everything all nice and tidy and those wires are no longer visible from the sofa.  Score.

Because I can’t believe I just did a whole post about TVs and the cabinets who love them, I will leave you with what the dogs did this weekend.  It’s a rough life . . .