Once upon a time while I was frequenting the exclusive
furniture shops in our quaint little town.......
OK, really it was The Salvation Army
I came upon the most exquisite piece of furniture -
a "must have" for our Dining Room.
Well, actually, this beast was at the Salvation Army marked down to 40 bucks, and they were having this 1/2 price sale on all electronics - and since this had an electrical cord because it was an old stereo, complete with a turntable and an 8-track - I was able to score this beauty for $20!
I knew Edward would be so thrilled!
Was I ever right! You should have seen the look on his face when he arrived at The Salvation Army to help me load it. Straining and groaning under the weight of this "piece of junk" as he called it.......I kept seeing Edward shake his head and mutter something about, "She's really lost her mind this time".......! Deciding he must not be as visionary as I am, I tried to paint for him the picture I was seeing in my mind of how this could someday sit in our Dining Room as a gorgeous sideboard....... AND, in the meantime, could even be used as a great place for the boys to store their legos!!! It was a win-win idea, wasn't it?
I could tell he wasn't seeing the same beauty
as in the eye of this beholder......
And to be perfectly honest.......the more I looked at the stereo, the more I struggled with what my eye thought it had seen in such a piece.
If the thing hadn't been so heavy and the effort so great to get it into our house - I think I would have just ditched the idea. I mean, I could handle "eating" the $20 cost - I just couldn't bring myself to ask Edward to help me get it out of our house and to the curb. So, to refinish it was the decision.
During the refinishing process, I wholeheartedly had to agree with Edward several times that I had "indeed" lost my brain on this one. It was an extremely time consuming process to remove a bajillion screws in order to extract the stereo equipment, and a tremendous amount of work to prep the piece. I wouldn't have minded as much if it been solid wood, but this piece is made of wood, particle board, and the front panels are even plastic! DELIGHTFUL!!!
Now that it is finished, though, I must say I'm very happy with the results. It's quite pretty as a sideboard in our Dining Room, and since it is gutted inside it serves as a perfect place to hide sewing machines and craft supplies.
Whew, yes, I'm very, very pleased.......
And if I ever see another retro stereo console at The Salvation Army for $20.......
Girls, you just help yourself, because
NO WAY! NOT THIS GIRL!
For if time is money -
NO WAY! NOT THIS GIRL!
For if time is money -
this thing cost me about $6,000,000.
Thanks so much for stopping by - and please tell me I'm not alone with a story like this. Please tell me you, too, have a story.......please.......anyone?
Ellie
Parties I Will Be Linking To:
Sunday - The
Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table and Dreaming, DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff
Wednesday - Wow
Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style,
Friday - Furniture
Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed, Feathered Nest Friday at
French Country Cottage, Show
and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home, Weekend Wrap up Party at Tatertots and
Jello
The piece looks great--you can't tell there is any particle board or plastic. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sandy. The cabinet you just painted on your blog and your tutorial were wonderful. Thanks for saying you can't see the plastic and particle board. That helps!
DeleteYou are not alone Ellie! I once bought a 1920's dark timber wardrobe - a monstrosity as the rest of the family termed it. Thank goodness the vintage store I bought it from had free local delivery or I would never had managed to get it home. It didn't fit the wall I wanted it for and ended up in the hall but it holds all my craft supplies and Christmas decorations perfectly. I painted it antique white and it just transformed. Monstrosity no more! Love your sideboard,you are giving me ideas - that's dangerous!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing - I feel better now! I'll bet your wardrobe is gorgeous. And that danger of getting ideas from each other goes both ways. I get many from your blog.
DeleteIt looks great! You did an amazing job. I found this awesome dresser at our local thrift store.... $10. It too had plastic fronts... my vision was to turn it into a storage piece for our dining room, one day I came home and hubs was using the chain saw to make it smaller so it would fit in our trashcans. :(
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, that is just awful :)
DeleteYour husband sounds a lot like my Edward. I wrote a post on here some time back about how he threw away my shutters. I even rescued them once and he still threw them away!
DeleteI think this is beautiful! And I completely understand the whole what-was-I-thinking thing. Quite a few of my projects are exactly that.....maybe not furniture that is too heavy to move, but definitely furniture that I *thought* was going to be a simple makeover, which, in reality, ended up taking me months to finish (not to mention more supply money than I originally envisioned). Good job on this, though....your effort was worth it!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Almost every project takes more time than we think, don't they. Yeah - those simple makeovers!
DeleteI love it! Ha ha! About the $6,000.00 I hear ya. I picked one up recently for free, and now I'm not sure it was worth it... I'm paying my 9 year old son to gut it for me...:) What a brilliant place to hide a sewing machine! You did an awesome job!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't pay my 12 yo son to take it apart - I told him I bought it just so he could do that, because he is always taking things apart. He actually got tired of it before he was finished. Thanks for the compliments and don't spend too much time on yours!
DeleteHi, Your stereo console looks fantastic! I have one that I want to turn into a tv stand. I know you said it was hard but I was hoping you had more information about it. Mine has a tv, stereo and radio. It's super heavy. I just want to make sure I can do this before I get started. Thanks, Anita
ReplyDeleteThat sounds similar to mine, Joe. It is heavy and I took a ton of metal screws, etc. out before I painted it. It also had all the electronics. I'm sure you can do it. I painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and it has held up quite well. The front of mine is partial plastic and it is holding the paint as well. I did sand everything to rough it up a bit. Hope that helps.
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