Thursday, January 23, 2014

Evolution of a 60 dollar Entertainment center and homeright giveaway!

I told you guys a while ago about the china cabinet I repurposed into our entertainment center when we upgraded to a large flat screen a few years ago.  It’s gone through a couple incarnations in our home, including the most recent off-whiteifying when we moved into our new home this past April. 

As I alluded to in the above post, I have endured lived with my husband’s 1990 Bose speaker beasts for the last 13.5 years.  They came with him, which I knew from the beginning.  His awesomeness far outweighs their unsightliness. (And I will admit, they do produce a pretty amazing sound.)

Nevertheless, I’ve been planning ways to disguise them and make them a little less hello-we’re-from-twenty-years-ago.  I was actually planning on building some shelves on either side of the entertainment center that could house the speakers on the bottom and have shelves to display books and brickabrack up top.

But then the heavens opened up and an angel my mother-in-law showed me a pair of shelves that she picked up at a yard sale and said I could have (read FREE) if I wanted them.  It was completely meant to be, because the bottom opening of the shelves were EXACTLY the right size to house the speaker-beasts!

They were laminate and not in great shape.  Of course, I was so excited to get them fixed up and painted and in my living room that I didn’t take time to snap a before pic of them, but let me paint a picture.  Think college dorm chic; Very abused and covered with stickers.

My HomeRight Heat Pro Deluxe heat gun made pretty quick work of removing the stickers, like a hair dryer on steroids.

It’s a handy tool!  Crank up the heat to high and you can even strip paint with it, without all the goopy chemicals!

Once they were prepped and ready to go, I whipped out another indispensible tool from HomeRight, my Finish Max Fine Finish HVLP Paint Sprayer.

 

To say I love this thing would be an understatement.  It’s really become my right hand in furniture refinishing.  It gives such a nice finish and was incredibly easy to use, right out of the box.  I’ve tried so many paint sprayers over the years, and this one is by far my favorite option.  And it’s airless, which means it houses it’s own turbine air supply and doesn’t need a loud and cumbersome compressor.  And at under $70, it’s incredibly affordable!

So, back to the shelves!  I painted them the same creamy white of the entertainment center and added new backer boards (to replace the cheapo cardboard one’s that came on them) painted slate blue. 

The new backer boards and a little bit of trim I replaced were the only costs to me for the new shelves and was less than $20.  Add that to the $40 I spent on the china cabinet in the beginning, and I have an awesome entertainment center for under $60!!  My inner cheapskate sleeps well at night.

Evolution of a $60 Entertainment Center

I’m just going to wait until the paint is fully cured before I style the shelves.  Don’t want anything sticking!  You really should wait at least a week for latex paint to fully cure before putting anything on it, FYI.  : )

I’m thinking at a later date I might also add some decorative metal grating like this to the fronts of the cabinet compartments, painted the same color of shelves to further camouflage them, but for now I think it’s a big improvement!

And the price CERTAINLY beats the $3,400 for this Pottern Barn option!

… although I am a little jealous of their slim tower speaker, truth be told.

HomeRight wants to give one of you a leg up on your furniture refinishing exploits with your very own Finish Max Fine Finish Paint Sprayer AND Heat Pro Deluxe Heat Gun!  The giveaway is open to US residents, 18 or older.  Good luck!

 

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