I am so excited about this project I’m sharing today! And so proud of the Mister for taking on this task!
For about 2 1/2 years, we have been using our coffee table as a TV stand. It was meant to be a temporary fix when we lived in our apartment while we saved up for a big Ikea entertainment center, which would have gone perfect on our giant blank wall we had there. Then we bought our house and we no longer had a big open wall for an entertainment center (glad we never got around to buying one!). So, we stuck with the coffee table in the corner by the fireplace while we thought about what we wanted to do. Note: apologies for some of the poor quality photos. A combination of iPhone, working after bedtime, & leaving the hubs in charge of photography (love you, dear!)
I tossed out the idea of mounting the TV over the fireplace, but we eventually decided against that for various reasons. Mainly, John wan’t too keen on the idea. My next thought was to mount it on the wall and have it swivel out. We could then have an entertainment stand underneath to hold all of the electronic accessories. It seems like I really wanted it mounted on the wall, doesn’t it? In reality, I wanted it out of reach for curious little hands…
And to be able to see the bottom half of the TV over the baby gate.
Rewind a bit: About a month (or so) ago, our neighbor offered up his old fence boards from a fence he took down in his yard. It had nothing to do with me throwing a fit that he was going to burn all of the beautifully patina-ed wood in a bonfire. Uhhh. Guilty. During one of Alex’s naps, I got my crow bar (thanks, dad!) and hammer and dismantled the boards. I ended up with a pile of 14 fence boards to work with. I had no idea at the time what I wanted to do with them, but knew I wanted to build something for our house.
Back to present: John brought up the idea of using the old fence boards to make a TV stand. In all honesty, when he was drawing up the plans, I had no idea what he was talking about. Something about using 2 x 4s for the skeleton and then planking it in the wood. And, as I was supposed to go buy the wood (and have it cut) I needed to understand what the heck he was planning. Finally, he gave up trying to explain to me and just gave me a cut list and off I went! Once he had the frame together, it all made sense what he was talking about before. I’m a hands-on learner, obviously.
He basically made three boxes (the top two had cross supports for the shelves) and then attached them using 2 x 4s for the “legs”. Not sure why that was so difficult for me to grasp. Baby brain probably.
Then, I got to cleaning the fence boards off. These boards had been outside for quite some time (duh, they used to be a fence) so they were covered in a lot of gunk and mildew. Nothing a little soap and water couldn’t fix! I scrubbed with water, dish soap and a brush attached to a broom handle. It took about 2 days for the boards to dry after the big wash down, the wait was killer!
Once the boards were dry, we he figured out the lengths for all of the boards we would need to cover the skeleton and I got to work on figuring out the notches on the front piece of wood for the shelf. It took us about 3 hours total in thinking, cutting and nailing to get this bad boy covered.
We started out covering the shelf to make sure we had room for the nail gun to get in there.
Then we planked the sides and top.
We then made sure to wrap the 2 x 4 “legs” in front and back so you couldn’t see any new wood.
Lastly, we conquered the front boards and top cross board. Tada! She’s a beaut.
We tried our darndest to get it upstairs after we finished. And by tried I mean I gave it 2 seconds before I decided I really shouldn’t be lifting this thing. John called in reinforcements and the TV stand was up last night!
We originally had it angled in the corner but it was really bothering John. He didn’t like how it kept threatening the mantle/hearth area. He wrangled that pesky TV stand back up against the wall, though. Crisis averted. We think we like it there, but might move it eventually so it doesn’t take away from our fireplace.
In the meantime, I’m so glad to finally have a replacement for our “temporary” coffee table fix. Oh! Lets do a little cost breakdown, shall we?
Fence boards: FREE thanks to our neighbors
2 x 4s: $20 (including the milling fee at ACE)
We already had the nails and screws.
Total: $20! Can’t beat that.
Isn’t it so fun to re-purpose old things?? I love the look of the patina on the wood and we know it will last since it has already been outside for a decade. It’s also so nice to be able to see the ticker when I watch GMA in the morning instead of peeking through the baby gate. It’s the little things =]
