Show & Tell: Dresser Turned TV Stand

Hello!


We have been quite busy the past couple of days hauling out furniture and other things we sold. The Deep Discount De-Stash was a huge success. Thank you everyone! Only a few items remain (Check out what's still available here).

Before I did the sale, my husband and I sat down and figured out what furniture we would want to move and what we would want to sell. Furniture made by my husband's grandfather would of course stay, but random hand me downs and projects would go. One of those items was a tv stand we bought from Target when we moved four years ago. There was nothing wrong with the stand, but we aren't sure what kind of space we'll be moving into so there's no point to keep it.  We sold it, but then I realized that we had nowhere to put our TV stuff. With a little one running around, it was important we got it off the ground for next couple of months.

Our old tv stand.

I looked through the different items we were going to move, and I found the perfect item in our basement. We had gotten this dresser from our son's godmother. It was her dresser as a kid. I had an idea that I would do something special for our son or daughter after we moved. I figured this was a great opportunity to fix it up now. I should mention there is a super cute beveled mirror that attaches to the top. I have that safely wrapped up ready for the move.

Half way through the clean up. One drawer missing and two knobs missing.

If you have a piece of old furniture you need to clean up, it's fairly easy. These are the steps I follow:

1. Fix all pieces that are broken.

On this piece, I resecured the top with some glue and removed the broken drawer. I saved the drawer front because I might use it later on (either by reassembling the drawer itself or doing a fold down front). I also saved the drawer bottom.

2. Clean.

I tried some soap and water, but there were some stubborn wax like spots and some sticky places. I took a magic eraser to those sections. I was careful to go light on the magic eraser since it can remove finishes and lighten up the wood. Each section got wiped down with clean water afterwards. Then, I used lemon oil. Lemon oil is pretty much my new love. Old wood is thirsty (and not for my kids sippy cup spills). Lemon oil can really make your furniture shine.



3. New hardware. I had picked up a bag of old knobs from a garage sale a few years ago and this was a perfect time to use some of them. The old wooden knobs were fine, but a few were missing. The new(er) clean silver ones look quite sharp even if there is gold features on the drawers.



It's rather easy to use a old dresser for TV equipment. In the missing drawer opening, you just need to create a bottom for the items to sit on. (You could also do baskets or something like that if you wanted to use the dresser in a bedroom). In the future I will replace the bottom I have with a nice piece of wood I finish to match, but since I was just using what I had in my house last night, I cut a piece of scrap wood to fit across the bottom and then placed the drawer bottom on top to make it look a bit more finished. I might add some fun wallpaper or something to add visual interest in the next couple days.




I then had to cut a hole in the back. I was hesitant to do this since I might use the dresser for another purpose down the line. I figured since the back was a bit warped, I might just replace the entire back in the future anyways, so I went ahead and cut a hole in the back.

I did all my cuts with my new toy, a Dremel. This was the maiden voyage for the Dremel. I found it easy to put together and use different bits, although the instructions are pretty much useless. I did have a hard time with control. The cuts are so terrible I think my daughter would have done a better job with her play saw. I think I might need a better work surface (my kitchen chair didn't seem to do the job...imagine that), but it was super easy to cut the hole in the back of the dresser. The size was good for my freakish small hands. I'm bit fearful of cutting tools in general, but the Dremel is small enough that I wasn't scared to use it. It does make me want the Dremel Saw Max though. (Christmas idea for my husband?). Over-all for doing the entire project in an hour, I am very happy with the result. My husband thinks he might like it more than the Target stand we had before. Probably because he didn't have to put this one together!