Our old entertainment center that we have had since our first apartment.
You may be in the market for a new piece of furniture, but look no further than your own house. This weekend I decided that I wanted a new entertainment center, but I only wanted to spend…. just about nothing. I looked on Craiglist and Ebay, even checked out some of the stuff over at Ikea, I found nothing that I liked that was in my price range.
Then I looked into building something and I realized I don’t have very many tools. I had to think of something. Then it happened, I looked around my living room. Sitting near my front door was an old chest that we had bought on Ebay last year for $10. We had emptied out everything that it had originally been for and it was just sitting there, empty. I had no other purpose in mind for it and I was going to give it away on Freecycle.
I took at look at it and measured our TV, our TV would perfectly fit on top. I could paint it, add some new knobs, and it would be as good as new. I headed off to Lowe’s. At Lowe’s I purchased a gallon of dark brown paint (to match all of my dark woods I already have in the room) and went to work. Although I could have gotten away with a quart of paint, I know I will find other items to paint this same dark brown. So, for the price of a gallon of paint (~$18) and new satin nickel knobs (~$20), I have a new piece of furniture. I actually think the chest will work much better than our current entertainment center, being half the size. Our room is not huge and every inch of space needs to be utilized.
Before
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Lightly sand the piece. This will help the new coat of paint stick.
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Wipe your freshly sanded piece down with a damp cloth. This not only cleans the piece, it removes the dust you just sanded off.
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Paint your piece with an even coat of paint. You will need to apply at least two coats. I needed three in some spots. Make sure you take out the drawers (if it has them) and paint them separately.
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Let the piece dry thoroughly. If you put things on it while it’s still tacky, your fresh paint will peel right off, so be patient. (I know, it’s hard.)
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Add new hardware.
After
I promise you will not regret updating a piece of furniture in your home. Even if you paint it and decide you hate it, you can always paint it another color. The possibilities are endless. Have you every painted furniture before? What challenges did you run into?
