I’d been looking for a TV cabinet for my living room for a while now.   I wanted something the TV could sit on with all the other electronics stored inside, hidden from view along with the messy cords.

I finally found this cabinet on Marketplace for $25.  It was the perfect length and height and had no back, which would work well for all the cords.    What I didn’t realize from the ad was that it had no legs and the doors wouldn’t open because they were dragging on the floor.  It appeared to be a section taken from a bigger cabinet like a hutch or entertainment center.  It has a nice solid 3/4″ plywood bottom so I figured I could easily attach some legs.  The mid-century style definitely does not go with the decor in my living room so the challenge was figuring out how to change that!

As much as I loved the original hardware it definitely wouldn’t work for what I had in mind for Honey.  I’m sure they will be perfect to use for another project.

This is Honey’s transformation:

The first step on this project was to attach six legs to the bottom of the cabinet.  I tried using only four but there was just enough sag in the middle that the doors wouldn’t open and shut properly.  Once I installed the two extra legs in the middle the doors opened and closed with ease.  I bought the legs at Lowes for around $6 each, so I spent $36 on legs for my $25 cabinet! 🙃   

After all six legs were attached, I removed the doors for easier painting.  The interior got two coats of primer and then two coats of white, satin finish latex.

For the exterior, I used a Pittsburgh paint color called Earthy Ocher as a base coat.  As I applied the second coat of Earthy, I blended in streaks of Pittsburgh Cold Espresso and Valspar Chocolate Turtle.  After that dried thoroughly, I lightly applied streaks of Waverly Antique wax with a brush, blending with a damp rag to give the paint a vintage wood look.  I finished by dry brushing with Valspar Tricorn Black.

I used some knobs I purchased at Hobby Lobby for $4 each and attached some rustic corner brackets, also from Hobby Lobby.  They were on sale for $2.50 each but by the time I paid for shipping, it came to $32!  It’s a good thing this cabinet was not going up for sale because I would never make a profit at this rate!  I think all-in with paint and hardware on this project, I spent about $122.

This cabinet is about 5 1/2′ long which helped fill in space on my TV wall perfectly!  The interior shelf is great for storing my old Christmas DVDs and all of my electronic devices.  The whole right side is just bonus storage!  I was so anxious to start using this piece I filled it up with stuff and forgot to take pics of the inside!  Oops!

I love my new cabinet and I think I was successful at changing the look from mid-century to rustic!  What do you think?