"New" Entertainment Center

I've wanted to paint our honey colored laminate entertainment center for a LONG time.
I've always disliked the original location of the TV but that's the corner the cables and antenna were in. The cabinet never fit completely in the corner and had to sit at an angle. So our sofas never faced it directly because I wanted them lined up with the walls since the room isn't super big. I always got a kink in my neck watching TV. (oh the sacrifices we make!)

Well ever since we had to get those ridiculous HD boxes so our outdated TV would work with all the national changes... our TV has never worked. We could no longer get reception on our favorite channels. We adapted and now watch all of our shows online and through Netflix. Since we weren't actually watching the TV anymore I decided book club was the perfect excuse to move it. We went ahead and unhooked it from the useless antennas and moved it to a more efficient and practical space, against the back wall.

Well, knowing I wanted to paint it I didn't want to unhook and take everything off, move it, put it all back together and then empty it all out again a few days later just to take it out and paint it. But I also wanted to rearrange before book club on Friday. Melonee quickly convinced me we could move it out that same day and have it painted and back in the house before book club a few days later. It didn't take much for me to agree and by that night it was sporting it's first layer of paint. (Boy was Mike surprised!)

I was nervous to try painting it since it's laminate. I did some research and was pretty confident I could do it. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it (someday we want a bigger one with a bigger TV.) I had some leftover "special primer" for painting laminate from Thomas' dresser makeover and several gallons of "oops" paint in my garage. I found a nice natural green color already in my stash. Perfect! If all went well it wouldn't cost me a penny.

I took off all the hardware, which I spray painted ORB (already on hand.) I wiped the "wood" down with a liquid sander (already on hand) instead of sanding, risky move but it worked beautifully. I painted on a thorough coat of the special gray primer and let it sit a few hours. The first coat of paint... I didn't love it. A little too pastel minty toothpaste looking. Second coat... still didn't love it. I was a little discouraged at this point and trying to decide if I should do something else, like buy a new paint color. After all this work I didn't want to spend a lot of time repainting (and I really wanted to be able to say it didn't cost me anything.) I decided to rub the whole piece down with a dark walnut stain and see what happened. I'd always loved the effect of stain in the past. Instant love! The stain toned the pastel down, added warmth and depth and filled in the carved wheat details so they really stand out.

I had to wait 24 hours for the stain to dry before I could apply the polycrylic. I used a spray and did 3 coats. I spray painted the board that attaches to the back with a dark brown (again leftover from Thomas). It was ready to move in Friday morning, just in time to reassemble the electronics and finish "staging" my living room for the party. Nothing like last minute.

Here it is before we put the "stuff" back in.


I think it looks like a boutique piece now instead of a cheap laminate TV stand.

I have gotten a lot of comments on it. Three people have asked us when we bought new furniture. Yeah, it looks that good. Did I say how much I love it? Oh and the best part (aside from the whole FREE thing)? Except for moving the furniture in and out of the house, I did the entire thing by myself. Yep every paint stroke, wipe, sanding, spraying, disassembling and reassembling... all me!

Here's the before and after one more time:

It's been a month and the cabinet has held up perfectly. There's not a scratch or chip anywhere. And this is with kids pulling baskets on and off shelves and banging doors open and closed. I expect it to hold up for a long time... no Melonee, you can't have it back. :)