Entertained

So, I have another blog, but I've kind of abandoned it.  I had every intention of posting more there, but the minute we actually moved into the house, I let everything else drop.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Like, I didn't transfer the mail (for over a month), I still don't have internet at home (going on two months), and there are still several things left at his moms house that we haven't brought over.  So, obviously, with all that cast to the side, the blog was obviously not the most important thing on my mind.  But, I have stuff to talk about, so, instead, I'm going to do it here.

We needed a new entertainment center.  We had a very cute little TV stand that we bought from Ashley, but the 10 foot ceilings swallowed it.  It looked very sad, so we went out searching for something new.  We thought about designing 'built in' cabinets, starting with the ones we bought for the bathroom (but never ended up using!).  Instead, we went to Carries Flea Market.  It's in the edge of a bad part of town, and you have to dig to find a gem, but we've managed to find a few there!

Including this: (Here is what the bottom part should look like, and the top)

It is freight damaged, the top parts of the skinny columns were supposed to have the fluted pillar in them too, but they were long gone.  

Brad wanted to place them on the floor beside the bottom piece, like in this photo, but I didn't want to.  Instead, we stacked them on top and built shelves to connect everything.  

First, we ripped off the backing, and replaced it all with bead board (we really like that stuff!).  

 then we painted everything antique white.  Yeah, yeah, I know, I painted a solid cherry cabinet.  Blah, blah, blah, I hear ya!  But, we saw some cute cabinets that day while shopping, and they had left the top cherry, so we decided to do that as well.

So I didn't paint everything.  Just most of it.  

But, after painting it, we sanded off some of the paint on the high points.  Like the column edges, the fronts of the curves and on the trim on the sides.

We put it together and stuck it on the wall.  I really like the way it turned out.  I love the small worm holes scattered around in cute clusters.  And, even at a towering 8 1/2 feet, it feels natural in our 10 foot ceilings.

The three pieces cost us $298, we spent about $30 on paint and supplies, and $90 on bead board and shelving.  So for less than $500 we have a one-of-a-kind entertainment center that rocks. (And the TV? It fits with 1 1/2 inches to spare!)