Current Crafts: My TV Stand and Love It or List It

So Netflix has this house show called Love It or List It. There are two "experts." One to fix the old house and one to find a new house. In the end, the owners decide if they stay or sell.

I ALWAYS want them to stay. Okay, so maybe once or twice I might have seen that leaving was the "smart" choice, but I always have high hopes for the old house. That might explain why I don't like this show as much as ones where the house gets a total remodel. To up the drama, they always have to "drop" several remodeling projects off the list in favor of some problem being fixed. That really irritates me. (They need those high-end appliances at the expense of a second bathroom? Hello! Give them the bathroom.) Anyway, to get back to the point, I've discovered that I'm very invested in seeing old things get a new life.

Maybe it's a religious parallel thing, like the poem about the old violin or something. I'm not exactly a DIY person myself. I try a lot. And make a lot of messes.

So anyway, we've been rearranging our furniture to fit a second couch in our tiny living room. The old entertainment center was moved to a corner, but it juts out into the room and takes up too much space. We've just dealt with the old entertainment center for about a month.

The other day I was in Savers and came across this ugly, sad little corner TV stand. I took a photo and sent it to my husband, partially in jest, informing him it was a mere ten dollars. I then left it there. I didn't have a large enough vehicle to get it home anyway, right?


But days later I was still thinking about it. And all those pins on Pinterest and the binge watching of Love It or List It worked together to bring me around to the idea that I didn't want to "just deal" with the old entertainment center.

Back at Savers, I found the sad little TV stand still unsold, dirty, with two VHS movies forgotten in the cupboards. I bought it. I drove around to the pick-up doors and asked them if they could work some magic, and get the stand in my car somehow. Thank you nice, helpful man from Savers who crawled under my car to attach a rope to a ten dollar entertainment center and then tied all the knots so all I had to do was pull to get them loose. You are truly amazing. With the trunk open and the stand held down by the rope, I bounced slowly between Savers and the few blocks to my house.

I moved it multiple times from my back porch to the lawn to get it in and out of the rain. I went to Lowe's three times. I ran out of paint and the inside isn't nearly as pretty as the outside. My daughter drew on the newly dried second coat of pain and scattered the hardware on the porch and in the house. She also got a little painted herself. I put one door on slightly crooked. And I painted over laminate. (Gasp!) I'm not sure how long this is going to last, but I got it all finished this weekend. I like it. It's pretty now. Or at least better than before. And in reality, that's what I always want from Love It or List It.

3 comments

  1. It's so cute now! Way to go, Jo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow – I saw a cabinet just like that at the dump last week – if I’d had your imagination I would have taken it home and repainted it! I gave my daughter’s chest of draws a new lease of life a few years ago with some lovely stencils – so you don’t always have to buy new.

    Jeanmarie @ RVM

    ReplyDelete
  3. *giggles*
    Oh JoLyn. We truly are kindred spirits. You didn't tell me I wasn't the only one who obsessed over second-hand furniture and went back to find it still there! I love it!

    ReplyDelete