Thursday, March 4, 2010

Turning the Dining Hutch into a TV Cabinet.

Our family room entertainment center was an eyesore.  It was useful, but ugly, and the clutter in the open shelves was unbearable.



For a couple of months now, I have been trolling Craig's List and thrift shops looking for a dining hutch.  I had this wild-hare idea to take a hutch and turn it into an entertainment center for our yet-to-be-purchased flat-screen TV.

It's been frustrating, because I could see this project so clearly in my imagination.  All I needed to do was find the right hutch, and I'd be in business.  It had to be between five and a half and six feet wide and at least seven feet tall, and I wanted it to have nice straight lines.  (I'm not a frilly, carved, applique sort of girl)  None of the ones I saw were right ... until this weekend. 

photo from the Craig's List ad


This hutch would be perfect ... for my dining room.  It's solid cherry, and it's WAY too nice to cut apart to house a TV ... but we already have this hutch in the dining room.



Fast forward.  The husband and I huddled and came up with a new plan ... we bought the cherry hutch for the dining room.  It was too perfect to pass up.  Look how many more of my LuRay dishes fit in here ... I'll show you later how perfectly it coordinates with my cherry kitchen.



Our old hutch turned out to be exactly what I have been searching so hard to find for the TV.  It was sitting right here under our noses the whole time.  Sunday afternoon, after a brief session with a screwgun, a circular saw, and a hammer, our new entertainment center made its debut in the family room ... just in time for us to watch the Olympic gold-medal hockey game on the new TV.


I still have some little things left to do.  There are a couple of pieces of trim to reinstall on the hutch top, a shelf to build to divide the bottom open space to hold books, some accessorizing (those baskets are not staying there), and it will be finished. 

Isn't it perfect?

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)
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