DIY Project #2

DIY Project #2 was a project that I spur of the moment talked my husband into doing and then he spur of the moment asked his dad for help. Thankfully, he agreed. I purchased a new TV for us a little over a week ago. A TV that Chris had been dreaming of purchasing for quite some time. We went to buy one Labor Day weekend, but the place we went to was out of the one we wanted, of course. So I went back later to another location and purchased the TV. The bad thing about now having the TV we wanted was that we didn't have anything to put it on. Ugh!

I had been desperately searching everywhere for one that would look great in our living room/sunroom, but I never found anything that really fit. Of course I could easily find one at Pottery Barn that we like, but who wants to spend $700-$900 on a TV stand? Not us.

As I mentioned in my previous DIY post, I have become addicted to designers' blogs. In the midst of reading these blogs, they have led me to a new addiction, Knock-Off Wood. This lady basically takes furniture from Pottery Barn and other expensive stores and tells you how to build it yourself. Awesome. We can pick what we want and build it ourselves for a fraction of the cost! I have been super pumped ever since I found this website. Chris, on the other hand, was not so thrilled.

After searching one Friday night in every furniture store we could think of, we were thinking that we weren't going to find anything that would look great in our space. Saturday morning we woke up and I said, let's do it, let's build our TV stand. Huh? Those were Chris' exact words. I think he was pretty frustrated from the previous night's search, so he said okay, although his expectations were very low. Thankfully, Chris' Dad has all the necessary tools, because we own zero. Christmas presents anyone? We called Chris' Dad to see what he was up to for the day. He was probably planning a day relaxing on the couch, but thankfully he agreed to help us out. We drove to Summerville, dropped off Reed and then headed to pick up the wood and start building.........

Here is the link for the Tryde Media Console that we built. We only built the bottom half, which is all that is included in this plan. There is another plan for the hutch if you are interested. This plan is very similar to the Hyde Turned-Leg Media Console from Pottery Barn. Of course ours doesn't have the turned-legs, which we really didn't want and it didn't carry the pricetag of the Pottery Barn one. Theirs is $699, ours is around $150, yay us!

Making some cuts. Chris and his Dad did all of the work on this project during the building phase. I literally didn't hammer a single nail. I don't see how that's fair since it was my idea. My role for this project was project manager. I plan to be a little more involved in the next project.

The first step was to build the box that makes up the main part of the console.

Then, attach the legs.

And then attach the top.

The unfinished finished project.

We took it home, sanded it, stained it and put two coats of polyurethane on it.

And it looks so AWESOME in our sunroom!! Please ignore the cords, Chris hasn't had time to organize the mess I made hooking everything up.

A little bit closer shot.

And, from the side.

It fits so perfectly in our favorite room in the house. This is now where we spend most of our time while at home.

A HUGE thanks to Mike, Chris' Dad, for helping so much on this project! We couldn't have done it without you and it certainly wouldn't have been as straight. And, thanks to Chris for agreeing to my crazy project and for coming out ready to do it again. We think a dining room table is probably next!!!