Television Cabinet Repurposed as Craft Storage

Hey all! It’s almost the freakin’ weekend, so cheers to that, and to the fact that I am finishing my first week back to school today. I am pretty sure the last time I blogged anything about my downstairs family room was last February when I showed you my vintage MCM lamp makeover. Well, a few things have changed in this room since then, so I thought I would show them to you today. It all started when I finally found a vintage MCM record player, and refinished it to use as a TV cabinet in our upstairs living room. We decided to move The TV stand that was upstairs down to this room, and we originally planned to sell this giant TV cabinet. But then I started thinking about it, and about how little storage we have in this house, and I realized that I could repurpose this cabinet into some much needed storage for my craft supplies and extra decor that I have- brilliant! These things were all scattered around the house because I had no centralized place to keep it.

It wasn’t easy convincing my husband that if we got rid of the elliptical machine that no one ever used, we could squeeze this cabinet into this little nook in the family room. But he relented, so we sold the elliptical, and the giant TV cabinet just barely fit where I needed it to go- the only place in the entire house where we could possibly put it. And believe it or not, the room actually felt bigger once we made the change, because the elliptical used to jut way out into the middle of the floor, and this doesn’t. It’s not ideal having it right here, but it works! In my mind, I have big plans for painting this cabinet, ripping off the cardboard-ish back and replacing it with something more substantial, hanging some shelves, and making it all pretty on the inside. And maybe one day I will get to that. But after months of it sitting there empty because of my idea to make it over first, I decided to just go ahead and move my supplies into it using what I had to work with (which wasn’t much). I can always empty it out again in a few short minutes when and if I decided to get to work on it. And boy, am I glad I went ahead and loaded it up!

I used a couple of boxes that I already had, and a couple of red crates that I already had. I gathered up my supplies from the various nooks and crannies I had them stuffed into, and got to organizing!

The best news of all is that I have plenty of room for even more stuff in this cabinet! Remember, I didn’t go out and purchase anything for this organization project. I would like to find some baskets that will fit into the four bottom shelves, so that I can utilize them for even more stuff. The red crates hold extra decor items that I am not currently using in my house, and there is plenty of room for more.

The rubbermaid box contains different supplies that I use for crafting. And the box under that holds things like moss, leaves, and flowers. The shelves below contain things like extra frames, craft paper, and holiday themed decor.

I had an old cabinet door laying around that I had removed from our kitchen island, so I placed it on the back half of the rubbermaid box to serve as a shelf. I places some extra vases and bottles on it.

I was so happy when I was finished! All of my stuff is finally in one place, and I don’t have to search for things anymore! It might not be pretty, but it is certainly functional, and really that is the main thing I look for when it comes to organization and storage. If the major things in my house were finished, I would probably find the time to make this cabinet something special, but when I still have rooms that need to be painted, I can’t justify this in my brain!

BTW, this was my first time using my new camera to photograph anything in our house, so I took a few other shots of the family room, just in case you have never seen it, and since we moved the upstairs TV stand down here, it looks a little different too. This area below is where the giant TV cabinet used to be. We hung our TV up on the wall, and got rid of the giant box of a TV we did have down here, yay for that! And yes, this green dresser is still green! I have had plans to repaint it for years now, and yet it remains untouched for much the same reason that I did not paint or fix up the TV cabinet. But I did some organizing in the drawers too. This is now a gift wrapping station! Our gift wrapping stuff was previously upstairs in our attic, and we had to go up there every time something needed wrapped, so we are thrilled that we don’t have to do that anymore!

Our Apple TV cord is too short, and it was just hanging there, so I had this little box shelf that ended up being the perfect height if I sat it on top of my vintage projector. Now the Apple TV thing isn’t hanging there. It is a temporary solution that just happened to work. But it is not permanent.

This sofa is unbelievably comfortable, but it is starting to sag in the middle, so we are planning to try to fix it so that we can keep it for longer, because the kids love it so much. And I really dig the colorful gallery wall I have over the sofa!

I was getting ready to go to Haven when I was down here working, so I drew on this chalkboard just for laughs, hehe! Get a load of the person I drew in the left hand corner – that is pure talent people!

Having my craft and decor supplies in one convenient location is so great for me, and I am so glad that I didn’t sell this cabinet. Hopefully one day I will be able to spend the time to make over this cabinet so that it fits with the decor style I am trying to achieve. But it is find with me right now. This room is a hang out space for our teenagers, so I don’t come down here much. And they don’t care as long as they have a place to hang with their friends!

Do you have an old giant TV cabinet that you are thinking of getting rid of? Why not repurpose it into storage for something else? If you are lacking in the storage department, it could come in really handy! Have a great weekend!