No, I don't always hang out at the landfill. Most of my finds are at yard sales, flea markets, Craigslist and from having a finely tuned eagle eye for dumpsters. The first of each month, when people learn that they did not get a big enough truck for their move after all, is a wonderful time to find dumpster treasures. I have several of first of the month dumpster finds that I'll be sharing with you later.
I've repurposed items for years. One of my earliest repurposing projects was in 4-H, years ago, when my sewing project involved sewing together two towels and running a coordinated cord through a flap at the top that tied on each shoulder. Voila! Swimsuit cover!! Despite the blue ribbon at the county fair, I still can't believe I ever wore that!
Despite that cringe worthy redo of common items, the first time I labeled a project as being repurposed was just a few months ago. This was a Craigslist freebie. Yes, it was a totally free entertainment center from the Broyhill Fontana collection.
There are LOTS of free entertainment centers out there waiting to be repurposed as people rid themselves of bulky old school TV's and hang newfangled flat TV's directly on the wall. I couldn't pass up the chance to do a very simple repurpose project, so I speed dialed my ex, who has a truck. He happily picked up this beautiful find and delivered it to my house.
I knew right away that this would make a beautiful wine / bar cabinet. The first order of business was a trip to Lowes to pick out a piece of paneling that would closely match the finish of the entertainment center. These old style entertainment centers have the big cutouts in the back panel for the cords and for the back of the TV to fit through. We can't have that, so off to Lowes I went. Lowes has a great selection of finished wall board paneling as well as unfinished, but I didn't want to have to match up wood grain and buy stain. Luckily, they had a finished piece that was a close match. I took a drawer with me to make sure. I highly recommend taking a small piece to the store to match a finish or wood grain. Best of all, the helpful staff at Lowes cut the panel to the exact dimensions I needed. Other than a hammer for the small tack nails, no other equipment was needed! Cost of paneling and tack nails was under $20!
I really wanted a wood wine glass rack to attach to the little shelf at the top that was originally intended to hold a cable box or DVD player. For some reason, I could not find one anywhere for less than $50 dollars, which I did not want to spend. I ended up with a $5 metal wine glass rack that was designed to slide onto the shelf and hang below it. Not perfect, but I can tie it in with accessories.
Here is how it ended up looking after accessorizing :
A couple of glasses, a decanter, a wicker wine bottle holder and a tray with bar accessories in the right hand drawer made it complete. I already had the accessories, so my end cost was around $25 plus a nice meal for my ex to thank him for his generous assistance with the initial delivery. Not bad, huh? Can you believe someone was giving this away?
What would you have done with this great find?
See ya soon!
Shelley
