How I Got The Perfect Entertainment Unit For Free

This post has been on my to do list for way too long but I'm finally getting around to it with my new 2018 blogging goals. We are in the process of doing a huge amount of work to the house at the moment so my mind is abuzz with reno projects. We're currently painting the entire interior of the house (in white of course), this is all while we're going to be completely redoing the bathroom and laundry and while we rip up the carpet and DIY the wood floors. I'll have a lot to share on this blog this year obviously but I'm starting off with this little project I did a while back and all it cost me was $0.00.

How I Got The Perfect Entertainment Unit For Free

I don't like to buy anything for the home unless I'm in love with it. I only want to find the perfect things to fit, so when it came to moving in and not having an entertainment unit to put the television on, I wanted to wait. That meant, having the tv on an old handmade coffee table that wasn't even remotely in my style. We just had it lying around so we put it to use until I could find the perfect unit.

It took forever to find. A couple of years in fact. I would look at all the online second hand shops and go to garage sales and used furniture stores, and new but nothing worked for me. We have an odd space for the tv. As the home was build in 1954 the living room wasn't setup for the focal point to be a television. This means huge windows right around and a fireplace (currently taken up with an electric heater) on the feature wall. That leaves zero wall space for a tv. Instead we have a poky little corner. Of course our tv is bigger so it juts out and doesn't fit into the corner space. This meant the tv unit needed to be really small but big enough for the base of the television. And I wanted a little storage space as well.

Our local council has a throw out day every year where you can put all of the junk you don't want onto the street and they'll come and take it away. Man have we thrown out some stuff! But we've also picked up a lot of cool things too. Though we always throw out way more stuff than we take in. This is how I found our new entertainment unit. It was one that someone else didn't want anymore. It was pretty badly roughed up, gross and in need of a deep clean.

After cleaning the unit really well I sanded it back with a small hand sander. It was lacquered so it was tough but easy enough without having to strip it back thankfully.

When we moved in there was left over white paint in the shed (all white - it was meant to be) so I didn't have to buy anything in order to diy it all. Not a thing. Pretty good when you've been looking for an entertainment unit for a couple of years and then you find one for free. Much better than buying one you're not happy with straight up just because you need something. I'm a very impatient person but apparently not when it comes to my house. I know what I want so I'm going to wait to get it. You'll notice this theme in just about all of my posts from here on out because we've lived in this house for over 5 years now and it's needed work from day 1 which we could have done but I want it how I want it and sometimes that means being patient.

The painting took a lot longer than I'd imagined being that this unit is so small but it sucked up a lot of paint. I think it was about 5 full coats later until I was happy with how white it was.

Duke was my little helper, watching to make sure I didn't miss any spots.

Once the final coat of paint was finally dry I finished it by waxing it. The finish has come up so nicely but I did put a little too much wax on the top. It was my first time waxing furniture though so live and learn. I've used this little pot of wax on so much now. I absolutely love this stuff.

I've since used this same wax on the white painted cupboards in the bedroom and the baseboards and it holds up so well. The mistake of putting too much on the top can't happen with cupboards or baseboards. The problem with the top of the unit was putting too much on and then putting something heavy (tv) on top so it has dented the top finish of the wax a little. It's really not a bother though and you can't see it at all with the tv on top. Next time I do more furniture with this wax I'll know.

I'm keeping it real with these pictures as you can see with the mess here. Toilet in the back and other project next to it (I'll share that one soon too - it's one of my favourite projects ever and it turned out so beautiful). This years theme on the blog is to be real. As above, I'm not a professional, I'm learning this diy thing as I go and I'm going to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. That's ok though. I hope you'll stick around and learn with me, or rather from my mistakes.

Isn't it cute? I love the way it turned out. It's light and little. It has the storage I wanted in that draw and it matches my house and especially my dining table (which is also in the living room - living/dining space) in french provincial white as well.

And here it is. I have just taken this shot now. I didn't clean up (obviously) for the shot so you can see how it looks in the space every day, not just when it's looking it's best, or for a blog photo shoot. I'm pretty sick of done up, perfected photos, aren't you? Anyway I just love it. It makes the space look so much cleaner.

I also love how there's enough space underneath for the open record player. You can see a few of our records strewn about - keeping it real folks!

What do you think? Is this your style? Would you be happy to have an entertainment unit for free or one so small?