Thursday, April 5, 2012

family room progress

Remember how I gushy I got about Ikea's shoe cabinet, here? How I loved it so much I bought two? That's because with my problematic family room, posted here, it not only needed to function as a mudroom, but also as our media/entertainment center console.

I got the idea here.

I was pretty sure this would do the trick. Except instead of a mirror, we mounted our flat screen.

Initially, I didn't notice the gap in between the two units from my above inspiration image, but once we assembled ours, that gap really bothered me.

So, we just preformed our first Ikea Hack (pretty minor, I know). We took the tops off, drilled new holes so that that each was offer center to both to the left and the right. This way each individual piece could butt right up to each other instead of creating that narrow gap.

And our entertainment center was born.

Sorta of.

Until we mounted our TV and realized how high it was on the wall. Too high. Like sitting in the front row of the movie theatre high. No good.

So, we trimmed the legs. Since we bought the tall ones, and our ceiling is quite low, we trimmed the legs quite a bit. This allowed us to mount the TV at a much more comfortable and normal height.

You can see in this Ikea image that the legs are longer.



You can see from the above photo:
  • that we trimmed the legs almost all the way off
  • how we scooted the tops over so that two pieces can sit flush next to each other
  • my cool flooring situation, posted here.
  • my partially painted ceiling
  • the new crown moulding
  • the lack of a baseboard
  • my fun green CB vase, posted here
And remember this what the room looked like when we moved in. 


It's slowly coming together, baby step by baby step. (More on the transformation coming later!)

If you are into Ikea hacks, check out this site.

Do you have any Ikea hacks?



8 comments:

  1. Wow! What a difference! I love the Ikea cabinet that you are using as a TV console. Great idea! I can't wait to see your finished space.
    Thank you also for all your kind words on my blog!

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  2. This looks amazing! I have been crushing on these cabinets for a while. Believe it or not, if you look back at my design boards I even proposed two of the shorter ones for a client's tv console. You made your space look fab and it's not even done. Bravo!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! We actually considered using the shorter ones, and even bought one. Unfortunately Ikea is pretty far away AND this room has no other storage at this point, so we went with the taller ones. I'll have to check out your mood board.

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  3. what a great idea they look really neat butted up together! I have similar units in our hall way, meant for shoes, but are actually filled up with all kinds of junk, must get around to sorting that some time...

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  4. That is AWESOME! I love those shoe cabinets and that is a perfect way to "fix" them! Love your blog! Do you have a facebook page for the blog? I am following most blogs on facebook now...

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  5. I have been seeing many people use the Ikea Shoe Cabinet. I'm in love!

    http://withasparklex.blogspot.com/

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  6. What a great idea to use the shoe cabinet as a TV stand! Can't wait to see your finished room.

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