Hello! Welcome to my blog...which was only created in case you happened to stumble across my first ever post to Pinterest! After my latest project, I thought it would be cool to start keeping track of everything. I also would love to share my successes...and my failures; this preject had plenty of both!
Having just finished flipping a dresser for my mom....
...I was really itching to start another piece. My mom had mentioned that my sister in law might like a tv stand, so I texted her...and that's when my dream came true. She wanted something with barn doors!! Yesssss! I have been dying to do something with barn doors. This would be her birthday present, and other than picking colors, a complete surprise.
I found a tv stand on craigslist for $50. The searching process was frustrating because I had such a hard time finding one under $100. We had just moved from a military town where people were giving away furniture before moving overseas...my mom's dresser was $10....so it was hard to drop that kind of cash right off the bat!!
Craigslist picture wasn't bad...in person it was in ROUGH shape. It was so dirty, and beat up, but I drove an hour to go pick it up, so I'd make it work.
I sanded the top, then used deglosser on the rest. I would have been sanding for dayssssss.
I wrestled with deciding what paint to use. On the black dresser I used valspar flat wall paint. It covered well, had the nice matte finish, was cheaper, but more difficult to distress. On the China hutch that I flipped, I used Americana chalk paint from Home Depot. It was pricey, but I did like the finish. Then again....that Basset hutch only cost me $20...so I had more room to play...or pay...which we did, because it took SO MUCH PAINT!
For the TV Stand, I decided on valspar flat wall paint. No color added, just straight off the shelf for the crisp white color my sister in law wanted. At this point in my project I was already wishing I had worked out my arms more before this. It took 3 coats on the top and sides, and 4 coats on the insides.
Between coats of paint, I sanded and stained the shelves, and began work on the barn doors. My dad used to be a high school shop teacher, so his carpentry skills did not go to waste with this project. We used the original doors and removed the glass fronts. (Speaking of doors...I completely removed the two small side doors for an open shelf look)
I used wainscoting boards to make the barn style door because they were thin enough to be glued over the original doors and the tongue in groove made our lives easier. Also...I absolutely love the way the pine wood takes the stain (see the black dresser up top? I used these same boards to replace the back)
I used minwax brand stain in the shade of red mahogany. It was a color that I would never have picked on my own, but boy do I love how it turned out!
Tv stand painted ✔
Shelves stained and sealed ✔
Barn doors made ✔✔
Mount barn doors....😕😓😲😟😢ðŸ˜
This part was difficult. Traditional barn door style hardware appears to be super expensive...I could not find it for under $50. A: I wasn't going to spend that much money
B: that kind of hardware wouldn't have worked with this TV stand
It was time to wing it. My dad had an idea to use wheels for a shower door and a metal track. Sweet! What could go wrong with that? Um...everything. The metal track was too deep, the wheels did not touch the bottom and instead scraped along the top of the track. Also, the screws holding the track on stuck out just enough that it caused the doors to hang up on them. We tried several different attempts to make the wheels touch the bottom. I bought thin pieces of wood from hobby lobby that fit perfectly down in the track, but it didn't work. The wood did sit high enough for the wheels to touch, but the doors did not open smoothly. I was about to burn it down at this point. We had spent 3 days figuring this out. I thought we had it figured out and had already set a date to deliver it...then realized that the doors were not in good enough working condition. I absolutely couldn't give it to her like that.
We ended up going with what should have been plan A all along: drawer slides ($14). I spray painted them black. I used very little spray paint because these slides are greased up to keep them smoothly operating and I didn't want it to interfere with that.
(Sorry I'm not good at taking progress pictures!)
We had to add a board to the TV Stand in order to mount the slides, but it left a big gap between it and the top.
Why didn't we make it flush with the top? We had actually already notched out the wood on either side of it for the previous metal track to rest on...also this was where it had to be mounted to fit the back of the barn doors.
Ahh, I love it when things come together! The drawer slides worked perfectly. The doors now open and close smoothly, and the doors stop in the middle, so they will always be centered.
To fill the gap, I decided to put the other metal track back on. Not only does it perfectly fit the gapp, but I feel like it adds character and fits with the design.
So here it is! The final product!!
😅
If you actually took the time to read this, thank you! And if you just looked at the pictures...thank you!
