Does it ever happen to you that you need something but you don't have the money to get it? Or that you don't want to throw something out because you know it has the potential for something way better? Well, both things happened to me with my TV stand. I had just moved into my new apartment which was extremely old and needed a remodeling asap. That's where all of my money went to the endless remodeling. Some of the things I needed to remodel was the kitchen (which is an ongoing project). It literally had a stove and a broken countertop. I went to an app called Wallapop (one of my favs) and then after endlessly searching for some kitchen furniture found one. It was a lot more furniture than what I needed but it was such an amazing price that I said yes to it all.
And so then some friends installed the new kitchen cabinets and countertops but naturally, there were a couple of extra ones. Instead of immediately selling them, I thought of ways to use them around the house. I did need furniture, at least until I bought new ones. One of the things I needed was a place to put my TV. And so I got one of the leftover kitchen furniture and used it as one. As the weeks passed, I noticed how useful this stand was and how I could actually make it look more modern and less kitchen like. It was green, had the typical kitchen handles, and was wobbly because it had no support.
The first thing I did was decide how I wanted to look like. Modern? Chic? Vintage? And so I tried to take a safe road and work with what I had since I really didn't have a lot of money to have a wide range of options. I had some leftover baby blue chalk paint from another project (I will write a post on that one) and so I decided to paint the inside with this color. Just by doing that it made it look so much nicer when you opened it. Then I would look at the before mentioned app, Wallapop, for "legs" for my future TV furniture and one day I found them! My father helped me install them on the bottom and it changes a lot! It wasn't wobbly anymore and it started to look less like a kitchen cabinet.
One day I was shopping at one of my favorite stores, TEDI, and saw that they had some very cute knobs and so I bought 3, 2 for the stand and one just in case. They were white with very light grey stamps on it, very French-like. And so now that I had that, I watched several YouTube tutorials that helped me cover up where the old handles were. I used some light grey pain that I had bought one day just because it was on sale and it looked perfect! Then my father again helped me install the new handles (I am not friends with the drill).
A couple of weeks passed and I was looking online to buy some auto adhesive wood looking paper for the TV stand, just to finish it off. I saw several but wasn't very sure about which one I wanted. One day while shopping for my bedroom wall paint I saw that they had a sell on...drum roll...auto adhesive wood looking paper! I chose the one that I wanted and the very next day I finished my TV stand!
I put some of that paper at the top and then added some more on the inside It couldn't look any better! I felt extremely proud because I only spent 20€ on this project. I was lucky enough to find things on sale as well as having leftover paint from other projects. I use it currently as my towels and sheets cabinet and it's my little masterpiece.
Some tips I can give you when doing this kind of project:
✫ Plan! Definitely plan what you want to do. You don't want to spend money on refurbishing something that you won't want to use at all. Make a list of what you need and calculate your expenses. And once you're out shopping for some things, keep an eye out for the things on that list.
✫ Try using neutral colors or colors that are easy to match around with. Green may be a great color but have in mind that if you have green furniture, you will need to decorate around that color.
✫ Take that extra time to look for sales. It isn't the most exciting thing to do but it will be worth it. Maybe if you see that the difference is "just" 5€, those five euros will add up in the end.
✫ Just because it's on that cheap website doesn't mean it's cheaper. I am a fan of buying things online. Either through Amazon, Ebay and Aliexpress, I love them all. However, they are not the cheapest all the time. You may be surprised that some of your local stores carry the same things for a cheaper price. So have a look before buying them online.
The first thing I did was decide how I wanted to look like. Modern? Chic? Vintage? And so I tried to take a safe road and work with what I had since I really didn't have a lot of money to have a wide range of options. I had some leftover baby blue chalk paint from another project (I will write a post on that one) and so I decided to paint the inside with this color. Just by doing that it made it look so much nicer when you opened it. Then I would look at the before mentioned app, Wallapop, for "legs" for my future TV furniture and one day I found them! My father helped me install them on the bottom and it changes a lot! It wasn't wobbly anymore and it started to look less like a kitchen cabinet.
One day I was shopping at one of my favorite stores, TEDI, and saw that they had some very cute knobs and so I bought 3, 2 for the stand and one just in case. They were white with very light grey stamps on it, very French-like. And so now that I had that, I watched several YouTube tutorials that helped me cover up where the old handles were. I used some light grey pain that I had bought one day just because it was on sale and it looked perfect! Then my father again helped me install the new handles (I am not friends with the drill).
I put some of that paper at the top and then added some more on the inside It couldn't look any better! I felt extremely proud because I only spent 20€ on this project. I was lucky enough to find things on sale as well as having leftover paint from other projects. I use it currently as my towels and sheets cabinet and it's my little masterpiece. Some tips I can give you when doing this kind of project:
✫ Plan! Definitely plan what you want to do. You don't want to spend money on refurbishing something that you won't want to use at all. Make a list of what you need and calculate your expenses. And once you're out shopping for some things, keep an eye out for the things on that list.
✫ Try using neutral colors or colors that are easy to match around with. Green may be a great color but have in mind that if you have green furniture, you will need to decorate around that color.
✫ Take that extra time to look for sales. It isn't the most exciting thing to do but it will be worth it. Maybe if you see that the difference is "just" 5€, those five euros will add up in the end.
✫ Just because it's on that cheap website doesn't mean it's cheaper. I am a fan of buying things online. Either through Amazon, Ebay and Aliexpress, I love them all. However, they are not the cheapest all the time. You may be surprised that some of your local stores carry the same things for a cheaper price. So have a look before buying them online.
Do you have any tips or advice on how to refurbish furniture?
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