We’ve been wanting a new media cabinet for quite a while.  The old one (read about it here) was cute, but we don’t want cute.  Looking back at the photos, painting it black would have been better than painting it white, or even staining it a really, really dark brown.  Either way, it still wasn’t what we wanted.  So here is our “new one” as of this morning:

Bookshelf as media cabinet
I’ve talked a lot about the benefits of simplifying, but one of the challenges? Filling a bookshelf.

Here’s what the old one looked like:

Media cabinet from sideboard

The new shelf (it’s a bookshelf on its side with the legs removed) is a temporary fill-in until we find the perfect one, and it’s been in this spot before.  We actually used it as our media cabinet for a year after we moved in.

It has been with us through 5 homes and three states in 8 years.  It first served as a room divider to separate the entryway from the living room in our small duplex.  Then it was a bookshelf in our loft, then extra kitchen storage in a teeny-tiny apartment, and for the last two years it was bathroom storage.  Not bad for a $100 shelf from Big Lots!

Now the old cabinet is going back on Craigslist where it came from.

Pin

Explore More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Comments

  1. You are clearly not married to a HiFi enthusiastic. Where are all your appliances and speakers?? 😀
    We have about hundred cables going back and forth behind our telly.

    That shelf looks exactly like the Expedit from Ikea. I like that it’s been in such a versatile use. Since you don’t have much stuff which would hide those cables (if you want to hide them), you could attach a fabric or a wallpapered board on the back. That could look quite nice especially when most of the cubes are clear of stuff and wont make it look messy.

    Reply

    1. The Hubs and A couldn’t be more opposite in that. 🙂 We don’t even have television service, we just use the TV for an occasional video game and we listen to music through our phones and a mini wireless speaker.

      The backing is a brilliant idea! It would lower the contrast between the wall color and the shelf color too…

      Reply