New Media Stand

We have a new media stand!

I love my old red media stand, I really do.  Originally it was an ugly Ikea piece, falling apart in our apartment - until one day I discovered the magic of furniture hacking and painting.  I fixed the broken parts, improved the structure, painted it a fabulous candy apple red and added knobs from Anthropologie.  It was like a makeover scene out of a movie - the ugly duckling became a swan.

Except now it's not working in our current living room.  The bright red against the yellow wallpaper was too jarring (plus a little McDonald's) and it was the wrong size for the space.  Not only was it too tall for the angle of the stairs and the height of the television, it was also too deep for the narrow space, constructed back in the days of large backed TVs.  So my solution was to pick out a new stand - something shorter and thinner but still had drawers or solid doors to hide our DVDs, cables, etc.

My first choice was this Abbot Media Stand from Crate and Barrel.  I loved the espresso finish, two drawers, and clean look - except even on sale the price was too high for our budget, especially once you tack on shipping (and it wasn't available in any local stores).  I checked out some local furniture discount sites and even IKEA, but everything that looked decent was just too pricey.  Enter our local Target and their Avington media stand - on sale for a great price, clean lines, two drawers, espresso finish and large enough to hold our 42" television - SOLD!  We walked out with the last one and saved ourselves the shipping fees too.

Last night we put the stand together. And by "we" I mean Mike.  I think it fits in the space so much better and blends well with our living room.  At some point I would like to treat myself to another set of Anthropologie knobs to dress it up, but for now the stock ones work just fine.   The red media stand is being re-purposed in the sun room as a plant stand/book shelf/storage unit once we finish clearing out those boxes. 

**Well this is embarrassing, but due to technical difficulties my "before" photos mysteriously disappeared off my hard drive.  When I suggested to Mike that we put the red media stand back for a quick picture, he looked at me like I had grown two heads. So for the sake my marriage and sanity, this is a badly done photoshop job using an old picture from our apartment will have to do. However at least it gives you a sense of size and scale.