Media Cabinet Makeover

Thanks to my blog friends, I was able to finally! choose a paint color to paint the back of the media center in our living room. Most of you who commented here, voted for the blue on the middle shelf. Well, little did I know that that color was called “Jamestown Blue.” A color with my son’s name had to be the one:) Before I painted the media center, which is a built in unit, it looked like this:

BEFORE

1st AFTER

I left the cabinet like this for about a week, then decided to paint the wall behind the television as well. I didn’t paint it initially because the t.v. is too hard to move and I knew I’d only be able to do part of the wall. Then, I realized the t.v. swiveled, making that paint job a bit easier. So, now all of the walls on the media cabinet are painted and it looks more cohesive.

2nd AFTER

I think it turned out pretty well. The blue is really nice in person with just a hint of aqua. It looks more slate and less sugary at home and is even prettier in the evening.

Step 1: Remove all items from shelf

Step 2: Remove shelves and apply tape to avoid getting paint where you don’t want it.

Step 3: Gather supplies (paint, foam rollers and brushes, bucket, drop cloth).

Step 4: Cover ginormous t.v. with drop cloth. (must.not.get.paint.on.t.v.must.not.get.paint.on.t.v.)!

Step 5: Begin painting. First I painted the frame with a foam brush.

Step 6: Then I used a foam roller to apply two coats of paint.

The cabinet looked like this when I was finished and put the shelves back in. I do have ~~some~~ a lot of “touch up” work to do where the paint is uneven near where I taped. I plan to get a small brush to redo those areas.

*Update: When I went back and painted the area behind the t.v., I also did those touch-ups, this time using Blue Frog tape instead of blue tape and taking the tape off as soon as I was done painting, while the paint was wet. The results were much better. I made sure that the tape was pressed down very hard before painting.

Instead of a 4 inch foam roller, I used a 6 inch fabric roller.

A small paint brush was used to do the cut ins, instead of the foam brush.

When the tape was removed, I had clean, crisp lines. Yay!!!! So much better.

I played around with the accessories, using a mix of silver, white and brown. To me, silver, white, and black looked too stark and so the browns added some warmth. I’m still searching for the perfect pictures to put in two of the silver frames. Also, I’m thinking of adding some large books to the shelves above the t.v. I tried removing the upper middle shelf, but it looked a bit odd. I plan to do a post soon on where I found or repurposed all the lovely accessories.