A New Coat of Paint for an Old Entertainment Center

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This post could also be appropriately titled, “How I Broke my Husband’s Heart with a Quart of Paint,” as he was never fully behind this redo. I tell you, not everyone “gets” my vision. One day, my kids will be stripping paint off of everything I ever touched, and cursing my name the whole time.

We bought this cherry Ethan Allen entertainment center in 1997, to hold our big, huge, 35″ TV. Remember those big old monsters? Almost everyone has a flat screen now, but you used to have to have a big entertainment center to hide your big old TV when you weren’t watching it. My husband talked me into buying the TV right before he deployed to Bosnia (so I can watch the Superbowl on the big TV before I go off to war, baby), but the entertainment center was one of my requirements.

It was great in the ’90s, but all that dark wood (however pretty) is looking kind of dated in my light and white house. My husband suggested giving it to Goodwill or selling it on Craigslist, but I figured, if I’d buy something like this at Goodwill just to paint it, why not paint what I already own? This is where he just didn’t see my vision…but he went out of town and I just went for it.

I’ve already taken the hardware off here, but you get the idea. I decided that I was going to paint the armoire so it could hold the kids TV (it’s connected to the Wii) in their playroom. Our colors in there are blue, green and white, so I chose an apple green. My inspiration piece was in Pottery Barn Kids this summer…

If you’ve never painted furniture before, it’s a breeze. Here are the steps: clean the piece of dust and dirt, sand all surfaces, wipe the sanding dust off, apply primer, sand lightly and wipe down, and apply at least one top coat (I brushed this instead of rolling it). I used latex paint on this piece, but I also don’t mind the inevitable nicks and dings that you get with latex. We move every couple of years, so none of my pieces are perfect, anyway. I used oil when I did my kitchen cabinets, but those have to hold up forever because I will NEVER paint them again!

Finally, I added pulls that I bought at Hobby Lobby on their 50% off week. *LOVE* Hobby Lobby’s pulls and knobs, if you haven’t been there yet! These are a cheerful multicolor polkadot pattern.

Now that we’ve moved from North Carolina to Tennessee, this armoire is in my guest room instead of the playroom/schoolroom/bonus room, because all of our TVs are in different rooms. It doesn’t match at all in the guest room, but we’ll be moving again in less than two years, so I’ve just got to be patient and everything will change again soon!

Thanks for stopping by!