‘Tis the season for some DIY fun!

We’ve held off on a TV-storage solution for our main room for a year now. It’s an open space with a big white wall on the west side, perfect for seeing the television from the couch, dining table and kitchen. During this time of contemplation, we had the TV on our Ikea Liatorp side table. It was in our pre-renovated living room and it was meant to be left there* for David’s toys. The Liatorp is a great piece of affordable furniture for two kid-friendly reasons:

1. The television sits high up to avoid direct toy-throwing toddler height.
2. There is lots of storage, perfect for puzzles, games and bins.

With this being said, it was showing a bit of wear and tear and I didn’t like how the glass doors showed all of the toys. We wanted something a bit more adult and modern. I stumbled upon a great blog called the Brick House and loved their remake of the ACE Hotel’s Plumbing Pipe Shelving. Mike loved the idea too and we thought we could make our own version however, we quickly discovered Nova Scotia lacks the resources to make this project look as good as theirs. I was also worried it’d be a bit too risqué for such a open space in the house. Chicken.Although this project was scratched, I continued following the Brick House blog and one day, I saw their clever Ikea-hack. They call it the Fauxdenza and I instantly decided it’d be the perfect solution for our space. Here’s why:

1. It floats, allowing our high baseboard to stay exposed.
2. We had leftover wood from out kitchen cabinets, perfect for the full wrap-around.
3. Three words, high gloss white.
4. It hides tons of stuff, including games and the computer.
5. It is narrow and long – perfect for that wall.

We held off on the project because of Ikea’s overpriced shipping costs plus, our Golf was fully loaded on our last trip to Montreal. Until… Cyber Monday arrived and a friend gave me the heads up that there was free shipping in Canada! Score. We ordered three Akurum fan cab/ top cabinet to refrigerator and two suspension rails.

Mike and his dad did the install, which took less than a day. We are super happy with the outcome and look forward to stuffing the cabinets full of junk.

Minor adjustments to the doors and this project is a wrap. xomeg

Psst… here is a before shot of the space fresh after the renovation, exactly a year ago.

* The former living room is now David’s play room.