My wife and I were in desperate need of a new TV stand. Beyond desperate, actually. Back in January when we moved back to Jackson we needed something to put our TV on. We were quite broke, so we ended up buying some cheap-o shelving units from Target. These were definitely not designed to hold an 80-lbs LCD television, and the top shelf had become warped from the weight.
We bought our first house back in October of this year, and one of the things we decided we really needed was a new TV stand. We’re not wealthy by any means, but we do like our stuff to look nice, which is the purpose of this post: How to make something cheap look expensive.
After a good day of shopping, we finally ended up at Big Lots (who, by the way, has an excellent selection of pretty nice furniture for pretty great prices). We bought this:
Sauder TV Stand from Big Lots
It’s made by Sauder, and it cost $80. It looks pretty nice, but it’s very plain and doesn’t look like something you would spend a lot of money on. For under $20, we’re making this TV stand look like one that would cost around $300.
All you need to start a similar project is:
- a relatively cheap piece of living room furniture (such as this)
- a package of 400-grit sandpaper
- 2 cans of black spray lacquer (or more, or less, depending on the surface area of what you’re painting)
- 2 cans of clear spray urethane coating (or more… blah blah)
- A dremel tool with a cloth buffing attachment
NOTE! Do this in the garage. Or outside. If you do this in your kitchen, you will inhale a LOT of fumes, and you definitely do not want to wake up in the woods with a tattoo of a stripper’s name on your ass and an unmentionable piercing. No, I don’t want to talk about that example.
Our goal is to give it a sort of “distressed antique” finish. We’re painting it so that some of the original finish blends through the paint in certain areas, which gives it this really nice looking “bronze” appearance.
You want to rough up the original finish with the 400 grit sand paper. Don’t go too nuts, since you want the color to still be there for your effect. Just sand enough for the paint to stick.
Use the spray lacquer to make 2 or 3 light coats over the surface of the stand. Coat lighter over corners and detail parts, as we want these to be easily buffable to give the “bronze” look.
Once you have it painted with spray lacquer the way you want it, you’ll need to let it dry for at least 24 hours.
Once 24 hours have passed, take your dremel tool with the cloth buffing attachment, and go over the edges, corners, and detail pieces with it, until they look “faded” a bit to the original color. You don’t want to buff it out so much that it’s completely removed the lacquer, just enough so that it has a real dark brown showing through.
Once this is complete, and you are satisfied with how it looks, you need to protect that beautiful finish! Use the clear spray urethane coating. Make several light coats of it (follow the directions on the can) until it has a good strong coating that will stand up to your TV and A/V equipment being slid around on it. You definitely don’t want any scrapes or marks on it when you put your stuff back in after doing all this work!
I would recommend not doing this before assembly, but also not while fully assembled. Most items like this have you put it together into a few large pieces, and then assemble those pieces together. I would recommend doing this at that stage, it gives you fewer pieces to keep track of, but still gives you enough freedom to properly paint your piece of furniture.
After the urethane is allowed to fully dry (again, consult the can, this is usually at least 24 hours) put it together the rest of the way, take it inside and set up shop. You will love your elegant, stylish new TV stand!
Here are some in progress photos of ours:
