Repurpose, Reuse, Refinish and Rethink..ways to repurpose furniture.

Repurpose - To reuse for a different purpose, on a long-term basis; to alter to make more suited for a different purpose. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repurpose

Repurpose, reuse, refinish and rethink about the use of certain furniture that has become obsolete is how I came up with the idea of turning my TV Armoire into a “Bar-moiré”   The idea came to me when I was browsing through a furniture catalog and saw some mini-bars that were just a nice piece of furniture with built in wine racks and wine glass holders. 

The first thing I needed to do would be to take some measurements of the large area where the TV once sat.  After knowing the size, I did some research into wine racks that you can purchase from a cabinet company.  I called a contact in the business who works for a local cabinet company looked through some of their catalogs and I ordered one that would fit into my old TV armoire.  I chose chocolate so that you would not notice the difference in the stain colors of the wood.  I also ordered the wine glass holders to mount underneath the wine rack.  I had to order a “filler” piece because the wine rack was an inch short on both sides.  I also have a connection with someone in the countertop business and he came over to measure the top of the armoire so that I could have a nice surface that would not be porous and of course would look nice.  I picked out a chocolate Corian counter top to match the wine rack.  He only charged me $25.00 for the piece!  The wine rack and holders were around $150.00.  The stain and mirror was only $25.00 so to complete the whole project I had to sink in around $200.00, but to purchase a solid piece of furniture like this would cost around $900.00.

The next step was to get the piece ready for use.  First I removed the doors, the hardware and the VCR shelf that was inside the armoire.  I then filled the holes with putty and stained them to match the wood work.  When visiting my local hardware store and I purchased a large piece of sheet wood to use as the back, a mirror, lights, and stain to paint the back.  I spent an hour in prep time including painting the back panel. 

The following step is very crucial…don’t try to do everything yourself! Understanding this I hired a carpenter to put the back on and to mount the wine rack.  It is always best to use a professional if you don’t have the adequate tools which I did not.  I would not have been able to rip the filler piece in half or been able to mount the wine rack by myself.   He assembled the whole piece in an hour and even mounted the mirror and placed the lights for me. 

The coolest thing about using this large piece of furniture for my “Bar-moiré” is that I can insert a beverage refrigerator underneath and still have the right side to store liquor and the drawer to store bottle openers, wine openers, and accessories.  So now all I had to do was move this large piece of furniture into the family room and plug it in, and of course stock it full of wine. 

So if you rethink your furniture you will see that your furniture does not have to be used for the purpose it was first intended…you can repurpose it!



The finished "Bar-Moire"



Before



After



For God's Honor and Glory!

Karin