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Deuce Cities Henhouse

Hiding the Bedroom TV

Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage
Remember back when I was debating moving the bed a few weeks ago? I’m sure you guys are just on the edge of your seat waiting to see what we decided to do. Well, after living with it for a few weeks we decided to go ahead and move the bed to the wallpapered wall. You guys were right, I really love it this way.

There were pros and cons for moving the bed, one of the biggest cons was where to put the tv. This was a big issue for us because we L O V E our tv. We’re addicted and we’re not afraid to shout it to the world. We watch a few shows almost every night before bed, so we just needed to have a tv. Our bedroom is long and narrow so putting the tv on the far wall opposite the bed would’ve been strange. The tv would’ve been so far away that I’m not sure we could’ve seen the picture clearly or heard the tv from that side of the room. There was also the option of hanging the tv on the wall next to the bed, this wasn’t ideal because we’d have to crane our necks to watch our very important shows. Plus it would be the first thing you saw when you entered the room and it would scream, “look at me I’m a big ugly dumb life sucking black box hanging on your wall”. There would’ve needed be some sort of cover contraption built for the tv so that it could be tucked away when it wasn’t being watched.

Then there was the long shot option. This option involved some eye rolling from friends and family.

With the bed in the new position we needed to have something at the foot of the bed because the room is so long and narrow. Having a piece of furniture in this space elongated the bed and connected it to the other end of the room, dubbed the ‘dressing area’. Whether it was a bench or small chest of drawers, something needed to rest at the end of the bed to have the room all make sense spatially. Get it?

So why not take our old credenzay-buffet-style chest of drawers, paint it white, remove the top, chop off the legs, add a new better top on hinges, and hide our tv inside of it!

Jealous?

Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage

Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage
This was a hard project, I thought about scrapping it a half dozen times. However, I had a few things going in my favor, I didn’t really care about this piece of furniture too much. It was an old piece from Ikea, it was all fiber board and was sagging in the middle, plus one of the legs was on the verge of falling off. It had seen better days and the risk of ruining it didn’t weigh heavy on my mind.

The main challenge of altering Ikea furniture is that for the most part you aren’t dealing with solid wood, 90% of any piece of furniture is going to be veneered MDF which doesn’t even remotely perform the same way hardwood furniture does. You can’t just screw things together, you need special anchors to lock the furniture together. That was a challenge. After removing the top, I was able to stabilize the whole piece using standard drywall anchors and screws although I’m sure it’s not the most sturdy way to go about it. Then I chopped the legs off, they were made of solid wood and it was easy to cut them evenly using a jig I made on my compound miter saw. I used the remnant leg pieces to create two new legs that I attached in the center of the piece. No more sagging frame!

The next hurdle was painting that thing. If you’re familiar with ikea furniture most of it is veneered. You can’t just paint it, it needs to be primed and then painted. So, with that in mind I decided to go to my go to Rust-oleum universal paint in satin white. I used the same thing to paint my outdoor furniture last spring and it held up great over the summer, no chips or blisters. So I figured it would probably work well on this ikea furniture too. It did! A few coats later and I had a nice even white finish on my credenza.

I needed a sturdy piece of wood to use for the top, I was after all planning on attaching a tv to it, particle board just wasn’t going to cut it. I was able to find a piece of solid pine at the Home Depot. I had used the same wood on the fauxdenza top in the sunroom. I had the wood cut in half so that I could insert a piano hinge attaching the pine board to the interior of the cabinet. Then I added a right and a left locking lid support allowing the top to swing upwards and be secured in place.

Installing the hinge and lid support was so hard. I almost lost it, pretty sure I cried. Because I wanted the top to have a half inch lip it couldn’t swing up at a perfect 90º angle. It was highly frustrating. I did a lot of trial and error until I found the sweet spot. Then after my hard earned success with the piano hinge came the task of installing the locking lid supports which happened to be just as difficult and ape-shit-inducing as the hinge. I’m sure there is some super slick way to do this, but I have no idea what it is. I couldn’t get the supports to line up evenly, they would open perfectly and then I would try and close the top up and everything would shift dramatically. Again, I worked the old trial and error method until I found the magic spot. Sorry I don’t have any helpful tips on this, but if you have helpful tips for me, please share.

The last piece of the puzzle was the tv. Our bedroom tv was really old and archaic. It’s had a flat screen but its 24″ screen with bezel was gargantuan and I think it protruded from the wall a good 10″. We spent a little cash and bought a new 28″ smart tv with a sleek 2″ profile. Since we’re comcast free, we don’t have to worry about clunky cable boxes or outlets. This super smart tv hooks us up with all the netflix, hulus and amazons that we need. I just plugged that baby into an outlet and it was good to go. We ran a cord right under our bed to the wall outlet so it’s all pretty seamless.

Overall I’m really happy with how this all works. There may be a few adjustments made down the road. I would consider getting a soft close lid support so that I didn’t have to worry about the lid crashing closed too quickly. Maybe someday I would replace the piano hinge with a fancy piece of hardware that accounts for the half inch lip, there has to be something like this that exists. There is also the tv mount, it’s at a good height right now, but ideally it could pop up a few inches. We could always replace our static tv mount with something that could articulate. I also worry that the pine top being too soft and will warping over time. The way I see it though, all of those things can be altered if need be. For now, I’m happy that it all appears to be working just as I had planned.

Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage

Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage

Here are the tools I used to make my credenza into a secret tv hiding spot.
1: Brass Lid Support | 2: Piano Hinge | 3: TV Mount | 4: Pine Board | 5: Rust-oleum Spray Paint

 
Transforming Furniture into Hidden TV Storage

60 comments
in Around the House, Bedroom, DIY, Furniture

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  • Mark November 7, 2014

    That’s pretty sweet. Well done!

  • Sam November 7, 2014

    Completely brilliant. I’m so jealous! Worth the effort!! Plus you get the added bonus of NOT having to see the TV when you don’t want to :) Now just to put it on a remote-controlled electronic opener……

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Hey Sam! Thanks so much, yeah it really is great. It stays closed most of the day and an electric opener would be nice ;)

  • Erin November 7, 2014

    This is seriously so cool!!!

  • Shannon November 7, 2014

    This is awesome! Great job!

  • Colz November 7, 2014

    This turned out SO well Scoops!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks dude, you were a good encourager of this crazy plan.

  • Rosie November 7, 2014

    Seriously impressive!

  • Caroline Royce November 7, 2014

    Oh. my. god. You are so clever.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      I don’t know about that, but thank you. It hasn’t fallen apart yet, fingers crossed ;)

  • jamie@owlreally.com November 7, 2014

    this is GENIUS.

  • Rachel November 7, 2014

    Wow, this is so smart, and it looks fabulous! Congratulations on a great solution to a tricky situation.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks, Rachel. I really love dreaming up crazy solutions for stuff like this. I’m glad it all worked out!

  • jane November 7, 2014

    GENIUS.

  • Martha November 7, 2014

    Did you already have this plan in mind when you were buying fasteners at Ace the other day? It’s brilliant. And the GIF… priceless.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Oh yeah, I’ve had this plan for awhile. It took some courage to actually follow through on it. So far so good. Nice running into you!

  • AnnMarie November 7, 2014

    I am so impressed with your patience. No way I would have stuck it out through all the craziness, but it definitely paid off, this is amazing!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Once I had already invested my time there was no way I was giving up.

  • caroline November 7, 2014

    I absolutely adore it! I love the white and wood mixed. I thought it was a brand new metal piece- I would’ve never have known. And I couldnt figure out how you hid the tv in there until you showed us. So cute! Now make me one??? ;)

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Hey Caroline! Thanks so much, I really love the new look of it too, painted white and wood combos are my fav these days.

  • Your room looks marvellous!!! You are such a clever girl!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks Sarah! We are really loving the room so far, everything is coming together.

  • Stacey November 7, 2014

    Ho. ly. fuckballs. This is absolutely amazing! I was half kidding when i suggested you get a console that raises/lowers a TV, and you took it so far beyond that. Wow. Just….wow.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Hey Stacey! I know, it is kind of over the top for a solution, but it really solves all the problems. I’m just glad it worked out. Thanks so much, I wish more people would swear on my blog ;)

  • Kelly November 8, 2014

    That looks great! Love reading your blog!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Hey Kelly, Thanks so much and so glad you enjoy it! Always feels good to hear!

  • Michelle November 8, 2014

    Awesome. That Is All.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks so much, Michelle!

  • Christine November 9, 2014

    We’ve been going back and forth on putting a TV in our bedroom, but I like what you came up with. Looks very cool, but hard to do.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Hey Christine, It was a little hard to do but it solved the problem. I just don’t think I was going about it the right way, I was putting the braces on first and then the piano hinge and it worked much better when I did it the other way around.

  • Rita from designmegillah November 9, 2014

    Very impressive– A woman with tools and great taste!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks so much Rita, I am sucker for some tools, my birthday is coming up and that is what I have on my wish list.

  • Krista November 10, 2014

    Ooo – now you just need a shelf inside that holds your remote! Looks fantastic!
    Hafele makes a lot of crazy hardware that might help you fine tune your piece as does Richelieu, but Hafele is easier to order without someone in the “industry” having to get it for you (contractor or interior designer).
    Kudos to you for figuring out such a difficult project!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Yes!! Thanks so much for the suggestions Krista, I will definitely go snoop around these sites, and probably find a bunch of other stuff I ‘need’. This is exactly what I was looking for.

  • Juliet November 10, 2014

    AMAZING!!! What a fantastic solution.

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks so much Juliet, so far so good. I think it’s actually gonna work out ;)

  • Katie @ Red House West November 10, 2014

    This is clever and awesome and your room looks beautiful!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Awh, thanks so much Katie. We are really feeling in love with the new look of the bedroom. It’s so nice to have a grown up space, although the kids seem to still hang out in it all of the times.

  • EmeLiA November 10, 2014

    I love this idea and your execution! Your bedroom is looking amazing!

    • Scoops November 10, 2014

      Thanks Emelia! The bedroom is really feeling put together these days. I’m looking forward to adding a corner bookshelf above the radiator in the coming weeks. Then it will really start to feel done-ish.

  • shavonda@ahomefullfocolor November 12, 2014

    so so so darned good.

  • Jarod February 21, 2015

    I’m a little late to the game, but this is bad ass. Also, I love how this room has evolved. “Basically I’m refined as fuck now” haha!

  • I love your bedroom, what a great solution for the TV. You have a gift. Thanks for sharing.

    • Scoops May 8, 2015

      Thanks so much Bridget! That’s so sweet of you to take them time and let me know!

  • Erin June 29, 2015

    I love this project –it’s so sleek and smart. Who wants to look at an ugly black plastic and glass monstrosity during the day anyway?

    I’m curious what you did with the drawers and space the TV doesn’t take up? I’d love to see how you routed your cables, Apple TV, etc. Forgive me if you covered this elsewhere. Do you use the opposite side for storage? Thanks!

  • Morgan @ my old yellow house September 17, 2015

    I still love this! I am in a pickle with my bedroom right now and am facing the same challenges you were with where to put our beloved TV. How is this project holding up?

  • Anthony catanzaro December 2, 2015

    looking at this project for a while, and am curious what brand of tv you bought that has such a slim profile.
    great looking project!

    • Scoops December 8, 2015

      It is a Samsung smart TV and I wouldn’t recommend it. We’ve had two other samsung tvs totally die on us. We did just start purchasing Insignia TV’s from Best Buy, and they have been great and are also very slim in profile.

  • meryl burke November 25, 2016

    Hey Alison, That is a very clever way to take care of TV storage. Looking at a TV on a wall or table is not terribly attractive. Thanks for sharing your idea. It looks super with the TV down and tucked away. I could also see modifying a cedar chest, a large old piece of luggage, or any other kind of chest. When my old TV goes to the electronic after world I’ll be considering this option.

  • Sharon December 22, 2018

    Persistence pays off. You are a fine example of a hard earned testimony. Now if you could just patent & launch that baby for mass production? So you want to be a millionaire? Take it to Shark Tank.

  • Robin A DeStasio May 5, 2019

    I’m going to do this, I didn’t want to a tv in my new bedroom so have been living without one :( I really miss having a tv in the bedroom, this solves the problem :)

  • Darlene Lester August 4, 2019

    I added this on my page to Facebook. I wish you were my neighbor! Great job!! Seriously people will do this. What a great idea!

  • Lori September 12, 2019

    This is freaking brilliant! OMG!

  • cathy anderson June 11, 2020

    How to you get the tv to adjust with the top. It seems to seamlessly slide into place. So much better than one of those expensive lifts. What type of hardware is behind the TV? You are brilliant!

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