Recycling Furniture to Keep Up with Technology

An Interior Designer’s perspective

Do you remember when TVs were big boxes w/a huge tube sticking out of the back?

  • Ugly monsters…especially for a designer..
  • We tried everything to hide them…
  • First there were consoles…
  • Then there were armoires…
  • And in some cases, we built beautiful decorative cabinets to hide them…

Such was my personal experience. I was a fledgling designer, living in my first small apartment. It needed to be perfect, just in case a client came by. Right? So, I spent “beaucoup de bucks” at the San Francisco Design Center, having a custom cabinet made in an Asian motif to conceal it. I enjoyed that piece for many, many years until…drumroll…flat screen TVs appeared on the scene.

Suddenly there was no need for big, deep furniture pieces to hide TVs. I didn’t care…

I refused to get rid of this beautiful box…so I stuck it in the entry hall of my new home where it sat for another 13 years. Empty.

Recently I inherited some family heirlooms and had to move a lot of my personal belongings around to make room for the new pieces. The beautiful box was the only thing that absolutely wouldn’t fit anywhere in my home.

Enter…the furniture wizard…

A man who can do absolutely anything and everything furniture related from creating to restoring to refinishing. I call him a miracle worker. So I said David, can you whack off the back of this box by about a foot, salvage the side panels, front doors, and decorative hardware and paint it black? I just loved the crackle finish and wanted to save it. He was a bit skeptical but said give me a few days, I’ll see what I can do.

When he called me to come over and have a look, I almost fainted. It was absolutely gorgeous. He salvaged everything. The finish was exquisite, the size and scale absolutely perfect. And now I have a brand-new piece of old furniture in my family room. Recycled and repurposed. TA-DA!

So, if you have a special piece of outdated TV furniture and want it repurposed don’t hesitate to contact me…I just may be able to help you with that!