A Very Entertaining Project

My “entertainment center” has seen a few improvements since renovations were completed on my house in March 2012. I’ll take you through the multistep, year long process!

Here’s what it looked like when I moved back in.

Well, technically that was 9 months after I moved, hence the Christmas decorations sitting on the counter. Buutttt it looked the same from March through December, so no biggie.

I liked having the TV on its stand and off to the side a little since my couch on the opposite wall was not centered on the entertainment center anyway. It made it so my spot on the couch was directly in front of the TV! Ricky’s keeping my spot warm here.

But it started to seem a little junky to me. I much prefer a clutter-free room. Plus I felt like the space wasn’t being used adequately and to it’s fullest potential. And who am I to hold my entertainment center back from fulfilling its potential? So I decided to ask Santa Claus for a TV bracket to mount it on the beadboard wall.

Happily, Santa obliged! I couldn’t wait to install it. It was probably one of my first Christmas gifts put to (good) use!

It definitely had a much “cleaner” feel right away!

But it still felt like something was missing. So I lived with it this way for a few months until I realized that it needed a little color.

Since my sunroom is full of windows, there isn’t a lot of wall to be seen. Therefore, there’s not a lot of color brought to the space from the wall color, as the case is in other rooms of my house. The solution? Paint the beadboard on the back of the entertainment center!

But first, here’s a before/during/after picture. Before painting, during the total transformation, but after hanging the TV. You can see I rearranged the knick knacks on the shelves to balance the top and bottom a little more.

(Not sure what I was watching here.)

I don’t have a step-by-step, but it’s the same as painting almost anything. I taped it off, painted 2 coats of the purplish-blue from the kitchen and sunroom, removed the tape, and voila! Side note-I was not feeling the whole primer before you paint thing. I was too excited about getting the project finished that I skipped that step. Plus I figured it wasn’t going to be getting a lot of wear and tear considering it’s location.

I was mindful to keep the brush strokes going in the same direction since they’d be visible. Again, I took the lazy route and didn’t remove the TV. I carefully painted around it. Since it was PERFECTLY situated on the wall, I was scared to take it off and then not have it line back up once I rehung it. If I were to remove the TV, there’d be a nice, white spot behind it.

Once the first coat had dried after an hour or so, I reapplied only where white was showing through. After another hour, I replaced all of my decorations back on the shelves and flipped on my DVR to catch up on my shows!

I really think the purpley-blue gives it a little gravitas and depth. It’s no longer just one big white mosh pit. What do you think?

Anyone else love the look of beadboard? Do you prefer it stained or painted?