a lil DIY never hurt anybody

... or did it?

For MONTHS we have discussed our major need for a larger piece of furniture to live under our TV that would act as a major source of storage. Living in 500 square feet means having to intelligently utilize every square inch of storage space, and our tiny little Ikea TV stand leftover from our old apartment was not doing any of that.

EVERY. TIME. we looked at it we got frustrated. But finding a piece to live there had to meet many criterion:

A) It had to be exactly the right size
B) It needed to offered a large amount of versatile storage space
C) No ugly furniture allowed
D) We needed it on the CHEAP (but Ikea is hereby banned from this apartment)
E) Kasey was itching for a mirrored front piece (picky picky....)

Now you know why this hunt has lasted since we moved in 9 months ago..... sigh....

One afternoon, Kasey was walking in Park Slope, Brooklyn with a friend and caught a glimpse of a very interesting piece out of the corner of her eye. About a block down she realized she needed to go back and at least look at it. What could it hurt? Well, it turned out to be perfect.

After much discussion over dinner, Kasey went back the next day and bought it. There was much debacle surrounding the delivery of the piece (this is New York, we always forget how everything is so difficult here...) but it finally arrived a few days later!

During our wait, we discussed many color options to paint it. Our living room has been screaming for a large pop of color, and lucky for us, brightly painted furniture is in right now. We debated between persimmon and golden-yellow. After a trip paint shopping the decision made itself--- Persimmon!

Before. Worn Out White.

During. Rory and Sean HATED this part...

COMPLETE!

Getting the brightly-colored paint to dry evenly was a very difficult task and one that will likely not be attempted again. But the piece works perfectly and is doing it's job so we are not going to worry about if the paint is perfect or not right now. It can always be painted again down the road. That's the beauty! 

An added benefit we didn't see coming? Built in Rory entertainment. He thinks there is a puppy friend that lives inside who plays chase with him and likes the same toys as him. Hours of self-entertainment = bliss!

lots of love,

kasey + sean