My garage is a refuge to homeless furniture. Whenever “new” old pieces come into my life, they wait their turn in the garage until I am ready to work on them. Sometimes I’m just waiting on time, but often I’m waiting on inspiration.
A friend of mine bought this vintage Acousti-Craft stereo cabinet for $15 at an estate sale. Sadly (for her), it was too large to fit into the space where she wanted to put it. She asked if I wanted it, and since I never turn down furniture projects, I was happy to welcome it into my garage.
It took up residence there for about 9 months until inspiration struck. I knew that I wanted to do something different with it, so when I came up with the idea to use window screen on a piece of furniture, I decided to try it out on this record cabinet.
I bought a roll of window/insect screen from Home Depot to use on this project. It was about $5 for a big roll, so I figured it was worth a shot on a free piece of furniture. I chose a fiberglass screen because it was soft, and I hoped it wouldn’t be too brittle once I painted it.
I decided to screen the sides of the cabinet and the inset panels on the front doors. I used my pneumatic stapler to attach the screen to the cabinet (pulling it tight before each staple), and used an X-Acto knife to trim the overhang around the edges.
I knew that I was going to give the cabinet a grungy feel, so I was happy to leave the staples in full view. If I wanted to give it a different look, I may have added wooden trim over the staples or used a different fastening system.
I took the cabinet apart and spray primed it with Zinsser Cover Stain Primer in my garage. I did a really horrible job, but it was good enough. I didn’t sand before I primed, but I lightly sanded everything but the screened areas after the primer was dry.
I tried to spray paint the color coats on the piece out of laziness, but the finish was AWFUL. It was blotchy in places and shiny in others. I ended up lightly sanding it (again) and just painted it with satin latex paint and a brush.
When the paint was dry, I glazed it using my favorite technique. On the screened areas, I over removed the glaze in some parts (by wiping the glaze with a lot of pressure) and under removed the glaze in others. The end result was nothing short of awesomesauce.
GAH! Right? Here are some other detailed shots of my new favorite furniture transformation technique.
For now, it sits underneath the TV in our living room. All of the ugly cable/Roku/Wii/DVD boxes are contained within. It works out perfectly, because there is no back to the cabinet (so the original stereo components wouldn’t get overheated). When we watch TV, we just have to open one of the doors for the remotes to work with our components and then they are hidden the rest of the time.
It’s not necessarily going to live right there forever since the living room will get Lindsay-fied next year, but I like being able to enjoy it every day for now.
What do you think about my window screen covered furniture invention? I think it’s pretty cool myself! The texture gives it a really different vibe.
Welcome inside the house, little homeless vintage stereo cabinet.