Transforming an old Armoire into a Computer Workstation

When we decided to sell our custom home to make the move to a neighborhood, we left behind an office with fabulous built-ins.  This home technically had space for an office as well, but since we decided to use that room as a multi-purpose room, that left us without a dedicated space for our computer and files.  We did, however, still have our old TV armoire and since it hadn’t sold yet on Craigslist, we decided to give it a new purpose:

When we began working on this, it was your average, everyday armoire from a big name furniture store… with a huge hole cut out in back for the pre-flat screen era!  Mr. home.made. removed the original backing and replaced it with plywood.  Originally the backing was painted turquoise, but I changed my mind and “wall-papered” it with some weathered wood paper from Hobby Lobby that I found in the teacher section.  Adhesive vinyl chalkboard paper was added to the interior of each door for inspirational quotes and notes and drawings.

My handy hubby built and stained the upper shelving that we use as a charging station for our devices and he built a sliding shelf for the laptop.

It’s now a place for me to blog and for my kiddos to play computer games, all within the safe viewing distance of us, which was one of our goals for a centralized computer station.  With the addition of some cute office accessories from Target, it’s also a place for me to pay bills and file mail.  The lower cabinets are used to house our printer and as an area to file away paperwork.  It truly has become a workhorse!

I have another post planned on changes in our living room, but here’s a little peek to show you how the workstation fits into the layout.  When we have people over and don’t want the office area on display (meaning when it’s a mess of papers…), we simply close the doors and shut it away.  I’m still toying with the idea of painting this beast so there’s not such an abundance of wood tones, but the hubby is resistant so I’m holding out for now… 

This little makeover has really served our family well and turned out to be a lucky Craigslist failure.  Have you repurposed an old piece of furniture by giving it an entirely new function? 

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