Presents And More Presents!

I've had my Christmas trees up since the day after Thanksgiving. I also painted my TV armoire to welcome a new flat screen, but I was waiting to post pictures until my Birthday present arrived. My husband bought me a new camera for my Birthday. No more blaming the camera for my bad photography. No excuses now. I love my Birthday present and have been playing with it all day.

This is what he got me. I researched what I wanted on Consumer Report and gave him some options. He asked me for some direction because he wanted to make sure I was happy with it. He's tired of hearing me complain about my old camera. He found this one at Overstock.com. I'm always in for a good deal even when Birthdays are involved. Anyway here it is and I love it. So far it's idiot proof for a technologically challenged person like me.

It's a Canon Power Shot SD14000 IS Digital ELPH.

It has 14. 1 mega pixels, my old one was 8. I can't stop playing with it.

I took some pictures of the finished armoire today. Some of the before pictures are taken with the old camera. My parents surprised us with an early Christmas present. A 40" flat screen TV. More presents! I figured this was a good time to revamp the old TV armoire. We've had it since we were first married and it needed some updating. Here it is in the background of a picture of Casey and Cami, Christmas Circa 2007. A basic knotty pine armoire, hey it was the 90's when we got it.

I should have done this a long time ago. I was considering getting rid of it altogether and having my Dad help me make a built in to house the flat screen, but it fits in the niche almost perfectly. I figured I could paint it now and live with it awhile until we are ready for a big TV niche redo. I refinished it very similar to the dresser I did in a previous post. Click on the address below to see step by step how to do it.
http://anythingologyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-re-finish-furniture-quick-and.html

I had to permanently take off the doors because the new TV wouldn't fit in the space with them on. Hey, I need to fire my cleaning lady, look at all that dust!

Oh yeah, I'm the cleaning lady, cool I'm fired!

Bye Bye doors, I'll find a new use for them at a later date.

Not sure for what?

I'll store them in the already stuffed with too much crap garage.

I decided on the color black because I was losing the ability to hide the TV behind doors. I wanted the TV to blend in to the armoire, not stand out. Painting it a lighter color would have been more contrast with the black TV and would have made the TV the focal point. I used two coats of Behr Premium Ultra, "Beluga" in egg shell. It's a paint and primer in one can. It's more expensive than most other paint, but trust me, don't go cheap on paint, unless you really like painting extra coats. I was going to use the Ralph Lauren "Bone Black" that I had used for Casey's room, but when I went to Home Depot to buy more, they informed me they no longer carry Ralph Lauren. Too bad, other than Benjamin Moore, it's my favorite paint to work with. I decided not to paint the inside shelves black. I'm a little lazy and I rationalized black would make it difficult to see inside the shelves. Here it is before sanding. I had to finish the main body in the house because it's really heavy. I sanded while holding the vacuum hose to keep down the dust.

Here is the molding detail. I sanded the edges and finished it with a coat of black furniture wax to seal it and darken the exposed pine.

Thanks Mom and Dad, we love the new TV!

Oh, and I love my new camera too!