My husband treated himself to a home theater system. It was due to be delivered and we were without a stand to place the TV upon. It was perfect luck that we found this sitting on the curb.
It is very ugly, very dated but very solid and the perfect size and free. It was time to get to work.
The two drawers on the lower left side were in bad shape. This was not a problem since I wanted a shelf or two to put theater components upon. The bottom was reinforced with a thin wood board to hold the weight of the electronics. There are also two drawers behind the doors which will be handy to hold DVDs and other bits.
The first thing I did was to remove all the old brass hardware. Some of it (the fancy plates around the knob pulls) had to be pried off with a thin screwdriver.
Next, I filled all the holes with wood putty and let it dry. After a bit, I brought out my sander and hit the whole piece twice — once with rough paper, then with finer paper. I had to sand the inside, recessed part of the doors, by hand.
I did not prime this piece but put on two coats of black satin oil paint. I sanded lightly between coats.
After the final coat had dried, I antiqued the piece by gently sanding the corners and other areas where wear would occur naturally. Then the whole item got a coat of furniture wax and a vigorous buffing. Finally, new hardware completed the project.
The result:
Transformed from ugly to servicable in under a week.