A TV Stand Made to Stand a Toddler

When we got married, we didn't have the option of buying new furniture and trying to make our apartments look cute.  We just combined the things we had and made it work.

One example are these tables Brandon had in his bedroom before we got married.   Awful right?

Well somehow the long one ended up being our TV stand and the square one was an end table. (You can imagine I was more than thrilled to get rid of these when we moved. We just sold them on KSL and my shoulders are lifted!!)  The openness of the TV area with this table made for a daily battle with a one year old. He would pull on every cord, stuff anything he could into the VCR, and push every button he saw. He would open all our DVDs and scratch them. Needless to say, we knew we needed something more baby proof and we wanted a more sleek look.

Family room when we first moved in.. Feb. 2012

We shopped a bit at Ikea and loved their options of making your own TV stand. We opted for ALL closed doors.. and no drawers. That way Jack couldn't open anything! We put together all the pieces, then drilled a few small holes in the back for our cords to come through.

Back of TV stand

We then installed some baby proof latches so Jack couldn't open the cabinet doors.

Option of having them on or off without having to remove them completely.

Baby Proofing

*If you're looking into baby-proofing or hate the latches you have, we HIGHLY suggest these ones. They have been amazing! It gives you the option to have them "locked" or "unlocked." So if you don't need them, you can simply "unlock" them! So when Jack is old enough and we don't need things baby proofed anymore, we can simply "unlock" these ones until our next baby comes. No removing! We also unlock them after Jack goes to sleep so we don't have to deal with them at night.

Safety 1st Pivot Position Baby Proof Latches

Here is the family room with the new TV stand.

With new TV stand

But we didn't like having the TV so low. Jack would touch it and it was so low when we watched it. We decided we wanted it mounted. But we felt like it being mounted on the wall would be kind of plain looking. So Brandon came up with the great idea to mount it on wood!

We bought the wood from Home Depot and stained it ourselves.

Ready to be stained

We got this rub on stain from my grandparents and the color was perfect. We rubbed the stain with a rag and gave the wood several coats.

Staining TV Mount

 We then mounted the wood to the wall using two 2 x 4 wood planks.

Wood planks for mounting

Then we mounted the wood to the planks.  We also cut a hole in the wood for our TV cords to go through so the cords weren't showing from the front.

TV Mount

And vuala! The TV is mounted!

 And all our electronics and DVDs are covered and out of harms way!

Walmart frame, Apple TV, and Ikea plant

Our simple but sleek TV set up is complete in our new family room! We added a plant from Ikea (atop an Apple TV!), and a framed photo of our favorite little boy (frame from Walmart). We plan on putting these decorations on some shelves soon. So those will also be out of harms way!

Family Room

Now let's remind you what it looked like before we moved in. Here is a picture of the family room and dining room (view from the kitchen) after we tore out the carpet.

Family Room/Dining Room before we painted

And here is a before and after since we have lived here.

BEFORE                                                                                          AFTER

We still have some work to do. We plan on making some shelves to the left of the TV to help with the empty space, so stay tuned! Those should be completed in the next few weeks!