<p>I have two gorgeous armoires I used for 15 plus years in my family room and bedroom to house nice sized tvs (remember when tv’s used to be deep and required a hefty piece of furniture to be contained in?!). Now we have sleek, flat screen tv’s mounted on the wall and so much extra space! However, the armoires now sit empty, sad and taking up space. They are cavernous on the inside where the tv’s used to be…</p>
<p>It drives me nuts to think of the $$$'s I spent on those things, especially now that they serve virtually no function except to loom in forgotten corners of my house. I have tried selling them on Craigs list (along with the other bazillion armoires listed), and even our local consignment store won’t accept them because they don’t sell. </p>
<p>With a graduating college senior about to move into his own place, I keep trying to come up with ideas for re-purposing them for the 21st century. I think about having shelves installed, but I don’t know if that would add significant cost to an already outdated furniture dinosaur?</p>
<p>Surely this has got to be an issue for many people?</p>
<p>Love Pinterest! LOVED the one that turned it into a dollhouse… no “little” girls here anymore, but if I had granddaughter’s yet I would TOTALLY be doing this!</p>
<p>Good topic. We still have a CRT television sitting in an entertainment center with cassette tape, amplifier, VHS player. I should toss the whole thing out and replace it with a flat screen tv and get back about 12 square feet in the basement (more space for working out). I put this on my todo list so I should get it done within two years.</p>
<p>We use one in our bedroom for clothes. DH added a bar for hanging his clothes and uses the two shelves below for clothes. Works really well, and saved our marriage from having to share one closet</p>
<p>Given most hotels have installed w flat screen TVs in most rooms, these things are dinosauers unless you repurpose to a storage cabinet, which is a great use. Think linen closet or out of season clothes.</p>
<p>When I wanted to get rid of mine, I posted a message on Facebook…free to the first one who responded. A neighbor was here in five minutes. She is using it as a closet in a mushroom/entry and it’s great. There is a hanging bar for jackets where the TV used to be (ours had pocket doors so she can leave it open or closed) and baskets for mittens and hats below. It was a solid wood with beautiful crown molding trim.</p>
<p>Another friend turned hers into a linen closet…put shelves in the top and keeps linens in it.</p>
<p>In both cases, they had a space that would accommodate the armoire.</p>
<p>I paid someone to haul mine out. The thing was solid oak and weighed a ton, but I wanted it gone. I never liked it because it was oak and I don’t like oak furniture. Right after I got rid of it, friend told me I could have painted it. It was a duh moment because I could have made something useful out of it after all.</p>
<p>I am using mine as a liquor cabinet! I moved it from the family room to a corner of the dining room. The style and color blend in perfectly. It was such a big purchase and I love it, so I am very happy to have been able to find another use for it. And it really serves its new purpose well.</p>
<p>I had one too as of a month ago. My town and some surrounding towns have a Facebook Yardsale page. You join and can post unwanted stuff on the page with a price and people really do buy stuff. I think I got lucky with the tv armoire. A woman bought it for her son’s room. She also bought a giant oak computer desk that was taking up half my kitchen and not being used now that we have laptops.</p>
<p>Mushroom…mudroom…gotta love that auto correct. Cartera, i absolutely didn’t want to pay to have my armoire hauled away…this the facebook post offering it for free. I figure it made someone else happy, and saved ME having to figure out how to remove it from my house!</p>
<p>thumper - I asked friends but found no one that I knew who wanted it. Many of my friends already had one they were trying to re-home. I didn’t want strangers coming into the house to look at it because I lived alone at the time. I didn’t pay much to get rid of it. When I bought a new television, the delivery guys had a big empty truck. I asked if either of them could use it. They looked a little hesitant so I threw in $25 and deal!</p>
<p>Unless you really, really love them and/or really, really need the extra storage space, I’d get rid of them. I think it is a false economy to keep stuff that you don’t need or want anymore just because you paid a lot of money for it 15 years ago. For me, personally, even if I needed the extra storage space, I’d be inclined to go for something more streamlined than the images in the Pinterest link. And not having the extra storage space forces you to throw away a lot of useless junk cluttering up your house (e.g., don’t keep the armoire just so you’ll have a place to store all your old VHS tapes). </p>
<p>LOL’ing re the butter churn and buggy whip line!</p>
<p>I agree with this approach. You can re-purpose the space or just enjoy the extra open space. Everything has some maintenance cost though it may be small but it can add up.</p>
<p>We cut one down, taking off the entire area where the TV was, put a top on it and it could work under a flat screen or as a stereo set up. We did pay a bit more than we had expected for the top, but it is nice now, a quality brand and matches quite a bit of existing furniture.</p>
<p>Hmmm, how do I know if my existing furniture is/ will be classic or if my house will look like it is in an 80s or 90s time warp? That is so hard to know, you walk into some people’s homes and realise their furniture is completely outdated, and yet it is perfectly functional. Really, should our grandparents update their decor? No, and yet, I don’t want to be that unknowingly outdated parent/grandparent. I recently dumped a wall mirror that my kids insisted was way too 80s. I can sort of see it, but it is difficult to see those distinctions with things too familiar.</p>
<p>I suppose if I divided the cost of the armoires by the number of years I had them that might make me feel better…</p>
<p>I have a hard time getting rid of things, still have a bunch of baby furniture, much to DH’s annoyance. Also have been saving couches, dishes, pots and pans for the kids when they move out. Truth be told, they may not want anything to do with what I have saved, and then I’ll have to face reality :eek:. </p>
<p>There must be a lot of psychological significance in people’s ability or inability to part with inanimate objects that they have lived with and loved ;)</p>
<p>btw, I have a lot of storage space which is a blessing and a curse…so the stuff I’m saving isn’t cluttering up my house, lest any of you have images of Hoarders running through your heads after reading my post :D</p>