DIY TV Credenza

After our Shiplap Project was completed, it was time to create a longer media console for underneath our TV! I had looked EVERYWHERE for an affordable, beautiful console that was 70" or longer . . . and let's just say the price didn't match our budget. 

Most longer consoles range from $500-$1500 (yes, 1500!) for a nice console. I definitely didn't want to do that! We found THIS DIY PLAN from Design Confidential, and in total this cost up about $300! 

I wanted the console to fit the TV better—our old console was about 54" long and felt short for the space and our 70" TV. I actually won our previous console from Walker Edison on an Instagram giveaway! 

Jonathan got birch plywood from Home Depot and followed the step-by-step plans to build! 

We only made one change and that was to have only 2 drawers instead of 3. I wanted a cleaner look and deeper drawers, so he modified the plans to make 2 drawers on the left and keep the 2 cabinet doors. 

FIRST, Jonathan made all the cuts necessary and started assembling the main body of the TV stand. 

  

Then everything slowly started coming together! If you watch my Highlight bubble on IG, you can see that he was working in the Arizona SUMMER heat, which I did not recommend. But we wanted to get this done, and he made sure to work at nights or early mornings during cooler times. We had our garage open and a large fan going the whole time, and I made sure he stayed hydrated. (Probably should plan more projects for Wintertime only) 

He then built out the drawers separately and then the legs/base. Another hiccup we encountered was the base: it felt too flimsy or weak. We later changed the base and used thicker boards instead of the ones used on the plans. 

     

Our garage was a beautiful mess! Usually I'm pretty anxious about messes, but I always know it means something good is coming! 

STAINING

One of the hardest parts of this project was deciding on a color. I wanted to stain this piece because I love the natural grain of the wood, and I've painted a lot of pieces recently. I didn't want a flat or painted look, but I knew stain was tricky. 

I went to Home Depot and picked out 3 colors I thought *might* look good. The paint can color usually never matches quite right, so I used a few practice boards and tested it out. 

These were the 3 choices. We originally liked the left stain. The middle stain felt too dark for our living room. I wanted something as close to natural as possible while feeling light and clean. 

Then we narrowed it down to the left and right stain colors and tried them again on larger boards. This time, the grayer/cooler stain felt like the one! In the above photo, that's the right stain, which looks super gray. But somehow when I did a very light application in the photo below, it turned out closer to our goal color. Lighting, application, and timing makes a huge difference!

Back to Jonathan  . . . 

after a few more sessions it was all put together!! He added wood banding (right photo) around the edges to erase any imperfections and to add clean lines to the piece. He used wood glue and an iron to seal it to the piece. 

  

It was ready to stain . . . or so I thought. 

After looking at this photo, something about the drawers seemed off. I didn't love that random oval marking and wanted the front too look more uniform. 

I told Jonathan, who let out a sigh because he thought he was done...ha ha. He said that the backside of those drawers matched more with the cabinets. So he flipped them over! 

side note: This is how it usually goes with our projects. He'll be halfway done, I'll make a comment, then he'll make SURE that I'm 100% happy with things before he moves forward. He would rather redo it right now than redo it in a year. We like to communicate each step of the way and ask, "What do you think?" so we know we're both liking it. 

This was AFTER he flipped the drawers. Can you see the difference? Everything looks more "grainy" and uniform. 

Now it was time to stain! Here's my quick staining process:

1. Use wood conditioner all over everything to prevent blotchiness and make the real stain look smoother. Apply conditioner, wait 5 mins, then wipe off the excess with a rag. Wait 10-15mins to start staining. 

2. With a small foam brush or rag (I used both as I went along), lightly stain the piece! I was SUPER nervous about this part, but I went slowly and immediately wiped it off after the stain was applied. Some people wait 5-10 mins after the stain is applied, but with this particular color, the lighter the better. If I left it on too long, it would be a dark gray. 

3. I used a water-based, crystal clear polyurethane coating to cover the piece. After researching, I saw that some oil-based polyurethanes will tint the piece amber or orange after applying, so I wanted one that said "crystal clear" and was water-based. There are so many gel finishes, waxes, polishes, etc., make sure to do your research! 

After staining the whole piece, I was trying to get used to it and figure out if I liked it or not! Some spots in the wood wouldn't fully stain, but I really liked the imperfections. 

The BAD part, however, was the legs. In the photo below on the left, if you look closely at the base, it's blotchy and gray. This was after a few good coats of stain and wiping it down! The legs just weren't taking and didn't look great. 

So we (me and my sister) painted the base black! This was one of the BEST decisions during this project. I knew we'd go with black hardware after painting the legs (color is BEHR "Black" Marquee in Satin). 

  

After what seemed like endless redos, back-and-forths, and questions, we sealed the credenza one more time with polyurethane and brought it indoors!

Here's what it initially looked like before hardware/decor. I almost kept it like this, but we wanted easier access to the doors and needed an easier way to open drawers. 

We ordered 6" black bar handles on Amazon, and Jonathan put it all together! HERE SHE IS FOLKS:

It was a crazy fun journey! We saved probably $500-600 by DIY-ing this ourselves. I LOVE how it looks and how it fits the wall now. Check out my IG post to see the "before" console and setup we had! 

Here are a few things I would change if I were to redo this credenza project:

1. Start in the Wintertime or October/November! It was pretty hot out most days. 

2. Make sure all the boards and finishes were the same smoothness. Some parts we sanded more than others and they feel really smooth, while other parts feel more like wood (mostly the interior shelves that we'll rarely touch). 

3. Become a stain expert and test at least 5 colors! I stuck with testing 3-4 colors, and while it turned out OK, I should have stained a smaller piece of furniture first to really understand it! This was my first big stain project, and doing it on one of the biggest pieces of furniture we have was risky! 

4. Cut a few pieces and learn to put it together myself! I want to learn more about tools and "scary" saws that can cut my fingers off. So next time I will be jumping in and nailing, gluing, and cutting myself! 

Let me know what you think in the comments!!