Upcycled Laminate into Media Center and Desk

Oh that laminate stuff. We love it for the price and quick temporary furniture cure, but hate the lack of durability and quality.

Using these pieces in my son's room has been serving it's purpose, enduring childhood wear and tear. But he's not finished with it yet and his never ending growing interests make clutter. 

Dog collection all over the room, sports memorabilia, gaming, movies, music, and other odds and ends just stacked up. 

This really needed fixing up and organizing. 

So I took the junk outdoors and lightly sanded for painting. (The slick finish of the paper like material needed to have a scuffed surface for the paint to adhere to it.)

The appearance was still junk. So I chose some printed paper (sold in book format at Hobby Lobby) to decoupage the shelving units.

Lots of boyish themed prints was perfect.

It really went easy and looked better.

But not totally liking it yet. It needed more. So I dragged out this thrift shop find that I bought just for the wood, and repurposed it to top off the units.

Securing the units together while adding the wood planks, gave some character to the appearance. So I screwed the plank onto the top of the units.

Trial look: Liked it. 

Then stacked the shelving units on top of the cabinet units with brackets screwed on to the secured plank.

To disassemble this, it's going to be a lot of unscrewing. I used quite a few. 

One plank served the top of the cabinets and another over the top of the shelving.

Then I needed to top off these two cubby units for a desk.

Carting this shelf around for 30 years finally came to end. I reused two of the wood shelves to make a desk surface.

After cutting, sanding, gluing and clamping over night...

I brought it in to see how it fit.

Way too wrong.

The square corners looked dangerous. My hip hurt just looking at it.

Rounding off the corners would work, yet allow enough desk space.

Using the jig saw to round off the blunt corners was much better. Then I sanded the entire surface for a distressed look.

Then gave it a single quick coat of stain and screwed it into the top of the cubby shelving. 

It didn't hurt my eyes and hip anymore.

And it became a desk.

That cluttered wall of hobbies, collections and interests finally became organized. Everything has a place. Streamlined and functional.

I wouldn't mind hanging out here. It turned out much more pleasant.

So far, the tween is keeping it neat and tidy. Thank goodness. A cluttered room makes a cluttered mind. And vice versa.

Now if the garage could look this organized.

Maybe the next challenge... not yet scheduled but should get done as soon as possible!

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My Repurposed Life-Catch As Catch Can