My "NEW" Record Player

Remember the painting project I mentioned last April.  Well I completed it about a month ago, and am JUST getting around to sharing it with you! Life happens I suppose!

It all started when we remodeled our bedroom and our dresser ended up perched in our living room for a month or so.  The dresser began to grow on me in it's new location making our large living area seem a bit more cozy.  It was then I began my quest for a larger furniture piece to fill the void when we moved our dresser back to our bedroom.  

I looked for dressers, but they were either tall and skinny or the big ones were pretty spendy.  Then I saw this beauty pop up online for sale! 

Okay so it's not beautiful in this photo, but I saw it's potential I suppose.  It is a fully functioning record player console, including speakers (ugly orange panels) and radio.

My husband and his friend who helped move it thought I was insane, so I had to prove them wrong. 

I decided I wanted to add some color to the room and go bold with this piece.  I have been inspired by some bloggers who have some major fun with color in their homes.  I also didn't want to change everything in my living room, so I chose yellow, which complemented the colors I already have in there.

I laid the drop cloth right in my living room and did the painting right there.  I had some guidance from Arlene at Whippoorwill Paints on the best approach to take.  I didn't want to mess up such a large piece of furniture.  She offers local classes on refinishing furniture and has even opened her own new chalk paint line! I am excited to get my hands on some.  Make sure to "like" her page so you can keep up to date with her fun classes and paint colors!

Anyways, I primed with Kilz because the wood laminate was such a dark color, and then needed 4 coats of paint to get the proper shade of yellow I wanted!  Honestly the painting was easy.  My biggest challenge came in taking the piece apart to get the fabric panels out so I could refinish those.  It was a giant puzzle dismantling speakers, wires and bolts but I got it figured out.  

I decided to keep the old hardware and changed the fabric out to a neutral color.  I also distressed the paint before I sealed it by sanding on the edges and detail work to give it a more "old" look.

I am in love with the finished product!! We also had our friend help us figure out how to wire it so it now can play our ipod through the speakers!  How cool is that.  We also were able to obtain a pretty awesome record collection from family who had some yet had nothing to play them on!  Score!