A "New" China Cabinet For the Dining Room

After I re-purposed my old china cabinet into the living room as a bookcase, I was given another one by a friend about a year ago.  It was really big, and wasn't really my style; but I had another friend who was interested in trading her china cabinet for it.  It took us a while to coordinate the swap (she lives on the opposite side of town, and we're both pretty busy), but we finally did it last weekend.  The new cabinet is an Ikea LEKSVIK cabinet (discontinued):

The bottom half  is full of Sylvan's and my cookbooks; and the top houses some of my rock and mineral collection, which hasn't been on display for the past couple of years since I moved the other china cabinet.  Yay, rocks!

Top: shells in the back left corner; naturally-formed crystal points and clusters
Middle: carved spheres and points, a jar of tumbled stones, and a fluorite plate
Bottom: mostly fluorite, with a couple of decorated rocks from the garden

Somewhere I have a box full of fossils, and another box containing my sulfurs, chalcanthite, and a few other things; but I have NO idea what I've done with the boxes.  I'm so organized.  (x_x)



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HYLLIS Console Unit: Ikea Hack Finished!

Here's the finished Hyllis console unit:

Since the last post, where I cut off a third of each shelving unit, I have: 

• inserted the removed shelves into the top half of the shortened units
• primed and painted the whole thing 
• drilled new holes in the upright, side posts so that I could bolt the three units together at the insides
• assembled, glued, trimmed, planed, filled, sanded, and stained the wooden top (I made a board, lol)
• drilled holes in the top so that I could attach the wooden top
• loaded the whole thing with electronics, books, and DVDs 

[Whoops!  I had a bit here about the tv that I haven't actually done yet; which is what you get for writing a blog post before you do something, and then not proofreading before you post!  I still need to swap out my tv for Sylvan's larger one.  Mine will go into the craft room for background movies while we work.]

The next step will be to get some shelving up onto the wall above the Hyllis unit, like this: 

Made with Olioboard

More soon.

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