I started looking around at bedside tables for her but they all seemed so expensive for what they were. My tightness kicked in, and I held off buying. Then I remembered we had this old thing sitting in the garage - we used to have our stereo on it in our London house but we don't really have a use for it now.
Its pretty cheap and nasty looking in my opinion - with that shiny laminate look - plus it had black ring marks made from the feet of the turntable that just wouldn't come off no matter how much I scrubbed, which you can see here.
So I thought I would smarten it up a little, and if it turned out well enough, baby girl could have it for her bedside table.
First I removed the wheels from the bottom, as I didn't want her pushing it round the bedroom and it only added to the cheap look of it. Then I filled the holes - there were various peg holes so you could adjust the shelf height but I chose a mid-height set to keep and filled in the rest with wood filler.
When the filler was dry, I spray painted the whole thing - I didn't take it all apart (as I couldn't be bothered...) but just took the middle shelf out. As I have been banned by DH of adding anything else pink to DD's room, I chose a teal-type colour. The spray painting definitely worked better when applying to a flat surface - i.e. I turned the cube around so I was spraying onto the "top" at all times, and it saved drippage.
I also bought a piece of hardboard the size of the whole unit when upright (the nice man in B&Q cut it to size for me) and I covered it with this lovely colourful Ikea fabric I had, held in place with material glue. When everything was dry, I nailed the hardboard to the back using taking pins. Although you don't see it much, especially if she fills the shelves, it is a nice cheerful back drop to catch a glimpse of.
Now, I'm the first to admit I'm not the best at DIY...I have some good ideas but I lose patience when carrying them out. So I'm happy to report that this was super easy - everything I needed was purchased from B&Q, and it took me just a few afternoons to fix up. I'm pleased with the result, and best of all, DD got a new bedside table for just the cost of some spray paint and a piece of hardboard!
