Repurposed console TV

Any advice on repurposing old console tvs? I have 2 sitting in my basement. Both are 20" deep, 30" high. One with a more ornate cabinet is 40" wide, and one more simple is 44". The openings with everything(screen, speakers, and control panels) removed comes to 20" high and 32"/40" wide. Not mine, but both are this general style.

I was thinking going for a book shelf/entertainment center. It would seem the processes is gut the electronics, add some shelves and a new back panel, refinish and done.

My TV is too big to fit in the console and a fish tank project is awesome, but beyond my ability/attention span.

I helped granny find a good deal on a 42" Philips 1080p 120 Hz LCD 4 or 5 years ago. She was going to replace the 27" RCA console that was pushing 20 years old at the time, and over the air channels were switching to HD. She bought the LCD and was going to buy some sort of entertainment center/table for the new TV to sit in/on. In the mean time said LCD got placed on top of the old RCA console.

I'll preface this next part, I don't believe my granny is truly crazy, she's pretty intelligent, was a school teacher most of her life, and has a college education, rare for a woman her age from rural eastern Arkansas Delta. Shortly after she got the new LCD, she decided that she was "allergic" to it, the light from the new big TV "burned" her skin, she was/is physically uncomfortable watching the thing. It took her a few years before she'd be in the kitchen at the same time the microwave was running too, she could "feel the rays" from it.

So instead of getting a new entertainment center, her big 42" LCD still sits atop the old 27" RCA console, and she continues to watch it, when company is over and they want to watch TV they usually turn the LCD on, but she either leaves the room, or sits where she's off to the side of the LCD. If she wants to watch something the old RCA is what is used, company or not.

She broke down and got satellite when over the air switched to HD, I told her about digital converter boxes, but she decided to get satellite anyway so she could still watch TV on the old RCA.

I said all that to say, just sit a modern TV on top of it, who needs picture-in-picture when you can have TV-on-TV.

i used to want to get one to put a modern flat screen in, but any tv worth watching any more is as big as the whole console.. my mom has a computer monitor that is the same size as the screen in the 25" console tv we had when i was a kid..

I have a 36" Sony that weighs maybe 200 in my basement. I'm thinking target practice next range trip. Otherwise it needs to go!

I saw someone built a dogbed out of one, I believe it was someone from the GRM messagboard on BookFace that showed a picture of it. Looked pretty cool and fairly straightforward to pull off.

Using floating glass shelves and making an entertainment center could work, especially with some LED lighting and a glass door (really blow people's minds and use a 2-way mirror and stick a small LCD TV/Monitor behind it).

In reply to KyAllroad:

if it's WEGA I have the same TV, if it weren't for the fact that the picture is still fairly decent I'd be right there with you.

regarding the OP, speaker tower for surround sound, liquor cabinet or humidor.

along the same lines, I REALLY want to get my hands on one of the old console stereos. I have plans. Evil, evil plans.

pet stuff!!!

Fun Stuff

I like the bar idea. Saw a bit on TV where they repurposed one into a really attractive bar. Put some legs on it to put it in reach.

A 20gallon High Fish tank works really well in most of these! Just enough wrong to get a second look from every one who sees it the first time. Goldfish are also generally more riveting than most reality tv on currently as well...

SWMBO and I found two old console stereos- one of which has a TV- at the local ReStore for like $15 each. Since she loves refinishing/repainting old furniture and I love retro stuff, we picked both up. The non-TV one is currently sitting in the den with the receiver and PS3 on it while the TV one sits out in the garage waiting for me to have the time and space to rip the TV out and put in shelving to use it as an entertainment center. That one is pretty cool IMO- has a turntable on one side and an AM/FM/8-Track on the other. Only thing that doesn't seem to work is the turntable, which I hope to repair. Nice thing about it is that it also has RCA inputs (and I believe outputs), so I can actually hook it up and use it with the newer equipment if I want to!

Damn, now I want to get an old console TV and make it into something cool. I think my in-laws have one of those big console stereos up in their attic. Not sure how they got it up there, but it's been up there since the mid 80's. Now they are getting to the age, that I seriously doubt it is coming back down.

I put my new TV on top of mine.

Tim Baxter wrote: along the same lines, I *REALLY* want to get my hands on one of the old console stereos. I have plans. Evil, evil plans.

Something like this?

I come across console stereos pretty frequently - I have a couple "monos" now. Shipping from IL would suck, but maybe we can work it into the GRM transport caravan sometime.

A console TV converted into anything else is just going to look like a converted TV console. I'd be up for putting a new flat screen inside, but that's about it.

Jeff Foxworthy has a joke about you know you're a redneck when you have a new TV sitting on top of your old TV.

My goal is something like this.

I think I will start gutting them tomorrow.

My first one has been gutted, and planed out. Now to buy the materials. One sheet of plywood, one 1x3, and one sheet of the really thin wood paneling should be enough for both. I have also settled on the finish, some blue paint, a couple stickers, and I will have a very happy whovian wife.

Fish tank. I need one with a turntable.

I repurposed a stand for a monitor style tube TV. It had a cabinet at the bottom, then a shelf for a VCR and then large space for the TV with the sides higher then the TV so that it had a top over it. I cut the sides down and fit the top of the cabinet to the self that the TV used to sit on. The top now works as the stand for the flat screen TV with the space for the VCR available for a DVD player (But don't have one.). What was 5ft tall is now 25 inches tall.

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

The dogbed is too cute!

The bar actually looks fantastic. That specific console has a great midcentury vibe to it, which lends itself perfectly to cocktails. That's a helluva conversation piece. I dig it.

My thought: subwoofer

Baby cage

I had to dispose of one of these years back. The problem is that the tube is hazardous wast. So I got the idea of putting it in two lawn and garden trash bags and then in a box so I could brake it and then put the glass in with the trash. Ya i know but this was 20 years ago. Anyway I wacked it with the back side of a long handled shovel and it imploded making the most amazing low frequency thud that I heard echo off the hills around my house. Later that afternoon the police dropped in asking if I had hear anything. I said yes as a matter of fact I had heard a boom and thought it was a sonic boom from the concord.

Guess I rattled the Nabors

I remember watching the 1972 Olympics on a little 19" black/white TV - then my Dad stepped up and bought a 25" Zenith Console TV - we were ecstatic.

It was a sign of prosperity to buy one of these bad boys.......