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Before & After: The Midcentury TV Console Cat Condo

Gregory Han
Gregory Han
A Los Angeles native, Gregory’s interests fall upon the relationship between design, nature, and technology. His resume includes art director, toy designer, and design writer. Co-author of Poketo's "Creative Spaces: People, Homes, and Studios to Inspire", you can find him regularly at Design Milk and the New York Times Wirecutter. Gregory lives with his wife Emily and their two cats—Eames and Eero—in Mt. Washington, California, curiously investigating the entomological and mycological.
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updated Jun 7, 2019
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

I can attest to the challenge of refinishing a vintage stereo entertainment cabinet. They’re undoubtedly beautiful, but also big, heavy, packed with difficult to disassemble, pre-miniaturization era electronics, and usually require a great deal of stripping and refinishing to bring them back to glory. But these furniture + electronics behemoths can be a great canvas for DIY reuse projects that look beyond their initial intended uses…

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DIYer DanW7000 explains how his feline fanciful project came to be: 

Bought this vintage TV/stereo/radio off Craigslist a few years ago with the idea I’d fix it up, maybe even bring it back to life. After getting some advice [on Reddit], I realized that probably was out of my realm. I decided instead to knock out the tube and set up a bar inside. All was planned and I thought I was ready to get started…then my wife got pregnant with what will be our first. The idea of a knee high bar just wasn’t going to work. Instead, opted to make something for our two cats.

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The project took a careful dismantling of the interior television electronics, stripping the cabinet, and then applying two coats of paint to give the midcentury console a new life as a cat condo.

But some of the TV console’s household electronics past lives on with its new iteration: Dan replaced the old speakers and dropped in a new pair behind the old speaker grills, connecting them to his home entertainment setup for home audio duty. His two cats, Max and Abby, are still suspicious of their new digs, but in time they’ll probably be fighting over the spot.

Check out more photos and details of this purrfect DIY project here.

(Images: DanW7000)

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