Finishing Up the Den

We are the worst bloggers. The worst.

We haven't updated since November of last year (10 months), which was 6 months after our previous post. We are very sorry to let our 3 fans down.

So let's catch up.

Starting with the den... When last we left you, we had added a free standing closet. That was most of the major work, except for some aesthetic efforts aimed at our media.

We bought our first flat panel TV (welcome to 2005, y'all) and decided to mount it on the wall so that we could swing it out for couch viewing or fold it up to limit its profile. We started with this blank wall:

Then a mount:

Then a TV:

Great, right? Except that we pillars of modern living still have a lot of other technical accoutrement. Here you see our TiVo, modem, router, mini cellphone tower, dust buster, and a whole lotta plugs (DVD not pictured):

So Seth got to work on a custom cabinet to go below the TV. Here he is planning it out:

It started off pretty basic, and Ilana worried if this piece was going to be the right addition for the den:

But then Seth busted out the router and dropped the design hammer.

As you can see, he's very proud of his work.

After adding the doors and some feet, the final product looked like this:

Then Ilana does what Ilana does best: paint the damn thing. For those of you (named Dennis) complaining about painting over pretty wood: we tried various stain options and none of them worked. At all. We have wood floors and no other wood furniture, so it just didn't "go." To keep it simple, we went with a paint shade slightly darker than our walls.

Photo available via the AbbyCam

And here it is, disguising all the disorganization of technology inside and fitting in nicely with the TV:

Look mom, no wires!

With the den done, that left only one room untouched: the office.

We thought it would be simple. Then we had a crazy idea.

To be continued...