Home Decor II: The DIY Tv Stand!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had purchased a D.I.Y TV stand which needed to be assembled when we got home from our very successful shopping trip.  My sister (henceforth known as FF), who is staying with us for a while, was chomping at the bit to play handyman.  The engineer in her couldn’t resist the challenge.  TD appointed himself the overseer and I appointed myself head designer.

After two hours of taking down old horrid dark blue curtains & re-hanging light, creamy gorgeous curtains; getting appropriate bulbs, leads & plugs for the lamps and finally finding the most aesthetically pleasing place for them (sounds very easy but there are MANY combinations of sofas and lamps and it has to be just right!),  FF and I were ready to tackle the TV stand.  TD was deeply absorbed in his team pvp (for you non-gamers out there, pvp = player vs player games) and since Team PVP > D.I.Y Tv Stand, we decided to forge on ahead just the two of us.

So we ripped open the cardboard casing and dug out the three page instruction manual with big pictures (love big pictures!) which we read from beginning to end.  Then we checked to see if all the relevant bits ‘n bobbies were in the package (again, LOVE the big pictures!) and finally we pulled out the first shelf plank and laid it out with reverence.

The stand has three shelf planks, stacked on top of one another, held in place by a trim board in the back and two long 8cm-in-diameter tubes in front.  The tubes are held in place by two half a meter length screws that you screw into the bottom shelf and through which you thread in the wide tubes and the other two shelf planks. Are you lost yet? It sounds more complicated than it looks, you will just have to take my word for it!

So FF took over the back board section and started attaching it to the first plank and I started attaching the half meter screws into the first plank.  We had the base structure up in no time and patted ourselves on the back!

Then we mounted the next shelf plank which is supposed to slot into two holes in the back board section. The operative phrase being “supposed to”.  No holes. Both of us start muttering about ’shoddy d.i.y kits’ and wondering if we should just drill new holes because neither of us felt like traipsing all the way back to the shop for a replacement kit.  Good thing we didn’t as well, because just then, the engineer realises that that she has mounted the back board section backwards! So lots of unscrewing ensues, more re-screwing and we slot in the second plank.

Third plank is mounted and slotted in! We are on a roll! Finally we need to screw on two small legs to the final plank! Wait…what? Screw on to where? Oh … those 5 meter long screws are supposed to stick out of the top plank? Uh oh….I think I have screwed them in too deep.

So we dismantled the entire thing, re-assembled it again and finally we were able to screw on the short stumpy little legs! Those damn legs.

We turn the whole structure on to its legs, praying to all Gods that we haven’t missed a very vital screw because if we have and the tv stand crumbles under the petite weight of the 32″ lcd screen, both FF and I will have to change our names, don a hijab and go into hiding somewhere in the UAE to get away from a very murderous TD.

It seemed to hold FF’s weight, but then again she probably weighs less than the lcd! So we replaced the cute little cupboard with the tv stand.  FF and I both took  a deep breath as we gingerly placed the lcd on the brand spanking new tv stand and stepped away, as slowly as possible.

A week has passed by and it is still standing so I’d like to think that our little d.i.y adventure was a success.  Now I just need to make sure that TD does not notice that little bump on the top of the TV stand caused by me screwing in the 5m long screw too deep into the first plank … oh wait he reads my blog….teehee sorry sweetie!