We’ve never had a real TV stand. Our TV used to sit on top of a small set of 1×2 cubbies. I’ve also had a set of 2×3 cubbies for a while. It acted as my dresser for years, then I finally decided I wanted a real dresser and bought one. So, we switched out the small cubbies for the larger cubbies, giving our TV a more suitable, but still not ideal, home.
Even more recently, I decided the cubbies would look much nicer, and also stay cleaner, if I raised it off of the floor by adding some legs. These cubbies weren’t really made for adding legs, or making any real adjustments to. I’ve also never made adjustments like this to a piece of furniture before so it was a bit of a risk, but I figured if it didn’t work out, we’d just keep it the way it was. Worst case, I’d ruin the cubbies that were pretty cheap and had served me for years already. Not a huge loss.
I got some leg mounts and some shorter screws since the ones that come with the mounts would have been too long and gone straight through the bottom shelf. I measured 3″ from the sides and 1″ from the front and back to make sure they were all placed evenly from the corners. Then I used a drill to screw them in place.
I originally got some shorter, round legs, but the bolts that came attached to them did not work with the mounts I had, so I exchanged them for these tapered legs, which were a close second anyway. Since we use the cubbies for a fairly light television and some board games, I didn’t need anything too heavy duty since they wouldn’t be supporting a lot of weight. I certainly wouldn’t climb or sit on this piece of furniture.
After I attached the legs, I stood the TV stand up and found that it wobbled a bit. Not good for putting a television on. I had felt rounds left over that I had gotten for the legs of some other furniture, so I stuck one of those on one of the legs and that seemed to solve the problem.
With the legs on and the wobble corrected, I decided to paint. The cubbies are an espresso finish, so they’re a very dark shade of brown. I decided to just use black paint because I wasn’t about to try to mix paints to match the espresso color and I didn’t want to buy paint just to use a tiny bit for these legs.
When the paint was dry, I stood the TV stand up and put everything back on it. I think it looks so much nicer, and now our games won’t get dusty so quickly since they’re off of the floor.
I did end up adding a fifth support to the center of the stand after adding a new game and a number of gaming books and cards that were previously kept elsewhere. The extra weight was slightly more than this set of cubbies could comfortably handle in the middle.
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LessthanThreeD 