Dining Room Buffet

Two years ago, the wife and I started the cord-cutting process. I kicked it off by assembling a home theater personal computer (HTPC) set-up to make it easy to watch web content on our TV. It was my effort to tie all of our home electronics into a single, easy-to-use system. The heart of that project was a homemade console that organized all of the components. I chronicled the endeavor in a trio of posts starting with this one: Building An HTPC Console, Part 1.

The console was made to encourage airflow to cool the 100 or so feet of electrical wiring that connected all of the electronic components. It had a false, perforated back to hide and organize wires. There also was a sliding shelf to make accessing the printer easy. There was even a power outlet built directly into the unit that featured USB ports for smart device charging. I was pretty proud of it.

Then, 18 months ago, we finally cut the cable cord. Our spending on media consumption dropped from and average of $215 per month to $89, saving us over $1500 per year. I chronicled that endeavor in a trio of posts starting with this one: Cutting The Cable Cord, Part 1.

As part of the cord-cutting process, we shed many of the electronics that had been so useful only a year prior. Not long thereafter, the wife opened her own sewing and craft studio and appropriated the printer and a few other tools. As a result, the console was mostly empty. At that same time, we sold our house. It was a crazy year. We ended up living in an apartment for seven months and the console was one of the few things that made the trip to our temporary living space. Everything else went into storage. On New Year’s Eve, 2013, we closed on our new home.

As luck would have it, there’s no good place to put the console in the new house. I don’t like to hold onto useless items, so it was use it or lose it. As a result, I was forced to morph my homemade, man-cave-worthy, all-in-one entertainment center into a dining room buffet to store the wife’s fine china.

This was not a befitting mutation to such a masculine piece of furniture, but it was the only way it made sense to keep it in the new house. Luckily, it didn’t require much work. All I had to do was build a mirrored backer, drill some holes for the cords of some dainty lamps, and close off the upper shelf with a cabinet door. I used my router to remove all but 1/8″ of wood in the center so that one piece of wood appears to be two drawer faces that are in line with the cabinets doors below.

I’m glad we’re getting some use out of the console buffet, but it still feels wrong for some reason. It went from cutting-edge to obsolete in only two years. That has to be some sort of record.