Just curious. My husband recently won a 55 inch LED TV - woo hoo! Our old TV was a 25 year old (yes, you read that right) RCA BOX TV. We are ready to move into the 21st century now but we have a problem. We have a beautiful solid oak corner wall unit piece that was built for the corner it occupies in our living room. It was built by our house's former owner who was a carpenter. It's about 7 1/2 feet high and the opening for the TV would only hold a 32 inch flat screen at best. Is it worth it to try to sell this huge, heavy piece of furniture or is it obsolete with everyone wanting new & bigger TVs now? As it is, the TV was free, but we're probably going to have to spend about $300-$400 on a new stand so I'm not thrilled, but I guess we'll bite the bullet.
Would anyone have use for this type of furniture anymore or should we just dump it? Hate to do that since it's really a custom piece that is solid oak - but we will if it is more work to try to get someone to buy it. Thoughts?
Can you wall-mount the tv and use the wall unit for other things? If not, you could always try craigslist to sell it locally. There are still people who own small televisions.
You can try craigs list to sell it. There is also freecycle where you post it and someone takes it away for free. I tried to sell my old 32 inch tv and never got any responses at all. I finally freecycled it and it was gone in one day.
When I bought a new flat screen tv, I found a tv stand for it at Goodwill for $13. It was in good shape but missing the doors to the cabinet part, perfect for us since my boys set their wii and xbox in there and don't want doors.
I volunteer at Habitat ReStore and we get alot of the old style wall units. People buy them to use as bookcases or display cabinets so if you don't want yours anymore, consider donating it to a thrift store.
I took my armoire, turned tv stand, and turned it back into an armoire! There are ways to repurpose a wall unit. I have another wall unit in the garage acting as extra storage. If you cant fine a way to repurpose it, put it on craigslist. For every item, there is always a buyer!
BTW, I bought a $20 Lack Coffee table to put my flat screen tv on. It's perfect. Sleek, black, has a shelf for the dvd and cable box. No reason to spend hundreds of dollars.
Can you add additional shelving to use it for something else? Books? baskets/bins that match your decor? Or could you move it to your bedroom and use it to house a 32 inch TV in there?
You might could get something for it, but not likely very much. "Most" TVs anymore are 40 in or larger. Really only a secondary TV would be 32 inches today, and if it is secondary, you really aren't going to want to buy a huge piece of furniture to house it. Our 42" in our bedroom sits on a sofa table that we no longer needed in our family room. I converted our old entertainment center (bought it in our first home and it is beautiful cherry wood and made by Kincaid). The armoire part with pocket doors is now a storage place for my virtual/cyber school supplies, and they are out of sight when we aren't doing school. The matching book shelves are already in use in other rooms and stuffed full of books.
You could even use something like that (if it has doors especially) to house blankets and throws, extra pillows, etc.
Like others have said, if you like the piece and can re-purpose it, then give it a shot. Otherwise, you could try posting it on Craig's List. That doesn't take a lot of work, and you might get something out of it.
If you love it and it works with your decor, maybe you should keep it. Do you have anything else you could put in it? A room looks good with something tall in it. Having all low furniture pieces won't look balanced.
I love wall units. In my current house, my tv is stuck between the wall and the fireplace. There are two double door openings on the adjacent walls, so no chance of a wall unit whatsoever. I miss that about the last house I owned in another place. I had wonderful wall units that were built in on 2 walls. Those are the best! Sigh!!!
That doesn't help with your problem, does it. I have to say that I hate the TV's up over the fireplace. I can't imagine that it's good for your posture or neck to watch.
Dawn
We have a built in that accomodates our 55". I would venture to say that most people who are willing to spend significant money on a unit probably have spent significant money on a larger than 32" screen tv- so it might not be worth your time. Can you add a couple of shelves in the tv spot and use it for something else? You could always put it on craigslist and see what happens.. Have you thought about mounting the tv rather than buying a unit? Brackets are a lot cheaper than entertainment centers. Good luck!
If you cant sell it Green Demolitions http://www.greendemolitions.com/ may take it from you. There is one in Fairfield, NJ.
Congrats on the new TV!
We honestly did not buy a bigger TV because we couldn't fit more in our entertainment center and didn't really need a huge TV. I wouldn't consider the piece obsolete. Lots of people are perfectly happy with a smaller TV.
What you might consider is repurposing the furniture, if you like it, and put shelving in the TV area. Make it a place for games or to hold entertainment items.
I think if you want to sell it, absolutely sell it or put it up on Freecycle if you just want it gone. People take a lot of things and a custom piece of furniture that might fit in anybody's similar home is worth offering.
I'd try to sell it first - you just never know. However, if you don't make a sale, don't dump it, instead, donate it to a THRIFT STORE, SALVATION ARMY, etc. They often will do a truck pick-up by an arranged date.
Honestly, they are becomeing obsolete. We wanted storage around our 73" flat screen so we got a unit that had cabnits on the bottom then we went to Ikea and got shelving units to go on either side all in black to coordinate. It looks wonderful and we get many many compliments on it when people see it for the first time. Make sure you get a unit that will support the correct weight of the TV, that is a mistake many people make.
We had a similar situation with a corner unit that fit JUST RIGHT in the corner of our family room. My (very handy) neighbor actually cut it down for us so that we could use it with our 42" tv. Since it's a custom piece and NICE furniture, I'd try to find someone to modify it for you, especially if you plan to stay there any length of time.
My $0.02.
We see them all the time for $100. My FIL removed parts of his to make it bigger for his tv, but it looks bad. I would donate it and take a $450 tax write off.
Ugh our huge TV is not working. We are debating on fixing it or getting a new one, the problem with getting a new one is the same the wall unit. Of course we didn't get the stand with it, since we had a floor tv. Now we are faced wtih what the heck do we do. I am so annoyed I just got that room dialed in, and now I am faced with trying to match something up to this freaken wall unit.
I would get rid of it and then spend money on pieces that are independent of each other so upgrading electronics won't result in new furniture each time. Standing booking cases, that sorting thing.
Well, you'll find them all over Craigslist ... you could list it there, too, but honestly you may not get any responses ...
