Old TV Armoire to Wine Cabinet

Television Compartment

• The backs of television armoires were often made from hardboard instead of wood, and featured perforated pop-out panels for extra-deep tube-style televisions. Even intact, they don't make lovely backdrops. Consider cutting mirror to fit and installing it in over the hardboard.

  Television compartments frequently have two or more rectangular shelves at the top, bottom or both, which were meant to hold components such as movie players or cable boxes. They're usually the right size to hold a single row of wine bottles laid on their sides. If the shelves provide enough wine storage, you can use the rest of the television space for glassware and as a serving or tasting station. Mount stemware racks, which hang your wine glasses upside down, to the roof of the television compartment or to the underside of the component shelves. Place a wine bucket and tray on the base of the compartment, or on top of the lower shelves, for serving.

  To store larger amounts of wine, remove the component shelves and install wine racks. You can build one to fit, or stack modular units. When you measure for wine racks, pay attention to your armoire door style. For wrap-around or regular hinged doors, you can use the entire interior space. If you have slide-in pocket doors, you'll need to allow for the space they require inside the cabinet.

Side Compartments

• Some television armoires have compartments that swing open on each side like doors. They typically contain short, shallow shelves for storing movies or music. The shelves aren't suitable for storing wine, which needs to be stored on its side to keep the corks wet. On some armoires, you can install stemware racks if you cut them to fit. The space is even better suited for storing short decanters and rows of highball glasses, if you want your wine cabinet to double as a bar.

Top and Bottom Cabinets

• Many television armoires have bottom cabinets with doors, and some models also have upper cabinets. Behind the doors, you may find drawers or slide-out racks for storing movies. If you remove the drawers or racks, you can add modular wine racks or custom units to store additional bottles of wine. Many top and bottom cabinets have doors with speaker mesh or glass inserts. Some units were made to be interchangeable, and shipped with mesh, glass and wood inserts. Use the wood inserts if you have them. If not, consider having wood inserts made, and then stain them to match the armoire. Speaker mesh is unattractive. Though glass looks good, wine needs to be kept in the dark.

Drawers

• Television armoires often have storage drawers. Some are part of the armoire's design. Others are inset drawers hidden behind the armoire doors. In both cases, the drawers usually have plastic racks for holding DVD or VHS movies. If you remove the racks, you can use the drawers to hold corkscrews, coasters, wine stoppers and cocktail napkins. Line them with tarnish-free cloth to keep sterling or silver-plate stoppers or glass markers from tarnishing.