I used to be a huge garage sale junky. These days I have a lot more trouble getting out of bed for the mere possibility of finding a treasure. However, when my family visits, sometimes I manage to pull myself out of bed early enough to do some modern day treasure hunting with my brother and mother.
One day this summer, we were out and about when I spotted this beauty.
I snatched it up and took it home. It now lives behind my couch in the living area.
This pretty piece of furniture has a wonderful secret. Her doors slide open to show off speakers and the top flips up to reveal a radio and record player!
Since purchasing the piece for a mere $20, I have used the radio multiple times. I have yet to figure out the record player, unfortunately I think it is broken. But my guess is that it wouldn’t take much to get it going again.
I like music and I often use it to get myself going- whether I’m trying to rev myself up to clean house or need it for a boost of inspiration. However I’m not a musician and music doesn’t “speak to my soul” as it does some people.
So, here’s my dilemma. This fun vintage record player/radio is awesome and I love it. However, I’m trying to decide if it would make more sense for me to tear out the speakers and electrical items to turn this piece into a fun storage piece, office organizer, or something else I haven’t thought of yet.
So, I wanted to know what you guys think. Would you leave the piece “as is” in it’s yonder year glory even though it takes up a good amount of space in our small footprint? Or would you go for a more practical route and turn the piece into something a little more functional?
Gut it.. too large of a piece of furniture for just a radio! Its begging for a update.
keep it the way it is. its a classic!
Could you wire it to smaller speakers (maybe wireless speakers?), turn the speaker area into storage and get the best of both worlds?
This!
What if you kept the speakers but wired a docking station to them? You would gain quite a bit of storage in the middle, but still keep the stereo function.
Nikki Kelly @ the ambitious procrastinator
These are great thoughts ladies! I am going to consider each of them. Keep the ideas coming! 🙂
I have a vintage record/ radio console that I saved while on its way to the trash! My husband and I ripped everything out and re-made it into a Tv console. Ours had glass in the middle portion so we busted it and put shelves in to store our DVD player etc. and then we put shelves inside the sliding door portion to store our DVDs so they can be hidden. Our only predicament now is that we want to figure out a way to hid our DVD player and such
I agree with Nikki, if the speakers are in good condition. If they’re not that great, or you already have a good stereo system, then I would probably re-purpose it. $20 is such a steal! I’ve seen uglier stereo cabinets at flea market / antique stores for $80+.
Keep as is… Retro chic! I am on the search for one, but it must have a mini bar too.
I love the retro-ness of it as is! But to me, the key appeal of a piece like that is the vintage aspect. That said I have an antique radio cabinet that I use for storage, but someone else ripped the guts out before I bought it. Otherwise I doubt I would have done it….
Leave it, leave it! Get the record player fixed, start collecting old records from thrift stores: Liberace, Kenny Rogers, Neil Diamond, Julio Iglesias, Olivia Newton John….so great to put on as background music during a party and a great conversation piece!
I’d do a mixture of both. Rip out the old speakers and possibly the electronics in the middle, and add new electronics and a small pair of bookshelf speakers. Assuming the new speakers are much smaller than what is in there, you can have storage space as well as the radio/ipod functionality. I have an old 1938 GE radio from my grandmother that I’m currently doing exactly this to. I bought a Lepai Tripath amp which is small and sounds great, and just got two bookshelf speakers from best buy (Amp – http://www.amazon.com/LP-2020A-Lepai-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356044220&sr=8-1&keywords=tripath+amp). It’s the best of both worlds
Keep it!! If you want a storage piece, get something different. This is far too much of a pearl to gut!! I’m sure there are plenty of people that would take it off your hands, and you can buy/ build what you really want with the profit.
I’m totally jealous of your find! My husband and I have been looking for a non-working one to serve as a console under our wall mounted tv. We’re planning on gutting the one we find, adding new speakers and an ipod dock with a possible modern record player and turning the rest of the inside space into storage. If everything works on your unit I might be tempted to keep it as is, however…