Food Network in My Kitchen

I have been dying to put a TV in our kitchen. I want a 19 inch flat screen that will either mount to the wall or on a swinging arm to tuck under the cabinets when it's not being used. I know it seems really silly, especially in these economic times, to put a TV in the kitchen but I just know I will get a ton of use out of it. The dream started with a radio mounted under the cabinets so that I could have music while I was cooking and it rapidly morphed into having a TV so that I could listen to music or watch the Food Network.

Saturday my dreams became reality (sort of). We have a massive TV in our living room (it's a GIGANTIC 70 inches) and we also had a 27 inch in our bedroom. The one in the bedroom hardly gets used and is collecting a nasty amount of dust so The Hubs suggested taking the cable box and hooking up to a 13 inch that we had sitting in a closet. Perfect!

Now to just find the right spot for it...to be honest there isn't a whole lot of space in our kitchen to put a TV where it won't be obtrusive or invade counter space. One corner of the bar is ideal for now (until my dream can fully become reality, the one where I get my flat screen). Currently this space was where we "filed", I use that term loosely because as you can see from the picture below it really was merely a 'catch all' for the bills and miscellanous mail among many other items.

First step is putting in a jack where there isn't one. We busted out the handy drill and drilled a hole in our floor close the the wall and the edge of the bar so that we could then put the cords along the seam of the wall and bar and in a way camouflage them. For me cords are an annoyance and I hate that they stick out like a sore thumb but if I can make them "blend" in any sort of way I am a much happier person.

The Hubs army crawled (literally) under the house and pulled the coax cable down the hole and across to hook it up to our satellite box. Then he came inside to test out the TV and make sure it works. That is when we discovered that the TV is a little outdated and requires an additional coax cable to make it work. Before I headed to Home Depot in search of a small cord we pulled the big 27 inch TV from the bedroom to test-it worked! I am off to Home Depot, woohoo! I grabbed a 3 foot cord, the smallest they had even though all I needed was 1 foot of cable, and rushed back home to test it out. It's alive....it's alive!!!! {insert creepy Frankenstien music and thunder}

Total cost for the project is $7.48 with the coax cable and 2 packs of 3M tape which I will also be using for a different project.

Before:

 

After:

Note to self: make sure the object you are photographing is not reflective or clear the clutter out of the way. Clearly my next project will be cleaning the dishes. :)

Isn't she lovely though, you know for a piece of technology...awww swoon!