TV Niche Redo

Normally I am the one in the family that comes up with these crazy notions to change this or that, move this here or there, or rearrange room after room. Not this time...

At the height of the chaos!

This time it was my 13 year old son...ummm. When did this happen? Since when did he care and since when did he think he got a say in matters of decor & design? It had nothing to do with either. He wanted the TV in a different spot for what he felt would be better viewing. Of course. Now, there was a part of me that knew if the TV was moved, I would get my pretty little mantel to decorate any way I like. Visions of beautiful garland at Christmas started dancing through my head....and I said OK, you can move the TV. So, down came the TV from the TV niche (which, I might add, it fit in perfectly even though we bought the TV years before we bought the house, how often does that happen?) And thus ensued the largest mess I believe there has ever been in that room. Wires had to be reran, electrical boxes moved, a TV wall mount installed...getting the picture? Halfway through I must admit I said, 'Put it alllll back!' (Mamma doesn't like messes).
Finally, everything was out of the niche:

And I had my blank canvas...sigh. To turn into this:

What I did:
1. Cut down more of that awesome weathered crate from my dad's machine purchase I have talked about in a few of my posts
2. Whitewashed it with basic white paint that is oh so important to have on hand
3. Gathered decorating items from around the house that I have been collecting for a moment such as this
4. Created a burlap pillow out of an old lifeless pillow, a vinyl stencil, black paint and black yarn (tutorial in upcoming post) and attached it to a hook I screwed into the wood


Viola!
PS Thanks and kudos to my husband who, while the 13 year old helped, was ultimately the one who had to figure out how to do all the rewiring, installing, etc. And to his credit, did not freak out when I said, put it all back!, halfway through the process.