Creative Ideas to Upcycle Vintage Televisions Hiding in Your Attic or Cellar

Quick Links

• Build a Retro Gaming Station
• Hook It Up to Your Computer
• Use It for Decoration
• Leave It on Your Patio
• Transform a Broken CRT TV Into a Cabinet

Key Takeaways

• Old CRT TVs are perfect for retro gaming because they provide an authentic experience and might even look better than modern TVs in some cases.
• You can incorporate a flat-screen TV into your PC setup.
• Utilize the TV as a decoration piece by running virtual ambiance apps and photo frames or by turning it into a display cabinet.

After a TV upgrade, many of us don’t know what to do with the old one, so we just store it away for future use. Don’t let it become a permanent resident down there; it’s time to take action and put the TV to good use today. Here are five cool ideas about what to do with an old flat-screen or CRT TV.

Build a Retro Gaming Station

You knew this one was coming. Old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TVs and retro consoles like the Nintendo N64, NES, and Sega Genesis are a match made in heaven. CRTs are perfect for playing retro games like the original Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog.

You’ll get a better and more authentic experience with a CRT TV than you could ever get with a modern emulator and ultra-sharp display. It’s not just the nostalgia—there’s a technical reason why CRTs are better for old consoles.

The first factor is resolution. On modern LCD or OLED displays there is a physical grid of pixels at a fixed resolution. This is the screen’s so-called native resolution . The image from the console has to be scaled and stretched to fit today’s high-res screens. CRTs don’t have a native resolution, and can draw a grid of pixels on the screen of any resolution up to that display’s resolution limit. This is why games look good at any resolution on a CRT. The edges of on-screen elements softly blend into each other. Additionally, most CRT TVs have excellent response times with low motion blur, high contrast ratios, and even relatively high refresh rates between 75–200Hz .

If you don’t have an old CRT but instead have an old LCD or plasma TV, you can still use it for retro gaming—assuming you consider the PlayStation 2 and 3 retro enough.

Hook It Up to Your Computer

Continuing where we left off, virtually any flat-screen TV will be a welcome addition to your PC setup. Even if you have two or three monitors, you could always use more screens.

A TV installed on the wall above your primary monitor is in the perfect spot for displaying YouTube videos and TV shows while you’re doing something else. If you’re not a fan of multitasking, you can still use it to display passive information, such as your music player of choice, Discord, hardware performance monitoring , note-taking, etc.

The best part is that hooking up the TV to your PC is straightforward. It’s as simple as hooking up an HDMI cable to your graphics card and TV. If your TV uses RCA connectors, you can get a cheap RCA to HDMI converter to run it and get yourself an additional display.

Use It for Decoration

Any kind of display can be put to good use as a decorative piece if you have enough space. You can run a virtual ambiance app or video, such as a snowy window or a virtual fireplace . The possibilities are endless.

My favorite is the idea of turning it into a digital photo or art frame . We all get tired of looking at the same old photo or artwork on the wall; a TV makes it easy to change the photo on display. You could even create a gallery of your favorite family and pet photos and have them in rotation.

The way you do this depends on what type of input your TV accepts. TVs with HDMI can work with a host of cheap TV boxes and streaming devices like a Fire TV Stick . If it’s an old TV, or you’re a tinkerer, you could make use of an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

If you’ve got one of those smaller—relatively speaking—CRT TVs, you can turn it into a sick vintage digital clock. If that sounds appealing, here’s an Instructables guide on how to do it.

Leave It on Your Patio

PitukTV/Shutterstock.com

My colleague Joe Fedewa wrote about the idea of putting a regular TV outside when the weather is nice. It’s a great way to enjoy nice weather and also watch your sport or TV show of choice with friends and family.

I’ll go a step further by saying that you could leave an old TV you don’t care about as a permanent fixture on your patio. If you can, try to shield it from direct sun exposure and rain by installing it under a roofed area. Also, you should definitely get an outdoor cover for added protection when the TV is not in use.

Outdoor TV Cover for 55-inch Flat Screen TV

A simple cover to add some dust, water, and UV light protection to your TV to help it withstand the elements.

Bear in mind that no TV is 100% safe outside, even with the cover on, as a few drops of moisture trapped in the TV could be enough to kill it. So, if you care whether the TV lives even just a little, bring it inside when the weather turns bad.

Transform a Broken CRT TV Into a Cabinet

CRT TV can hold a deadly electric charge. Do not attempt to disassemble a CRT TV unless you are a qualified expert. Bring it to a professional instead.

If your old CRT TV doesn’t work, it’s probably not worth the time and effort it takes to repair. Instead, convert the lovely retro housing into a display cabinet. A popular project is to turn an old TV into a liquor cabinet, as shown in the following video.

If you’re a collector, you can display your favorite pieces of whatever you’re collecting. An old TV looks far cooler and more interesting than a simple wooden cabinet.

There are so many things you can do with a TV, regardless of how old it is. Instead of leaving it to rot in your basement, put it to good use by turning it into a decorative conversation piece. If it’s a new-ish TV that you replaced just to upgrade to a higher resolution or OLED TV , you can always use it somewhere else in your home, such as your patio, yard, or garage.

Also read: