Welcome to Different Strokes, a look at unique home design choices that beg for further explanation.

Claire Billingsley was sick of looking at the unsightly TV in the middle of her living room. The large flat-screen didn’t exactly match with her decor, a carnival of brightly painted wall murals, contrasting textiles with squiggles and stripes, upcycled furniture and art, and a slew of nostalgic Facebook Marketplace finds—including a giant yellow M&M candy display and an oversize Coke bottle radio. Though Billingsley started decorating her dated Cleveland, Ohio, home with DIY projects and secondhand objects in 2018 as a hobby, she’s increasingly incorporated it into her profession. In January 2023, she started documenting her endeavors on Instagram and TikTok, wracking up thousands of followers. She runs a booth at a nearby antique mall and sells her eccentric vintage finds out of another shop called Paradise Galleria. She’s also collaborated with local housing nonprofits to furnish homes for families transitioning out of shelters with mostly thrifted items in her playful style.

Needless to say, it’s no surprise Billingsley had a bright idea for hiding the plain-looking monitor. Inspired by an early-2000s, apple-shaped TV by Taiwan-based electronics company Hannspree that she says was too expensive for her to buy, she designed a TV cabinet as an homage to the Hannspree set that aligns with her taste for food decor, but pivoted to a similar-looking round, red fruit. “My husband has been on a real tomato kick, so that felt more personal and fun,” she says. “He grew his first tomato plant this summer and became somewhat obsessed with random signs in our neighborhood advertising tomatoes for sale. So, tomato it was.” Fittingly, the motif is no stranger to the decor space. See: 2023’s Tomato Girl Summer.

For about $250 in materials, including wood, hinges, hardware, and paint, and without the help of any online tutorials, Billingsley devised what she calls her “tomatovision,” a 4.5-by-5.5-foot mounted cabinet that opens to reveal a TV with (thrifted) faux greenery behind it, and red-and-pink painted door panels decorated with polyurethane-coated wood cutouts made to look like the fruit’s seeds and innards. The cabinet doors also have laser-cut wood letters that form the Robert Louis Stevenson quote, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”

While Billingsley is no stranger to unique DIY projects—last year, she turned a foosball set into a dining table by adding legs and a removable plexiglass lid so you can see the players—she says the “tomatovision” was one of her more ambitious efforts. We talked to her about how she envisioned, planned, and executed the cabinet as a laser-cutter and nail gun neophyte who’d never mounted a TV prior. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dwell: Let’s talk about the more technical process of creating your tomato-shaped TV cabinet. What were the elements you had to consider?

Claire Billingsley: I used my circular saw to create a rectangular frame slightly larger than the measurements of my TV. I wanted to be sure that I could extend the TV out from the wall and access the cords, and I wanted to leave a little wiggle room if I ever wanted a larger unit or to add soundbars. I also wanted it to be light enough that it was easy to open and close and didn’t add too much weight to the unit.

I buy my plywood in half sheets because I have a really small car and larger sheets won’t fit. So I ended up using three wooden sheets with some scraps left over; two for the doors and one for the leafy-green part at the top—that piece is glued to one of the doors. The round edges on the outer sides of the doors had to be cut off and reattached with piano hinges so they could fold out of the way of the main doors. I used heavy-duty, 180-degree cabinet hinges for the doors themselves. They stay put when open and are soft close so I don’t have to worry about damaging the frame if I swing them too hard.

You mentioned this was your first time building anything of the like. Did things go mostly smoothly, or were there any hiccups along the way?

I tend to just go for it when I have an idea and don’t have a lot of patience for doing things the right way. I had tons of unforeseen challenges. I did this during a really rainy period, so I had to keep bringing the pieces inside and then back out. It added to the project time considerably.

The doors presented many challenges—all of my own making! Because I chose to use very thin plywood for weight and maneuverability, I ran into issues with bending. Heat, sun, moisture, paint, and storage position can all impact this. I often had to flip the boards over to correct that. Then I had to figure out how to secure the hinges to such thin doors. Even the tiniest screws popped out the other end and anything shorter wouldn’t have held. I probably could have just used liquid nails or something, but since I’d made some holes already, I wanted to figure it out. What I ended up doing was using very thin nuts and bolts. I got some bolt caps to add to the exterior and painted them red to match. You can still see them, but it’s better than an exposed screw.

Aside from learning how to use a nail gun and laser cutter, what were the biggest learning moments from this project? What were your takeaways?

I always try to be transparent about the imperfections of my DIY projects on social media. I am far from an expert and I don’t typically present my projects as tutorials or how-tos because, as any professional could tell you, there were so many ways I could have improved this process and outcome.

Women are generally not taught how to build things. We’re not taught how to use power tools. We’re told explicitly and implicitly that we’re not strong or that our brains aren’t meant for math—a grown man said this to me a few years ago. It’s really just about having fun, trying new things, being creative, and enjoying the process. I want to encourage everyone, but especially young women, to just go for it in their home, try something new, be bold and have fun.

What do you love most about your “tomatovision”? You said you were nervous about sharing your home with the internet, but that it’s brought you a lot of joy.

It’s an idea I dreamed up and then made real with my own hands—that’s a cool feeling. It definitely brings me a lot of joy every day, and from what I can tell, others like it too. I usually get a decent amount of negativity on social media just because my style is very different from many people’s, but I don’t think I got a single nasty comment about tomatovision. Even if you wouldn’t want something like that in your home, I think you can appreciate it mid-doomscroll. When I’ve shown friends or family, they’re often surprised that I made it myself, and also shocked because it’s just a very unique piece. I hope random people that see it are inspired to embark on their own silly projects just because they can.

You could easily replicate or improve the design by creating anything you want instead of a tomato. In fact, I assume at some point I’ll get sick of it and switch it out for something else.

How did this measure up to your prior DIY projects?

I’d say this is one of the more ambitious DIYs I have done. It required a lot more planning and design than I usually have patience for, but I am learning to take my time for better outcomes. Most of my DIYs involve paint because it’s an almost immediate result for very little effort and money.

I’ve built an arcade cabinet with my husband and brother and upcycled kitchen cabinets into a desk. Accent tables are a great little DIY—a few I’ve done multiple times are adding dartboards to stools and legs to ammo crates. Right now I’m working on building a coffee table that looks like a swimming pool. There’s always a million projects going on at my house, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Top photo courtesy Claire Billingsley

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