An UnOrthOdOx Aquarium: The first challenge...

As mentioned, we tore down the aquarium to redo the floors, paint walls, etc.

The first challenge we faced coming back, however, is the oak aquarium and stand now did not really look good next to the mahogony floors...

The original plan was to find a suitable stand/hood combo that would hide the laminate trim on the aquarium and match the floors. Well, turns out they don't make mass-produced stands that have the lip to hide the aquarium trim these days. And, in searching around, a custom designed stand was going to run us over $1000. That was simply not in the budget.

So, I had settled in on the idea I was going to MAKE my own stand. And, since I was making it, I wouldn't need to go with convention, and could make some shelves to hold the Direct TV receiver that also sits under our aquarium.

The cost of wood, however, for a stand/canopy was going to be $500+, and that was going to need to wait till summer.

Then, I saw the PERFECT stand. Pretty much the exact design I was going to try to make...minus the lip to hide the aquarium. I had to show it to Jen, and she agreed it was perfect...