Jennifer Fuentes, interior design student, painted her TV armoire and put her gift wrap and ribbons in it.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Are we saying au revoir to the armoire?

Sleek flat-panel televisions, typically mounted to walls or perched on credenzas, have rendered the bulky but lovely furniture piece superfluous. And when people want to get rid of their television armoires, so pricy and popular in the 1990s, they aren't finding many takers at garage sales or consignment stores.

"They're the dinosaurs of 2008," says Debbie Taylor, owner of Revival Home Furnishings, a consignment store in Overland Park, Kan. "We sell them for $50 or $60."

But wait. Before unloading a TV armoire on the cheap or, even worse, setting one on the curb destined for the landfill, think about how it can still be used.

When Carol Whitney of Olathe, Kan., switched to a flat-panel television, she wasn't keen on parting with her TV armoire. After all, she paid a lot for it and still loved the wood finish. Inspiration struck when she was flipping through a Pottery Barn catalog and saw a picture of an office armoire.

Whitney took the cabinet to Cheep Antiques in North Kansas City. The store used to retool vintage wardrobes into TV armoires, so she figured it could convert her TV cabinet into an office armoire. Store employees removed existing shelves and added shelving and eight cubby holes. The drawer in the middle became a drop-hinge platform for a computer keyboard. Whitney loves the transformed armoire.

"I think we'll be seeing more retrofits like this because more people are interested in being environmentally conscious and in saving money in this economy," says Judee Porter, owner of Cheep Antiques. "The possibilities are endless with TV armoires."

That's what Bobanne Kalkofen thought, too. The interior design professor at Johnson County Community College assigned students to come up with new uses for old armoires.

"Every decade our needs as a society change," Kalkofen says. "So many people have TV armoires. I knew there had to be ways to rethink and repurpose them."

Student April Welsh, a designer and drafter at Olympic Cabinet Co. in Kansas City, Kan., brainstormed ideas while she drove home from class and typed up a proposal for half a dozen ideas. She also sent out a college wide e-mail seeking people who weren't using their TV armoires. She received four responses within hours.

Welsh decided to transform two TV armoires for people who responded to her-mail.

Matt and Kristin Wantland of Prairie Village, Kan., had an unused one in their garage, a gift from his mother. The French country piece didn't fit with the couple's more modern furnishings.

Welsh interviewed the Wantlands about their needs. She learned they were expecting their first child this summer and didn't have baby furniture. So Welsh decided to create a diaper-changing station.

She removed the top and bottom ornate trim pieces, added solid maple backing and reinforced the base. She added hooks to the back and cubbies for storage. Welsh sewed a diaper-changing pad herself.

When Kristin Wantland saw the transformed piece, she felt like she was on "Extreme Makeover: Furniture Edition."

"It's awesome," she says. "The new look is perfect for our house. The ceilings are low, so the lower top will be great. We're really excited."