Out with the Old and In with the New: Painting and Restyling an Old Hutch

Hi Everyone!  How are you doing?  I was somewhat missing-in-action when it came to my blog last week, although I did repost my St. Patrick's Day Favors.  I just think they are fun for St. Patty's Day  :).   The truth of the matter, however, is that I was having a hard time feeling inspired.  I think perhaps, being in the middle of February and having Valentine's Day and all of its loveliness over, I found myself in a creative slump. I guess I just needed a week off.  Thankfully, because of a project my husband has been working on for me over the last few weeks, I am back and now have a new "reveal" to share with all of you!




I have had this old and very dated hutch in my home for several years now.  My dad gave it to me a long time ago when I needed furniture to fill an old Victorian home my husband and I owned in the early years of our marriage.  Dad was a realtor then and I believe the hutch came from a house he was somehow involved in.  Most likely it was an estate sale of some kind.  I think he got the hutch for free or for a nominal price.  I happily accepted it and was thrilled to be its new owner.


 Over the years the hutch served its purpose well and moved several times with us from home to home before it came along with us to our current home, a 70's-something contemporary.  As time went on, I really wanted to replace it but didn't have the heart since my dad  had given it to me.  Finally, I decided it was time to give the hutch a coat of paint.  Luckily for me, my husband was willing to do the work.  If it had been left up to me, it never would have gotten done.  I would have just kept putting it off :).

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any before photos prior to Tom starting the project so, I am forced to use these photos I took awhile ago.  I guess they will suffice to show you what the hutch looked like  before painting it white.  In these photos it doesn't look all that bad but, I was looking for a change.


Along  with the brown stain, the hutch has what I guess you would call Chinese features. It has bamboo trim pieces and gold bamboo stenciling on the glass.  I lived with the stenciling as long as I could but, in the end, it had to go. Tom scraped it off with a razor blade and I like it so much better now.

The first step was painting the whole piece with primer.  This post is not a tutorial but that was the advice given to us by my local Ace Hardware store.  Those guys are great there.  They told me you cannot paint latex paint over oil stain without first painting on primer.  They said the latex paint would not adhere well without the primer.  Three coats of the flat latex paint we chose to use were necessary to cover all that brown even with the primer, however.


After much back and forth of deciding between beige, gray and white, I finally chose to go with white as the color.  I wanted a huge change from the brown.  After the color was chosen I needed to decide on the hardware for the hutch.  Believe it or not, that decision was even harder than the choice of paint color!  

I ran out to Homegoods, Lowes and Home Depot to find some knob choices.  Ballards and Anthropology have really nice choices, as well, but I was in a hurray and prices at these local stores were more economical  for my needs.  I can always change the hardware in the future if I'd like, anyway.
I waited about a week before making my final decision (so much for being in a hurray!), changing my mind several times.  Originally, I had really liked the round white knob with the gold accents but the more I looked at it the more I felt round was the wrong shape for the hutch.  My daughter thought the knob was too large.  That could be true too! The brassy square one was the one I thought would really match the style of the hutch and its color was close to the same color as the original brass hinges of the hutch.  However, this knob turned out to be my least favorite of all the knobs.  It was down to two...



I liked the clear glass and chrome knob but, felt it was hard to see from a distance.


So, in the end, I chose the horizontal sphere knob with the bronze accents.  When I put all the knobs in place I really liked the total look.  The square knob I found for the glass door was a winner too!

Here is the finished painted hutch.  I loved it!  So clean and fresh!  Next it was time to accessorize!

I am actually still in the process of finding "just the right" items to put in the hutch but, until I do, I was able to find some pieces in my stash of treasures to fill it up.  This time I was going to go with a "less is better" approach when it came to styling.


This woven basket was a find from Homegoods but, the pottery is from my collection.

These trays are ones that I already own, also.

I picked up these Rae Dunn mugs at Homegoods, as well.  Don't you just love the sentiment?!

The hutch was looking great but, it needed one more thing...

~flowers





This old hutch has come a long way in just a few weeks.  It has gone from ugly old brown with ugly stenciling to this beautiful white piece that stands out, in a good way, in the family room.  No longer do I have to load it up with all sorts of white dishes to make it look brighter.  It is bright on its own! I am so glad I didn't get rid of it.  I think my dad would have thought it looked pretty nice too!  He would have been amazed at the transformation :).

***This is not a sponsored post.  Just telling my story from my perspective :).


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