Our New-To-Us Painted Dining Room Hutch

We have been amping up for a kitchen update for quite awhile now, and for me, it really can't come fast enough.  However, the hubs and I agreed that we really needed other spaces in our home organized and buttoned up before we take on the giant renovation.  Ack!  Grown up decisions aren't always the most fun.

But that doesn't mean we can't slowly start chipping away at a few of the kitchen renovation "to do" list items.  You know, to hold me over until the big day arrives.  So, the hubs and I created a design plan, agreeing on kitchen plans and finishes.  Although I am a bit hesitant to share those initial ideas to the giant www, because the second I do at least ten things will change; those plans are coming up in another post.

What our current plans will show is neutral walls, neutral counters and neutral cabinets.  I am already mourning the future loss of the green walls in our living room... but we have quite a few reasons to be heading in the direction we are.  One reason is because I change my mind every other second, so a neutral base accommodates that lifestyle and those indecisive tendencies.  It also allows me to enjoy my love of color through accessories which are much easier to change than cabinets and counters.

So, since all permanent fixtures in our home may be a little less bold and exciting, other less permanent pieces won't be.  First up, the hutch.

As we have been purging our storage areas, we have been taking photos and preparing listings of items to sell on Craigslist.  Knowing our ultimate plans for our kitchen was to add additional entertaining storage, I decided to list our previous sideboard on Craigslist as well.  We had been trying to find a hutch that would fit the top of the piece for the past few years and kept coming up short.  So, our new solution was to sell it and replace it with another second hand piece, also found on Craigslist, which did include a hutch.  Our piece sold in a matter of minutes, and here is what we found to replace it.

Although it looks really beautiful in the photo above, once we pulled it inside, the color of the wood totally is not our personal style.

And although the amount of storage it offered was perfect, it came without any shelves on the outer sides, which is why it was so steeply discounted.  Nothing we couldn't tackle ourselves....
 
So, more about our future kitchen plans will justify my painting this piece.  We have a solid wood table which I will NEVER paint.  We are planning on putting in wood floors, and also adding in some butcher block counter.  Oh, and our adjoining living room is calling out for a few wood finishes as well.  So, although some may decide to no longer call me a friend for taking a paint brush to this particular piece of furniture, it just makes sense for us.

I started out by separating the top and bottom pieces, and pulling in a drop cloth.  And although you can't tell in the photo above, the primer I applied was slightly tinted, since I was painting over such a dark piece of furniture.  For this project, I went to my local Sherwin Williams store and they provided me with a primer they recommended for this specific project, which was a multi-purpose latex stain blocking primer.  One thin coat was enough, and thank goodness because by the time the entire piece and doors were done, I was already four hours invested.

I let the primer cure for a day, and then put on my first coat of paint, which was also Sherwin Williams in the color Cay.  I selected the color by looking at a few of my favorite accessories, which served as color inspiration, and using a paint swatch book to match things up.  Our paint pro recommended trying out an all surface enamel, which creates a hard, durable and chip resistant finish.

Um no.  Another four hours later and the first coat was on and dry and me no likey.  I actually painted it at night under our chandelier lighting, went to bed, and woke up silly giddy excited to see it.  And there is was in beautiful natural light and I was all like, "oh no you didn't" to myself.  It was very baby blue.  And wrong.

Back to the swatch book for take two.

The next color I tried was Sherwin Williams Reflecting Pool.  And I loved it.  In fact I loved it so much, that I painted the entire piece with it.  Inside and out.  Twice.  Yep, two more four hour coats.  And then something still wasn't right.  Seriously?!

After looking at it and looking at it some more, the hubs and I decided that the inside needed to be white.  So, back I went with a flat white paint, which took not one, not two, not three... but FOUR coats to cover.  

Here she is after a few more coats of the white.

As you can see, we used painters tape to ensure we had crisp edges where the tealy blue and white intersected.

The existing hinges were a dark brown, so I gave them a little gold leaf Rub-n-Buff action so they would match the new hardware.

I did the same to the lights at the top.  We just cut out a piece of paper and taped it up around the light.  Worked like a charm.

In the end, all of the late nights {this girl gets her painting on after the kiddos go to bed} and color changes and sanding and painting and sanding and painting some more, were totally worth it.

Oh!  And the painting didn't stop at the cabinet!  As you can see, I finally painted the adjoining wall the same Glidden Smooth Stone color that is part of the stripes.  SO much better.

The piece originally came with glass shelves, and only two for the center, the ends were missing completely.  We were able to make our own replacement shelves out of pre-finished white melamine board, which we cut down to size and added iron-on edging.

Because we previously stored our wine glasses on this side of the room, and wanted to expand on that to create an entire "entertaining station", we installed a new wine glass holder to the underside of the lower shelf.

For the hardware, I thought I would stay consistent with a few of the other spaces throughout our home and went with a simple gold knob from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot.

Then, I splurged on the pulls for the drawer, and went with two pulls from Anthropologie.

Here you can see how the upper side doors work.  They don't actually open, they slide!

I looooooooove her!  So bright and happy which is exactly what we want our home to be.

Now that this piece is deemed finished, my most favorite part of the process is loading it back up!  You can bet that the second I hit the publish post button, I will be working to finish off this project for the final reveal.

But until then, how about a side by side before and after of the progress so far?

Literally, night and day!  Ha!

I think in the end, I spent about 24 hours total painting and finishing this giant piece, which definitely is the most time I have ever invested in any furniture painting project so far.  But again, soooooo worth it.  And this is another one of those, "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" stories, which I love.  Oh, and I also learned that it is a good idea to do a Google image search of the color you plan on going with, to see it live in spaces ahead of time.  If I would have done that with the first color I selected, I would have realized that it wasn't right for me,before even investing in the time or the paint color.

I know our way of working on projects around here doesn't always go in order, or "make sense", but in the end, it always seems to work out.  The past week and a half, B has been sheetrocking and finishing under the stairs and building storage in our garage, so this was my way of staying out of the way and still getting something accomplished at the same time.  And now that he is just finishing up with that awesomeness in our storage areas, I can pop in with an update on those spaces again soon also.

So, what do you think?  I wish I could invite you all over too see and caress the new cabinet in person.  The brightness and happiness it puts off is insane amazing.   Such a fun difference.