Our "New" Hutch

This Hutch came from my Mom's house, (a lot of our furniture did) when we sold her house I just didn't have the heart to let it go. Most of the furniture is stained wood, and that's not really our style, so we're slowing taking her stuff, and transforming it. Thankfully most of it is good quality furniture with great lines, so it's easy, and fun to make it over.

My Mom purchased most of the furniture for our family home at a "naked furniture store," and did the sanding and staining herself. What can I say, DIY is in my blood. I remember as a kid I would get embarrassed because she always had a note book in her purse, and when she saw something she liked she would pull it out, draw a quick sketch of the item, and what she thought it was made of.  I don't know if that makes me sound old (cause I'm not), but cell phones were just coming out then, and they definitely didn't have cameras. 

So, let's get back to it. This is what the hutch looked like in our Dining Room before we painted it.

There  were some big knots and a few cracks in the tongue and groove panels on the back of the top piece, so I decided to replace the whole thing. This also helped the whole thing to look less country and rustic.

First I used a screwdriver to pry off the old panels. 

Then I measured the opening, and we used a ruler to mark the cut lines on the hardi-board. We used a circular saw to make the cuts, but you could also do it with a jigsaw or sawz-all, maybe even a really strong razor knife with a few passes on both sides.

I sanded the edges, and lightly sanded the whole board to scuff it up a bit for better adhesion.

Once the whole thing was sanded I took a damp rag, and wiped the board until I stopped seeing brown dust after wiping.

This one will come as a surprise. I did not use Sherwin Williams paint. I picked up a few sample pots of Valspar when we were at Lowe's. I was originally planning on covering the board in paintable wallpaper, so I used a few small pieces to test out the colors (I'm glad I did because I didn't like the way it looked with dark paint on it) I decided that the Swizzle Stick color was just too bright and too light, so I was left with night scape and off broadway. I ended up using "Swizzle Stick" for the first coat and "Off Broadway" for the top coat. I rolled the first coat on pretty haphazardly, and there were a bunch of roller marks, and it didn't look very good.

For the second coat I was more intentional about my use of the roller, I went from top to bottom, and worked right to left, I put more pressure on the left of the roller, so when I went over with the next stroke the roller marks get covered. 

I only got a few photos of what Mike was doing, because we were working in separate rooms, and he moved pretty fast, first he sanded and wiped everything down, and applied one coat of primer.

Then he used a foam roller to apply two coats of white semi-gloss paint (I'm pretty sure he used Muralo) that we had on hand. 

When we were both done, and everything was dry, we screwed the four corners of the back onto the top piece, and then put a few small nails in between to make sure it would stay flat against the back. If your going to do this be careful about the placement, because you want to make sure the nails go into the frame, and not through to the front. 

After we put everything back together, I was thinking that maybe we should have stained the shelves instead of painting them, but after a few days of looking at it I'm glad we went ahead and painted the whole thing. I love how clean and bright the whole thing looks. 

Finally, I have a place to keep my milk glass!

Here's some more shots of it from different angles.

I love the look of a contrasting back on any type of shelf, and I think this dark greenish-blue does a wonderful job of making the milk glass really POP!

The color is probably most accurate in this photo, I put my camera into manual mode for once, and did my best to get a good shot. My photography skills need some work, but at least you can see how the room looks in real life.

One of my best friends gave me some of the wheat that she uses in place of rice, and I planted it. It worked! YAY Wheat Grass! I love how it adds a touch of life and some color. I plan on planting more in some of the other containers as well. 

Here's the before and after shots.

What do you think? What furniture have you been updating with paint?