Reviving a Dining Room Hutch

Do you ever wish you could have a wedding shower for each decade of marriage?  You know, register for things you actually will use, splurge on items that you would add to your home decor, and update items you got on your first registry.  I think we should start a trend.  But seriously, where do you store your fine dining treasures?  Our solution was an Ethan Allen hutch that we picked up at goodwill for a great price.

On Thanksgiving Day, my hubby and I will celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  We had planned to stay in our old house for three years….at the most.   If you have been following Pink Tool Girl for very long, you may have discovered that our three year mark turned into almost 10 years.

When we decided to move and take on a huge renovation project in January, I knew that our kitchen storage was going to be limited until our new kitchen was built so I had to solve a storage issue.

I love and use several special items from my original wedding registry.  My cousins Deidre, Danielle, Rhonda, and Jen collectively purchased the entire Lenox Tuscany Silver Collection.  I also have a four-piece place setting of Waterford china that my friend Kim gave me as a wedding gift.  My mom gave me the goblets that she and my dad used for their wedding toast and I have a small collection of glasses of various shapes and sizes because I think all drinks taste better in a goblet and happened to have registered for several styles and have been using them for a decade.

These treasures alone needed a special place to dwell.  How to solve this storage dilemma along with covering up a very ugly wall was the jump start to self-discovery and the birth of this blog.

In the new house, the ceilings are high and the walls are ugly.  There is an old chimney behind layers of plaster that we didn’t have time to tear down and smooth out before moving in…there were too many other projects that needed our immediate attention.  We decided to embrace the character of the house with its many flaws and imperfections.

How do you embrace imperfections?  My solution was to paint a hutch that I found at Goodwill and stick it in front of the ugly wall.

I bought the hutch for $60.00 and it was not a pretty sight (yet).

Left brain did not see my vision at first and I’m sure you can imagine why.  This hutch was ugly but he happily drove the truck to pick up this piece of furniture that was going to be a staple in our new house and cover up our ugly wall.

A little over a year ago, I naively thought that chalk paint was the type of paint that you could write on with chalk.  For my theater, I had painted sets and small furniture pieces but never had dabbled in the many different types of paint like Milk Paint and Chalk Paint to name a few.  My cousin had mentioned chalk paint so I did some research on the product and bought my first quart of Anne Sloan paint.  This was new territory for me and I was hooked.

I discovered that I love Anne Sloan Chalk paint.  I love that it dries quickly.  I like the different brush sizes.  I like the color selection.  I like the natural qualities since I have small kids. Lastly, I enjoy the many techniques that you can use to age and accent a furniture piece.

I found a boutique that sold Anne Sloan chalk paint and after pouring over the many shades of paint, I selected Old Country Grey for this hutch and went to work in my garage.  I changed all of the knobs to crystal knobs which I purchased on Amazon.

At first I watched several video demonstrations to make sure that I was doing it right.  It was then that I realized that this paint was awesome.  There are so many ways to use it to get a variety of different finished looks.

I sealed the hutch with a clear wax because I liked the lighter shade of blue.  I finished the hutch by applying marble tiles to the top serving area.  I tried to find a solid piece of marble but got impatient and went with tiles from Home Depot so there is a tiny seam between the pieces but the marble was a great addition to the surface.

If you read my post about removable wallpaper, then you will notice that the backing of the hutch is the same wallpaper.  I tried two other wallpaper rolls before I found the removable wallpaper from Target.  I loved the metallic finish, the removable qualities, and the color which went perfectly with the paint color.

The hutch proudly displays my finest dishes and serves as an extra table for buffet style dining.  I’m learning to trust my instincts.   Although a hutch may not be the most trendy home decor item, I believe that they still can have a very useful purpose in the right style of home.  For me, I imagined that with some paint and new knobs that the hutch could look good covering my ugly wall and thankfully it was the right choice for the dining room.  Even the left brain will comment that the dining room is the prettiest room in the house so far.  And the bonus is that you barely notice the wall behind this stunning hutch!

Full circle: I would love to hear about items that you still have from your wedding registry and how you store them…comment below and let me know what your favorite pieces are.

This post participated at the Saturday Sparks and Wine’d Down Wednesday link parties.