Kitchen Hutch Redo

One of the things that we had planned to do in the kitchen once we moved the fridge around was to install a floor-to-ceiling pantry of sorts in the space that it used to occupy.  That is, we planned to do it until we found out just how much it would cost to have someone come in and install a custom pantry unit. 
Well, lets just say we planned it differently after that.  I started looking for armoires and hutches on Craigslist.  I soon found that most armoires would be way too deep for that area.  I debated between more storage and less decorative appeal, but finally decorative appeal won out (I know, hard to believe!) and I ended up finding a hutch for a good price 10 minutes from our house.  When I got it, it looked like this:

(Actual CL photo)

Not gorgeous, but not awful either.  It was solid wood which I was quite happy about.  It looked, however, a little too rustic and country for me.  I knew I would paint it, but the question was what color would I paint it?  I went between a jadeite color, white, and grey.  Finally I just decided to go with white, since although I had seen some colored hutches that I liked, I really liked the look of the white ones the best.  I also thought it would look the best with the various colors of items I might put on the shelves. 

I ripped out the little fence-like structures on the middle shelf—they came out really easily and I just filled the little holes with wood putty and sanded them.  I also tore off the scroll-y wood piece right under the middle shelf as I just thought it was too much and also I wanted to be able to fit my huge cookbooks in that space. 

I sanded, primed, and painted the piece and also painted the hardware white.  I had a hard time deciding what color to paint them and finally I just needed to get them on so white they were.  Indecision at its best!

Here it is today!

 

I’m sure others could have “styled” it better, but this is how it has been for a few months and with limited time on my hands, I decided to bite the bullet and just take the picture.  I always enjoy finding ‘treasures’ that I can use to decorate the house and a lot of those ended up on these shelves. 

Some have meaning to us, such as this blueing bottle my husband’s grandma gave to him recently:

It is dated 1954 and my father-in-law says that he can remember his mom using that bottle when he was little.  :)

And some things are just pretty, if you like older pyrex:

So there you have it!

  

I really like how it turned out!
Now I need to post pictures of the finished kitchen!!! 
(Remember how I procrastinate?)
Blessings,
Liz