Kitchen Hutch Makeover {Craig’s List Find}

I am jumping right to the “After’ for this, but after months of searching, I finally found the perfect piece for my kitchen on Craig’s List. It was perfect in size, look and best of all–price, it was only $30!!! It had been donated to a church, and it was even relatively close by, I couldn’t get there fast enough to pick it up.

I have been looking for something like this since before Christmas, so #1 Craig’s List lesson learned– have patience and the perfect piece will eventually appear-and maybe even for a bargain price of $30!

Once I got it home, I unfortunately discovered that it had an unappealing odor (perhaps even from smoke) as well as the lovely, typical, thrift store/mildew smell. After some google research, I tried every tactic I found that would supposedly eliminate the smell–leaving it in the sun for a few days, cleaning it well, wiping it out with vinegar, using odor blocking primer and sanding it very, very well.

It smells perfectly fine now, so something worked.

I chose the paint color Benjamin Moore’s Silver Bells, a nice pale gray. I wanted to coordinate the hutch with my white cabinets but have it still feel like a furniture piece. Ideally, I would have used chalk paint, but there aren’t any retailers here at the Beach, and  unfortunately I completed the project just before my visit to Janet’s store. Chalk paint would have certainly saved quite a bit of work.

I also wanted to use chicken wire to add interest, which was one of the reasons I was happy to find a cabinet that already had glass doors (and easy-to-remove glass at that). I wasn’t sure where exactly the chicken wire would go, until my son accidently broke one of the glass inserts for the side.  I may even eventually replace all the glass with the wire because I love how it looks.

The hardware on it was already perfect, and its even has a light in the top section if I ever want to use the fixture. It adds some nice (and needed) storage to our kitchen, and for $30 plus some paint, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

 I am finishing up the workroom today–stay tuned, it’s coming along great (Update: see the finished workroom here)!

Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. You can see more pictures of my kitchen here, here, and here, and my butler’s pantry here.

XO,