Painting a hutch

 

 

All I can say is painting a hutch is a lot of work!  Much much more than I anticipated!  Most of my projects I can get done in a few hours, not this one!  The end result though made it so worth all the work!

 

 

 This is the china hutch.  I found it at the Kane County Flea Market.  I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.  It was alittle rough, but still so beautiful! 

 

The cabinet sat in my garage for a few weeks.  I was not too excited to get started because I knew it may take awhile.  Little did I know!  :)
 

 

 

Here it is in my painting spot in the middle of my kitchen.  My family loves that!!

 

 

 

 

I knew the back had some water damage, but it was worse than I thought.  I decided to take the entire back off and make a new one.  TJ helped me with this, although it was not too difficult.  I had some leftover beadboard in the garage so decided that would work for the back.  I did not take a picture of that step, but we cut two pieces to fit the top and the bottom.  Then I painted them both with ASCP in Old White which is the color I chose for the cabinet.  Having the back off helped me paint in all the nooks and crannies!

 

 

 

 

 

Here is it with no back on.  This job was getting messy, I should have done this part in the garage! 

 

 

 

 

The bottom shelf also had some water type damage and was warped so we took that out too.  We used the beadboard and just put it in upside down so the flat side was up.  Perfect!

 

This was already more prep work than I thought it would be.  After we re-built these parts I cleaned it really good.

 

 

 

Then came my favorite part.  Painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I decided to go with Old White since I wanted it simple and clean looking. 

 

When I say this is my favorite part, I have never painted an old antique china cabinet before!  There is a lot to paint!!

 

 

When I started painting I noticed that the paint was turning pink!  This was only on the existing wood.  You can see that on the bottom shelf the paint is fine.  This is the new shelf we put in.  I have never heard of this happening before so kept on painting.  Big mistake!  I ended up going through an entire can of ASCP.  I have never used one can on a project before.  It would not cover the pink so I kept adding more. 

 

I finally decided to google what was going on.  For as much wood furniture I have painted I have never had this happen before.  This cabinet must be mahogany, and when you paint over old mahogany it bleeds though pink!  I should have looked this up before I did 3 coats of paint!!

 

I called Carter's Cottage where I buy my ASCP and she confirmed this. It also has something to do with the old varnish they used in the 30's and 40's over the wood.  My next step would be covering the entire cabinet in a layer of Shellac.  This will seal it and prevent the pink from coming through!  UGH!!!!!

 

 

I bought a can of Shellac in clear and went to work.  This is like day 3 or 4 by now!  I also did this step in the house, probably should have stayed in the garage!  I put one coat of the Shellac on in all areas except the new shelf and the new backing. I let it dry overnight.

 

Then I headed back to Carter's Cottage for another can of ASCP in Old White.  I was at the point of just wanting this done and out of my kitchen!!!
 

 

 

If you look at the bottom the cabinet it is missing the trim piece.  I was going to live with this, but decided I wanted this done right.  I went to Home Depot and found a piece of trim in a remnant bin.  It turned out to be the exact size I needed, and it was FREE!  I found a little wood decoration to put on it.
 

 

 

I nailed on the trim piece and glued on the little wood swirly thing.   

After I shellaced the entire cabinet and let it dry overnight I painted it again.  This time it only took two coats and it covered pretty well.  After the two coats of ASCP I covered it in a layer of clear wax and then alittle dark wax. 

Here it is.......

Here you can see the new bottom shelf and the beadboard backing.

My homemade trim piece!

Before

After

I love this cabinet for so many reasons.  For one it has my blood, sweat & tears in it.  (literally!)  I also think it is just beautiful and very functional! 

When I finally finished this project I still had my original problem.  Where to put it!  I found a spot, but it opened up a huge can of worms and now I am re arranging my entire living room!  Love when that happens, it my favorite part about decorating!  :)