DIY: painted hutch.

Don't let Pinterest fool you: painting a hutch is NOT easy. At least with this wonderful piece of furniture it wasn't. A few months ago {yes, months, as in, before we were married}, I received a text from my wonderful husband with the picture below. I was elated to discover he'd found a hutch for a mere $35. With actual glass, and made of pretty decent wood {it's not mahogany by any means, but seriously, it was $35}. In case the picture isn't doing the hutch enough justice, it was an alarming shade of puke yellow. It also smelled less than wonderful {again, $35}.


Since I was thick in wedding planning, the hutch sat awkwardly in our foyer/mud room/awkward sized entryway for longer than I'd like to admit. Once we returned from our honeymoon {or maybe a couple of weeks after ...} I got to work.

{before}

First, I sprayed the entire thing down with multi-surface cleaner and tried to rid it of its strange smell. That didn't work. After some research, I decided to just move forward and sand it down. There were some minor nicks, as well as several hooks I had to pull out. I filled all of the holes/nicks with wood putty, waited a few hours, then sanded down.

I had to wipe the entire hutch down again because of all that sanding before painting it with oil based primer. Even though I bought paint that claimed it was "paint + primer," I don't trust labels so I used primer anyway. I also read that oil based primer would keep any stains from seeping through the fresh paint, and, if the cleaning didn't permanently remove the smell, the oil based primer would help.

{a work in progress}

I also bought expensive paint. I'd go so far as to say this is really the most crucial part of the whole process. Cheap paint just won't do the trick. I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra in ballet white for the outside, and nocturnal sea for the inside of the hutch. This bad boy took THREE coats. Obviously, this was quite time consuming. Next time, I think I'll invest in that paint sprayer that I assured myself was not worth the $99. It would have been worth it. No doubt in my mind.

I'll promise to take more pictures throughout the process next time. This time I was too busy trying to finish to think about anything else. Each and every time I am mid-project I vow to never paint a piece of furniture again. Unfortunately {for me}, I've already decided to paint two of our dining room chairs and to make a mini-bar out of an old TV tray. I am convinced, however, those two projects will take significantly less time. Here's to hoping. :)