The hard part about settling in after moving is figuring out where all the things GO.  Storage in our new house looks much different than storage in the new house, and I’m still figuring out my groove.  One place that was am obvious difference was the kitchen.  There is WAY LESS cabinet space in the new kitchen (especially after the kitchen reno, and the addition of the giant island!).  

So what’s a girl to do??  Go buy a giant hutch of course.  This space is in our eat in kitchen area, right off the kitchen.  My only real requirements for this piece was that I wanted cabinet space, and I wanted the cabinets to mimic or at least compliment the kitchen cabinets.  This hutch checked off both of those boxes, so it came home! 

I knew I wanted the top to mostly be for decoration, and to hold my ironstone collection. The glass doors seemed to really close it off and not allow you to see what was inside, so those were the first to go. I removed the doors, and the support bars (turns out it was just a couple of screws). Filled the holes with wood filler, and now that it’s painted you’d never know they were there. 

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Also notice in these two photos the wall color changes (praise the LORD!).  Old yellow beige to beautiful Repose Gray.  

So this is how it sat until I was ready to tackle it.  Hutches are big projects.  But well worth the work – they make such a difference when they are painted. 

I primed this piece first with Zinsser BIN primer.  I didn’t want to risk any bleed through and using a couple of coats of primer first would allow for less coats of paint.  So 2 coats of primer was applied first, then 2 coats of General Finishes Snow White Milk Paint.  

I applied this all with my favorite Purdy XL Cub brush.  One of the only brushes I use for all kinds of things.  It’s such a good quality brush, it greatly reduced brush strokes in the finished product.  

A note on General Finishes Snow White. GF is no longer recommending a topcoat over Snow White.  The addition of water based sealers on top of wood and paint will sometimes cause bleed through to occur and discolor the white paint.   No one wants a piece that turns yellow or pink!  So, don’t topcoat it.  If you have to (ie: for kitchen cabinets, or a high use table top)… use a stain blocking primer first, and either a white poly to seal it OR mix a little bit of your white paint into your clear topcoat.  

Here’s a whole post I wrote on white paint, and why it can be the hardest color to achieve. 

I chose to paint the inside of the hutch in Queenstown Gray.  I love the contrast of the bright white and the dark charcoal gray (just like I refinished this piece), and this will allow a surface for my dishes to pop off of.  It almost looks like chalk board paint too, so it’s adding a layer of texture to the room!  

Here it is all styled and looking pretty!  See, aren’t the milk glass bottles and ironstone pitchers so fun on that dark gray background?!  It’s amazing what a little paint can do! 

I used the same hardware as we used on our kitchen cabinets from D. Lawless Hardware the glass knobs are big, shiny and so pretty for a bit of sparkle. The pulls are satin nickel, sleek but with curves that make them classic.  

I distressed this piece with my paint scraper.  It’s distressed a little more than I usually would, but I wanted to show off the details of this piece.  It’s also going to be a work horse for our family, and used often – so starting off with a few scratches on purpose, will help keep this momma sane when they happen naturally 🙂

Another makeover for the books. 

Happy Painting!

Jenni