Last summer I discovered blogs where mostly women were wielding power tools and spray paint and decorating their homes and lives with a lot of elbow grease, ingenuity and thrift store finds. I was addicted and inspired. It was the perfect diversion or escape from everything homeschool (or was it). I had a neighbor once who would drag old, beat-up furniture into her yard and spray paint it. Maybe I just didn’t like her taste, but it never inspired me to try it myself.
But the blogs I discovered last summer did inspire me.
Mark comes from a family of natural wood lovers. All grains and tones. His dad’s hobby was to refinish antique or primitive pieces and decorate his home with them. He taught me how to strip and refinish and I did do a few projects but I was never passionate about it. I think because I just love the look of painted wood so much more. I also thought wood was supposed to be painted with a brush-consequently, I didn’t do much of it. Don’t get me wrong. I think brushing on paint is much more economical but takes a lot more time. Nevertheless, the first re-do I’m going to show you is a hutch that Mark and I bought at an antique store the second year we were married. We both loved it. His dad thought it looked cheap but we decided to plunk down the $450.00 anyway and we stuffed it into our apartment.
We live in an old farmhouse that was built in the 1860’s and the hutch fits here perfectly. It’s also huge so it’s been useful. Before last summer, I never considered changing it. I even left the vintage shelf-liner in it.
Almost forgot to take a picture before I tore the vintage paper out
Check out that beautiful beadboard on the back of the hutch. As you can see, it’s a big, honkin piece of furniture and the wood isn’t particularly beautiful. Since it seemed to go with the house, it never occurred to me to paint it. It took a few days to break it to Mark and to convince him that it would look better painted. He never likes the idea of painting over wood. He usually sort of shakes his head when he sees me painting (I’m not a detail person). So I went at it. It’s too big and cumbersome to move out to the yard, so I was forced to paint with a brush. (Which I find very relaxing and satisfying, but time-consuming). I primed it with Zinser 1-2-3 because I have a lot of it. I know an oil-based top-coat would have been recommended in this case because of the durability but I didn’t have any and I didn’t want the hassle of cleaning the brushes with
After I primed the whole thing inside and out and the glass doors (not the back-it’s against the wall), I had to take the doors off to spray the hardware. The hinges and handles were an ugly brass. Rather than replace them, I sprayed them first with a nickel finish which was too shiny or something. So I added a light coat of Rustoleum Hammered Bronze which toned it down a bit.
Once the doors were off, I loved the look of it and decided not to put them back on. Mark was skeptical because the doors do have a lot of character.
After about 3 coats of the paint color (sorry I completely forget what that is), I placed a few dishes on the shelves and decided I liked it better. I just think it looks less cluttered.
I’ve always loved and have never had open-shelving and LOOOOOVE it. I keep my wedding dishes here and we use them all the time. Fortunately, we picked a pattern that isn’t too fancy. Since they’re so accessible, we use them all the time.
I love the vintage pyrex nesting bowls. I got a yellow and green from Mark’s mom and found the red and blue (not shown) from an antique store. Since they’re accessible, I use them all the time, too.
So, there you have it. My first DIY post. If I can figure out how to do it, I’ll link to Chris’ “
Show and Share Day “at “Just a Girl”, and “
Transformation Thursdays” over at the “Shabby Chic Cottage”. Check out what some of these people can do! Be warned, if you have even the slightest notion to do something yourself, you’ll be hooked!
To sum up here’s the Before:
And now for the After:
Don’t comment on my bowl placement. I wanted the space to look uncluttered but also useful. The only thing I really don’t use is the vintage pitcher on the top right shelf but I like how it looks up there.
Go paint something!
