Mid-Century Modern Hutch Revival

December 09, 2015

Mid-Century Modern Hutch Revival

About 3 weeks ago, I made the mistake of perusing Craigslist. In doing so I ran across several items that I really wanted to get my hands on, including this hutch.

But I had one problem. Payday was almost 2 weeks away, and I wasn't sure any of the sellers would be willing to hold their items. I figured I'd offer each of them extra compensation for the hold-time & hope for the best.

I was in luck! Every single person I asked to hold items was fully wiling, extra cash or not. Most posts were getting close to a month old, so I think that helped me a little. They hadn't yet reposted their pieces, so they weren't necessarily in any rush to get rid of the items.

I was most excited about this hutch though. It had a MCM look to it (just look at those nubby legs.... *swoon*), was in my city, and had a price tag of $25.00.

That's right, $25.00 for this huge piece! I offered the guy $40 to compensate for hold time, but even that was a steal for this piece. This would provide storage space & a nice place to display some dishes, glasses, or ceramics.

I was hoping to strip it down to the bare wood, and re-stain it to return it to it's former glory, as the previous owner had started a DIY project, but given up about half way through. Unfortunately, after a test strip, I realized that only portions of this hutch were made up of real wood, while the rest was pressed wood with a faux grain overlay.

Fail.
Abort mission.
I see now why they had opted to paint instead of re-stain.

On to Plan B: paint over the existing color with a darker navy & light grey backboard. I had the sliding doors for the bottom compartment, along with the glass doors & original backboard for the shelving, so I had all of the pieces needed to return this piece to a thing of function and beauty.

I'll spare you some babbling about choosing colors and whatnot and just allow the pictures to tell the story.

Before

During

Drying

First coat

Second coat, inner cabinet painted

This piece turned out so incredibly well that I can't even be upset that I was forced to paint it. The only thing that I had to add to it was some new hardware (pilfered off of an unfinished project I've had for over 2 years), as I only had one of the original teardrop pulls.

Original pull

New pulls

The doors are all a bit difficult to move (the glass especially) with the extra layer of paint taking up space in the grooves, but overall I couldn't be happier with the way this turned out.

It's the perfect place to store & display our wine glasses & cookbooks, and hide our water jugs and porch salt out of sight.

At first I wasn't sure if I'd want to put the glass doors in at all, but after looking at it for a few hours without them....

Why is the door open on the bottom...? (sigh)

...I ultimately decided that the glass doors would be better for a few reasons. The cats couldn't explore and break my nice stemware, for one. For two, dusting wouldn't be as necessary if they were on. Less cleaning = a win in my book!

The doors also add an element of class to the piece, and make it look worth a lot more than it is somehow. This piece is such a success! It's safe to say I am in total love with this Craigslist find!

This piece will also match our "new" dining set (also from this past weekend's furniture haul) once it's completed! I've been working on it for over a week, & I hope to have it completed next week sometime (you can see a sneak peek of it with that chair, and in my preview post here).