Shabby Chic Hutch Redo

I am not sure how it started, but for almost every important event in my life, I have been given a doll. I have a bridal doll that was given to me from my parents on my wedding day, a beautiful doll with curly ringlets that my husband gave to me when my daughter was born and many more. These dolls have spent their lives in a plastic container. Never having a place to be displayed. I have always wanted a hutch to display them, but we have never had the room and the price tags on hutches are way more than something I could spend on a want.

When we moved back to Utah from Texas last year, I was sick of all of our decor. Our apartments had pretty much looked the same everywhere we went and I didn’t want to make one more space a duplicate of something I didn’t like anymore. I had exactly a budget of zero dollars and so I began searching the local online classifieds for pieces that I could talk my husband into.

I found this dilapidated hutch and I fell in love the second I saw it. It was a hutch, that was small and would fit easily in any space and it was in my price range, because of how much work it needed, the lady was only asking $7 for it. The day I brought this home, everybody raised their eyebrows, it didn’t even have a top piece, but I loved it.

The first thing I did was remove all the hardware from it and then power sand it. This was honestly probably the most tedious part. I am grateful for the power sander. I think I would have given up after 15 minutes with a piece of sand paper. Then, I primed it. I have decided there is pretty much nothing in this world that I hate more than super sticky primer, but I think it was pretty necessary. I painted the whole thing black, before I added a piece of wood for the top.

I bought the wood from Lowe’s for the top. I brought the dimensions of the hutch and they cut the wood right to the length and width I needed, which saved me from having to use a saw myself. I primed the wood before screwing it down into the top of the hutch. I used the power sander to round the corners of the new piece of wood to match the rounded corners of the hutch. I then added another coat of black to the whole thing. I finished the hutch and I didn’t love it. At all. I was so disappointed to have spent so much time on it and not to like it. I was sitting staring at it one day when my mom asked if I was going to distress it. I didn’t have anything to lose because I didn’t like it already. I distressed all the edges, letting the white show through. It was just the perfect touch! I absolutely love it now!
My parents had just replaced all their cabinet hardware and had a few things left over, so I used what they had on hand, I love the look of the silver hardware.

Price Break Down:
Hutch: $7
Wood for top: $0 (I had a $10 Lowe’s Coupon)
Primer and Paint $0 (I had this left over from a grandfather clock project I will share shortly)
Sand Paper  $5
New Hardware $2 (I bought new magnetic closures, but used the handles my parents had)

Total- $14

Not bad for a piece of furniture I love!