Revamping my Hutch.

My kitchen is tiny. The stairs going to the basement are in the corner of the room making for an awkward floor plan. When we bought our house, I was 23, working full time and had one child. We ate out a lot. The kitchen wasn't something we used all that much and I totally underestimated the importance of having lots of cabinet space.. or just space in general.

A few years after we moved in, my lovely grandma moved out of state leaving much of her furniture available. I snagged up her lovely piano as well as the dining room hutch. I felt a little crazy to bring more furniture into our already small kitchen but I really needed the extra storage.. what do you do.

My kitchen cabinets are your typical 90's light oak (or something) and the hutch is also light.
The furniture in my front room, which looks directly into the kitchen, is darker as is my kitchen table. I've wanted to do something to my hutch for awhile now but I wasn't sure what to do and still keep everything balanced.

Last week, on Thrifty Decor Chic, she came up with an inexpensive and quick way to change up her hutch. It was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish!! Her blogs gives great directions.

The length that I needed was 55" for the long sections but the foam boards were 20x30 so I needed two for just one section. It was really simple to cut out the length I needed and then just use duct tape to make it one large piece. I used the two scrap pieces to make the middle section and finally, two more pieces for the top area. Total was less than $12 for all four boards ($2.60ish each at Walmart and $3 each at Michaels).

The wall paper I picked up at Lowes for $3ish, on clearance. Love everything they clearance out in the fall!! I've never worked with wall paper but I had seen enough blogs with people using it for texture to make me snap it up. So glad I did!! And I have a TON of it left.

Once my foam pieces were taped together, I laid it out on my table with the wall paper facing down, and hot glued the edges along the back. Make sure you pull it tight!! (I had not glued the bottom in the picture below except for the edges)

After I was finished with that part, I went outside with a foam craft brush and one of those little tester cans of black satin paint (which I got in the Oops area for $1.50) and started painting. I did try spray paint, by the way, and after 2 light coats I decided to continue with the actual paint- there was too much texture, IMO.

Once it was dry to touch I just pushed it into the back of the hutch and I was done! Lovely, right??


I also decided to swap out the small knobs that were on the hutch because the original ones almost blended in with the wood because of the color. Home Depot had a 10 pack for $15.. and I forgot just how many knobs I had (I know, you'd think I would have first counted or something.. but whatever) so I ended up making a trip back where I noticed some for $1.36 and they were VERY close to the same design so I picked up four of those (they are on the drawers in the middle). I love how they look.

I also took the opportunity to redo the middle section and make it more contemporary. It had my Grandma's tea set in it as well as the mugs that we got from when we registered for our wedding. I'm a sentimental "things" person (which I'm trying to be better about) so it meant a lot for me to have them there. But I've never used the tea set, not even once. And we have another set of mugs that we use to drink from.. so really, I didn't need them there. Also, our hutch is also the spot where papers and things gather... so I decided to use two boxes I had from IKEA in that area for storage. Everything fit perfectly and is organized in them.


I also replaced the knobs on the lower section but the larger handle ones are the originals. I'm not going to replace those, I like how they look.
I didn't take a before picture on Saturday.. but I did take picture this back when we painted that back wall in June.

By the way, I changed the upper decorations a few weeks after this picture so that they worked better together.. I guess you can see what I was first working with a few months ago. LOL


Now you understand what I mean by the hutch becoming the drop of spot for clutter. Told you!

Here's my after:
And yes, that purple can of Lysol is there to stay. My husband gets a little crazy with spraying down the house at night and he gets a little bothered if it's not available to spray when needed. Not that he's anti-germ or anything.

What do you think?? I LOVE IT!!