Hutch Transformation Part 1

 

I have had a hutch in my family for years, 50 to be exact. My Granny bought it when my mom was 2 and then it was given to my mom for me when we moved to Alaska. My mom was instructed to give it to me when I got married. I remember having it in my room as a teenager and looked for a picture of it in my room but could not find one. My parents lived down the road from us for several years but my mom never gave me the hutch, fast forward ten years after I got married and we were living in Alabama in an RV while my hubby was making a career change (long story). We didn’t have any of our stuff with us but I had purchased some things to bring with us where ever we got a job, I knew I was going to have to rent a trailer anyway to bring back the stuff I had bought and so I asked my parents (who had split up) if I could have the hutch. It was such an old ugly color and at first I could not imagine it in my home, but I quickly realized that it had great bones and with a little help I could totally transform it into something beautiful. Fast forward a little bit more and we had moved to Las Vegas and I was putting off this project because I had zero desire to sand this bad boy down. I thought about fixing it daily and bringing it inside FINALLY. I was even debating paying for Annie Sloan Chalk paint because I really, really did not want to sand it down, there were just too many weird places and the thought of sanding them was giving me some serious anxiety. This piece was a family heirloom so I wanted to do it right and I figured I was going to have to spend some money to do it right.

 

 

I started to save up my money for the Boutique stuff (wax, paint, brushes and all the stuff to make this hutch transformation beautiful).

I sanded the top down because I wanted to stain it and I started to sand down the rest of it because I was still not quiet ready to bite the boutique chalk paint price tag bullet. Then I’m out with a friend who tells me all about BB Frosch Chalk paint and I knew that was my solution. I went out and bought the starter kit, which gave me everything I needed to start my project (the whole kit was less than the price of 2 boutique paint brushes). I started by painting a side table to see if I really loved the paint (I did). You can see my review and tutorial here.

 

I started by mixing my paint with the powder. I ended up using a quart of white flat latex paint ($13 a Lowes) and a quart size container of BB Frosch powder  ($10) on this project. White used a few more coats just because it was a light color going on a dark piece. In all my paint cost me $23 and I have a little over 1/4 of the paint left over.

Quick tip pour some of your paint onto a plastic plate, that will help your brush only gather the amount of paint it needs, so you don’t waste paint. You also don’t have to use a whisk to mix it, you can shake it up with the lid on it (in the little BB Frosch mixing containers) and it will mix up after you add the paint to the powder mixture. I was having a ditz moment and totally did not think about the easiness of that until after I did the work to mix it with a whisk.

I did my first coat on the bottom (I ended up doing 4 coats.) I had some wood bleed through due the age of the piece and the fact that it had spent most of its life in the humid south and had absorbed moisture so of course it wanted to bleed through right now. Note: This is NOT a chalk paint powder issue, this is an old wood issue. I put a thin layer of Kills on the spots where I had bleed through and moved on to a new coat of paint. By the time I got to the other side of the bottom piece, the side I started on was already dry so there was no down time waiting for the piece to dry. It was already dry… wahoo!! That’s one of my favorite things about this product, the dry time is crazy fast. It only took me about an hour to paint the whole piece start to finish, with all 4 coats, including dry time.

 

I took the doors off and painted them separately. I wanted to install new hardware so I filled in the holes with wood putty. I forgot to do that before I painted the first layer so I did it after and then sanded it down to be even before I painted the next layer. It took longer for the wood putty to dry then the paint.

 

I did the same thing with the drawers.

 

After the bottom was done I stained the top part. It took longer for the stain to dry than anything else. After the stain was dry I waxed the top to seal it as well. This is a great alternative to the Poly coat you typically put on. I am not a huge fan of Poly, I hate the smell, the dry time, the 3 coats you have to apply and the shiny hint it give to the piece, the BB Frosch wax will give it the same protection with out all the hassle of Poly. I had the piece done and in the house pretty quickly. I sanded down and antiqued the piece in the areas that will show the most wear and tear. It was so easy to just sand down the areas I wanted sanded without taking off more of the paint than I wanted. I love that!! I did a very light sand using a high grit sand paper to smooth everything out. I applied the layer of wax and bam I was done!! Seriously the stain was the thing I had to wait the longest for.

 

I painted in the back part because I wanted it to be a different color then the piece. After I started painting there, I quickly realized how much I was going to have to tape off to keep the areas two different colors and stopped that part to work on the rest of the piece. I did not want the cabinet doors on there anymore because I wanted more of the space to be open to display all the white plates that I had been collecting. I took off the doors but realized that I was going to have to remove the piece of wood that separated them. I got out my handy dandy saw and cut that piece right off. So darn easy. Man I love power tools.

 

Then I applied wood putty to fill in the holes and even out the area there I cut off the extra piece of wood.

I waited for that to dry and sanded it down. I had the piece laid on its back to help me when I was painting. It was easy to get into all the weird places. I only had a big brush when I started and I highly recommend using a smaller brush for all the funky nooks and crannies that were hard to reach with the big brush. I ended up buying a small brush to save my sanity. The big brush worked fine but it would have taken a bit more patience on my part to do all the weird places and patience is not my mild name… not even close. So to save me time I got the small brush that I wanted anyway. It was not very expensive at all and I knew I would use it again and again so I bought it. 

I painted about 4 coats and because of the weird angles it took me about 2 hours to do all 4 coats on the piece. Again I used white so it took more coats than other colors I have used.

 

I was not super careful when I was painting the little areas but I literally sanded it down super easy and it was even and you could not even tell I had made any mistakes. This is what it looked like after 1 coat and before I sanded it down.

 

Then came the fun part. Painting the back piece. I messaged the lady I bought the powder from and asked her if I could tape off areas on the piece after I waxed it so that I could paint the back part. Have I mentioned that along with an excellent product you get excellent costumer service and help as well? She literally answers all my questions anytime I ask. She changed my hutch redo process by asking me if I could remove the back. WHAT??? Are you kidding me? You can remove the back? I literally dropped my phone and ran down to the garage to check…. and sure enough the heavens open and the angels sang a praises because all I had to do was pop off the staples that were holding the back in place. I removed the staples using the edge of a screw driver and I was in major business. I could now reach the back parts of my hutch that were hard to reach before. I stood the top up right and painted the last 2 layers on.

 

I then slightly sanded out the back to even out all the places I had not so carefully dripped when I was painting the front.

 

I quickly mixed up some gray paint and did ONE layer of paint on the back to get the gray look. I thought I was going to have to do more, but I did not! The one coat of gray completely covered it!! 

I waited for the paint to dry of course before I put on the wax. I just sanded the top piece while I waited the whole 5 minutes for it to dry.

You can see in this picture that the only places you can see my brush strokes are in the places that I was waiting for the paint to dry. When I first started applying the white paint to the bottom I was stressing about potential brush strokes. That fear was dispelled when it dried and even more so when I lightly sanded it all down (and by lightly I really mean lightly and quickly, this part does not take that long). Another Quick Tip is if you dip your brush in water and get it slightly wet you will use less paint and have much less brush strokes, that’s because the bristles absorb the water NOT the paint. So your already inexpensive project becomes even more inexpensive because you are saving even more paint. Seriously y’all, I can’t make this amazingness up!

 

I distressed the areas that would get high traffic, I wanted it to look naturally distressed, so I did not go crazy distressing all over or in weird inside corner areas. Then I slapped on a layer of wax (or brushed on). It took me literally less than 45 minutes to distress, lightly sand and wax THE WHOLE TOP PIECE. Holy moly!!! It was so fast (yes I timed myself, because Im so competitive that I compete with myself and my own records…. please still love me.) 😉

I stapled the back piece back on after it dried and then brought the piece inside and started to stage it with all my gorgeous white dishes that I had been collecting forever. I still needed the hardware so I quickly went to work hunting down the perfect ones.

The top drawers were broken by the kids so I had to wood glue them and then take them off and paint them and wax them. I put them in to take some pictures but they are not actually completed in this picture below. There was only one coat of paint on at the time and if you look closely you can kind of see the bleed through that I was talking about.

I got the bottom cabinet handles and found the right drill bit to fit the size of the screws I was using to install the hardware. I used the correct size drill bit to drill the holes for the screw to fit.

 

Quick tip to help you when installing your hardware. If you push the ends where the holes are, and the screws will go into, down in ink then put them on your piece you will see the markings in the correct place so you know where to drill for your holes.

 

You can see in this picture where the outline of the ink is for the center of the hole.

I was still waiting for the hardware to come but I was so impatient I decided to stage the whole entire piece.

Seriously This piece is my most favorite EVER!!! P.S. Those mason jars are chalk painted too!! Glass and chalk paint… miracles happen!

Come back tomorrow to see the whole entire piece done, hardware, staging and EVERYTHING!!!! You wont believe how beautiful it looks!!! Its a total transformation that you will have to see to believe. See the second part and the final reveal here.

Go here to purchase your own magic of BB Frosch