Dining Room Hutch makeover

I have a lot of antique furniture which I love. The trouble with antique furniture in a smaller house is that it can be very dark. I have a beautiful hutch in the the dining room that I think is beautiful but the backing was very dark timber and it made it difficult to see all my lovely china pieces. So I decided to do a mini Dining Room Hutch makeover.

It always makes me nervous when I think about painting antique furniture. I’ve come to realise though that it’s far more important to love the pieces that you have in your home and if that means a little bit of paint so be it.

BEFORE

I have had this hutch for many years and I absolutely love it – I would probably prefer it wasn’t as orange but otherwise its beautiful. We have another cupboard in the dining room that also has an orange tinge to it as does the table which Tony made years ago from an old pergola. This is why I haven’t tried to sand it back or make any other changes to it.

The hutch also needed a good restyling. It had become a bit of a dumping zone after Christmas and I really needed to cull and give it some style.

MAKING THE CHANGES

The first thing I had to do was to remove everything from the hutch. This piece is very heavy and because I was only painting the back I decided to paint it where it was.

I had to give it a good clean first then I taped around the sides where I didn’t want the paint to go – I’m not the tidiest of painters!!🤣🤣. Now just a note on painters tape, please buy the good stuff or you could end up with trouble. I did try a cheaper version and it pulled paint off the wall and the paint seeped through. Its really not worth the couple of dollars you save.

I chose to use chalk paint this time as I like the rustic finish it gives a piece. Chalk paint doesn’t require preparation either which I love! I chose Jolie paint in Pure White. As I was painting white over a dark timber it did take me 5 coats before I was happy with the finish. Just bear that in mind when painting furniture white.

While I was painting I decided to give the storage baskets a change of colour too.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

I was so happy with the finished product and I love the way the grooves in the timber are rough and stand out now. The paint did what I wanted and made my china pieces stand out more. The white also made the room feel a lot lighter which I wasn’t expecting.

I decided to use some of my blue and white china along with my collection of white jugs as a start for styling the hutch. Then added in some of my smaller pieces. I also added a little bit of easter ❤️.

I hope you enjoyed this little project. It was super easy and I love it. Don’t be afraid to use some paint if you want to update your furniture. If you get the right primer you can paint anything so give it a go some time. If you’re interested in another small painting project have a look at my side table makeover.