Refinished Hutch – Before and After

Remember the winter project I shared back in January? While I finished it awhile back, I just had to style it and photograph it. Can you say procrastinator? But guess what? Today is the big reveal. And I’m madly in love with my (new to me) refinished hutch.

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If you look closely at this photo, you’ll see a part of the hutch that received a makeover. However, I’m only going to show a quick teaser upfront. If you’re anxious to see the final product, scroll all the way down to see the refinished hutch in its entirety.

Eeeks. I’m so in love.

The Hutch: Before.

Let’s take a quick look at the picture of the original hutch. If you want to see more before pictures, feel free to check out the winter project hutch makeover post.

The original plan was to paint the hutch a deep blue/teal color. It was a beautiful color, but I just couldn’t do it.

For some reason, bright colors in my home decor stress me out a bit. Therefore I chickened out. Yes, even after buying the paint. Insert facepalm.

So I decided on a gray paint and thought staining the shelves would add a little interest to the project.

The Plans.

Before getting started, I did some tinkering in Photoshop to get an idea of what the refinished hutch might look like. It helped me to envision the outcome a bit.

And since we were replacing the shelves, I knew that if I didn’t really like the stain, it wasn’t the end of the world. I could simply buy some more wood for the shelving. No big deal, right?

All in all, we did a lot in this hutch makeover.

Removed the glass doors.
Ditched the warped shelving.
Refaced the front sides/edging where the door hinges were.
Ripped off the backboard and replaced with birchwood.
Removed the original knobs and filled them.
Relocated and replaced cabinet knobs.
Removed the magnetic clips used for the glass doors (and filled them with wood putty).
Added support to the shelf behind the lower cabinet doors.
Replaced the interior and exterior top of the hutch (due to water damage).
Sanded the entire piece.

Here’s a look at what the piece looked like after all the work.

Even though doubt continued to linger, I knew I needed to get this furniture makeover done. So I finally just did it and hoped for the best.

I finally painted the hutch and stained the shelves with my favorite go-to stain. Insert happy dance.

After a couple of quotes of paint and a whole lot of dry time, I did a little sanding on the edges and this beauty was done. Woo hoo.

And as I mentioned earlier, I fell in love. The refinished hutch exceeded my expectations, friends.

The Refinished Hutch.

What’s not to love about this piece? I left a lot of the design details on the hutch as-is because, in my humble opinion, they add some much-needed interest and/or character to the hutch.

I adore the all the lines and the original wood adornments on the bottom half.