Hutchington Post Part Deux

Folks, I have a bona fide DIY project to share with you.  Remember my blah hutch that I was searching for inspiration for?  Well, I got the project underway and I am 3/4 of the way done.  I haven’t decided whether or not to paint the background of the hutch a different color, so it may evolve but I wanted to share what I’ve done so far.  Here’s where we started:

corner hutch

And here are the inspiration pictures I found:

Hutchington Post - Corner Hutch Inspiration

Hutchington Post - Corner Hutch Inspiration

I also saw many that were just white that I really liked as well, so I thought that would be  great place to start and see how I felt with my things in it after I painted it white before committing to another color in the background.  (Holy run on sentence, Batman!)

I did decide for pretty certain (that’s as much of a commitment I can give to pretty much anything) that I did not want to keep the door.  That meant that the first step of this process was to remove the fairly large, slightly heavy door.  By myself.  Because my husband is sick as a dog and I’m super impatient.  I didn’t get hurt or drop anything, but I would definitely suggest using a second set of hands on that part if you can.  Just in case.  It took about 15 minutes to get the door off just using a screw driver and unscrewing the screws that attached it to the hutch.  Then I removed a little claspy thingy that the door latched on to when it was shut.  Guess what? I was left with a bunch of ugly holes from the hinges and the claspy thingy.  I used some wood filler to fill those in.  I even followed the directions and only added thin layers to the larger divots that the hinges left.  I sanded between layers of wood filler and it came out relatively smooth.  Good enough seal of approval.

After the removal of the door and the wood filler, it was time for primer.   The wood had a shiny finish, so my plan was to get my go to stain cover, Zinsser Cover Stain.  In the past, I’ve always bought the oil based one because that’s the one the painters used on the moldings when we moved in and it’s held up PERFECTLY.  Well, the lady at Home Depot told me that they have a water based primer and I decided to give it a try.  It’s seems ok, so far, but I think time will tell on this one.

To apply the primer, I used a super cheap foam brush.  I did this because I always end up ruining perfectly good brushes by not properly cleaning the brush after I prime.  I figure the primer is going to get covered with a  couple of coats of paint anyway, so I can hopefully fix some imperfections then if I need to.  I’m always freaked out by what stuff looks like after it’s been primed. I did the inside part of our back door a couple of months ago and it took me forever to get around to actually painting it because the primer looked so bad that I thought there was no way it would look decent after paint. I was wrong.  It looks fantastic.  Here’s what Sir Hutchington looked like after his coat of primer:

hutchprimed

Ooh, sorry Sir Hutchington for putting up a picture of you in your underthings.  I think his cheeks are turning red.  Well, considering I’ve already put up a picture of him nude, he shouldn’t be so shy.

I left the primer to dry for the night, although it really didn’t have to, it was just past my bedtime.  I finished up coats 1 and 2 today (way past my bedtime).  This time I used my Purdy brush that I am in love with.  It has a short handle and it’s angled so it’s awesome for cutting in and stood up to my persistent smooshing while I was trying to fill in the super annoying grooves on the hutch. Interesting aside, smooshing apparently isn’t a real word.  Since when??  Who’s signing my petition?

Here is Sir Hutchington in all of his crisp, white finery:

hutchpaintedempty

Quite dignified.  Here he is again with his accessories:

hutchpaintedfilled

I’m going to give it a sanding and roll on one more coat of white, I think.  Then marinate in the white for a while and maybe try switching out some of the accessories. And see what catches my fancy.  It might be a cute place to do some seasonal decorating as well.  Lots of fun possibilities!

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