Well, it’s taken me 10 months to finish this kitchen hutch for Charlotte. The hardest part was getting the old paint off. There were at least 3 layers of the stuff. And one of those, I’m almost positive, was lead paint. It was so sticky and ooey gooey. I used the orange goo to get the paint off. Some places I had to do that twice. I’d say that taking the paint off took the longest to do.

There are two great things about this project that just make me smile. ONE, this was my Mother-in-Law, Leslie’s, hutch when she was a little girl. Her and her sister, Laurie, used to play with it when they were kids. How cool is that! When Leslie went to California in August of last year she brought this back with her to Utah and dropped if off to me, hoping that I would finish it. Leslie says she always remembered it being white, but you can see in the pictures, that it was an aqua color before that. I wished I could have saved the original paint, but that would be very difficult to just take off one layer of paint. Oh, and when I took of the first layer of paint on the doors, there were these adorable hand painted flowers. I really WISH I could have saved those, but just didn’t know how. And, TWO!!! The paint was free!!! I got a coupon at Alt Summit for a free gallon of Sherwin Williams Paint. So, I got 2 quarts instead. One of a primer white and the other in this Aquatint.

So, guess how much I paid to get refinish the whole thing? You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…..

Paint=FREE!!!

Knobs= $2 a piece, so $12. I could have used the old ones, but thought they looked a little to shabby for the bright fun happy color of the aqua. I picked them up at this great vintage store in SLC, called Abode.

Paint thinner= $10

Total cost= $22!!! Not bad for a custom cute kids kitchen hutch. Wow, say that 10 times.

I can’t believe how much Char has changed in 10 months. This is her before and after picture with the hutch.

Before…

After…

She insisted on wearing these vintage flower clip-on earrings I found this past week in Florence, Colorado. More of that fun antique shopping trip soon.

And, here’s the hutch again. I’m so happy with the way it turned out! It just brightens up her room so much. Next on my list, painting her room.