Why I'll Have Paint in My Hair at Work Tomorrow

I have been on the hunt for a hutch to go in our formal dining area. It has not been easy because I was pretty specific in what I wanted; nothing very formal, fairly small and shallow because we don't have a big dinning room and nothing modern. I'm not afraid of fixer uppers; in fact I wanted one that I could fix up. So on Tuesday I left the office for a few errands and drove by a thrift store that benefits Our House, a local homeless shelter. I thought I would run in to see if, by chance, they had a hutch and this is what I found....

I did not love it in the present state but I saw potential. Plus it was cheap (if you know me, you know I love, love, love good deals.) I bought it and since Beau was off work, he picked it up with his truck. By the way, he took one look at it and said, "I hate it." My response, "I don't care. Get it in your truck."
Of course I want Beau to love what I pick out for our house but in this case I knew he didn't get my "vision".

Who does, really?

This picture, taken from my phone because my camera was dead, does not clearly show how ugly this was. See that drawer? Someone thought it would be a great idea to bedazzle it with marble stones. The shelves are meant to look weathered and distressed so the drawer didn't exactly go with the vintage theme.

I decided to go for the shabby chic look; eggshell color and chipped paint. I researched different ways to achieve this look. However, I didn't have luck in finding the steps for my "vision". Plus following steps/directions/instructions really isn't my thing and by "not my thing" I mean it is difficult for me to read them and then execute. I have no idea how I made it through elementary school, and with straight A's.

P.S. This is why I am horrible at math.

Since I couldn't find what I was looking for I decided to play the whole thing by ear. Since I'm such an expert is redoing furniture. Yeah right.

I woke up early Saturday morning and began on the project. I used a grayish blue paint to go over the whole thing. I wanted it to barely come through the white. The paint was $1 at Lowes (I bought it from their mistake rack, or whatever that rack is.)

After this step I was convinced I was crazy and the whole thing was a bad idea. This feeling only got worse after the first coat of white paint. After the second coat I felt better and by the third my "vision" was back. After the whole thing was painted and dried I scuffed and scratched the paint for the distressed look.

Here is the finished product with decor...

I LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. it!! Beau does too! He keeps saying "This really looks good. You did a great job," and I'm all, "I know."

Because it wasn't enough to paint a hutch all day (and on the hottest day of the year thus far) I thought I'd throw in another project. I got this plant stand at a yard sale for $1.

Before

After

Here is the dining room with the hutch:
We put the curtains up today. The table extends to seat six but to maximize the space we took the leaf out and will put it in for company. I think we are going to do something, in terms of painting or staining, to the the table and chairs but don't know what. I am definitely going to recover the the cloth chairs but haven't found the fabric yet. We got the the whole suite from one of Beau's co-workers for practically nothing. Eventually we will get something new but this is just fine for now.