Whitney's Highboy Turned Hutch!

This is a makeover I did a month ago or so and I decided to join in on the fun over at Mustard Seed Creations for Furniture Feature Friday!  Check her blog out... this girl is mean with the paint brush!!

Yeah for more hand-me-downs!!! This weekend I hit the jackpot over at my father-in-law’s storage building. I went for one piece and came back with about 6! Woohoo! I will get to the rest later but I decided to start with my favorite piece first. He had this shanty highboy dresser he wasn’t using anymore. I love so much about it… the lines, the legs and the detail up top… so cute! We loaded it up and I was able to look more closely at it when I got it home. 1 of the 8 drawers was still on it’s rails and working properly…. That got me thinking. I decided to turn this chest of drawers into a hutch. This is how I did it….

I first started by taking out all of the drawers. I then removed the back board which is usually stapled so it’s super easy to take off. That left me with wooden bars across the front that had to go. Now, not all of us are lucky enough to own a power saw(yet!) so, I just used my $12 hand saw from Lowe’s. It did the trick just fine. As I was cutting these bars I was saving any extra screws I found to use for building my shelf.

After finishing the demo it was time to revamp. The edges were a bit rough from the saw so I decided to add some decorative trim to cover them up rather than sanding them. I did this by cutting it to size, adding a few dabs of gorilla glue and hammering them in place with a few finishing nails… again, super easy. Now on to the cabinet… I used some of the wood I pulled off the original piece to build the rails for my shelf. I measured 16” from the ground up on each side and used some of my old wood screws to attach each piece. I then used a piece of wood I purchased at Lowe’s… It was ¾”x16” x48”… Just make sure you get one large enough that you can cut down to size. I started by measuring the back opening width of the hutch. I cut my wood down to this and then placed it on top of the rails I made. I marked off the excess wood from the back and used my handsaw to take it off.

The bottom was pretty simple… I fixed the 2 broken drawers with some gorilla glue and then used wood putty fill my hardware holes. I knew I would be using single knobs on this baby. After caulking a few lines and holes and a bit of sanding I was ready to paint. I love my Olympic Blue Willow satin paint. As Ashley would say… The color makes me smile! I put two coats on the whole piece. After letting that dry a couple of hours I used my sanding block with 80 grit paper and roughed up my edges and corners. I sanded the corners really hard to expose the raw wood. I then used Minwax Dark Walnut stain to darken up my sanded areas. Just use a foam brush and apply a very thin amount to your edges and then wipe off the excess. It does tint the paint around it a bit too but I love that look! I debated glazing this one but did decide to add a bit to it. I wiped off most of the glaze I put on but I love how it just makes it look a few decades older! It was time to put the back on which is one of my favorite parts of this redo. I saw Layla from the Lettered Cottage line her hutch with old feed sacks here… http://www.theletteredcottage.net/2009/07/headboard-bench.html …I loved it and was inspired to go that direction with mine… although I found it much easier to run up to Hobby Lobby and buy 3 yards of burlap rather than searching for cute, old feed sacks… I am never lucky enough to find goodies like that anyway! I used my staple gun to gather and attach the top of the burlap first. There is no measuring it here… just eyeball it. I finished the top and then pulled it tightly and attached it to the bottom and I was done… Love it!

My final step was adding my hardware. I found these great knobs at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 a piece and they did the trick! All that is left for me to do now is decorate her… this will be done after I sit and stare at it for a bit. When I do get that done, you girls will be the first to know! I will be sharing this project at Kimba’s DIY day over at A Soft Place to Land and at Transformation Thursday with Gina at the Shabby Chic Cottage http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2009/09/aging-gracefully.html… Check these parties out… so much fun!!! I will also be posting this at Reinvented for Trash to Treasure Thursday! Go check it out! Great stuff there as well! http://www.reinventedkb.com/2009/09/trash-to-treasure-creative-candle.html

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/09/diy-day-and-giveaway.html

I will also be sharing this project at Met Mondays over at Between Naps on the Porch... Check this party out as well girls!

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-35th-metamorphosis-monday.html