The Beautiful Monster

Have you ever been super proud of something that you absolutely hated?

Well.... Allow me to share with you the most beautiful monster that I have come across yet:

THE KITCHEN HUTCH

This is picture of both satisfaction and TORTURE! Never have I felt so proud of a piece yet so eager to send it to its forever home. This bad boy took me a whopping 20 weeks to complete. Yes you read that right... Twenty loooooong, painful weeks. Here is a before pic just after I sanded the top:

I NEVER imagined that sanding the top part of this kitchen hutch would be the first of a very long, bumpy adventure. 

First I thought I would paint it white with the inside of the shelving turquoise, but that just didn't work out for various reasons. Then I thought I would give spraying it with red paint a try..which ultimately did work out but proved rather messy and irritating. 

Then I started on the white. Well, for some reason I thought I should use a thick white primer followed by two more coats of vintage white paint.  The paint job was alright and the color was nice, BUT..there is always a but..now there were too many coats of paint and the hinges don't fit correctly. *ugh* Mind you these were the days before I gave in and spent the extra $$ on Cece's. (what a chump I was..)

Good thing I planned to distress the mess out of it right? Because I had to do A TON of sanding on this thing, yet again. *yuck*

Then I decided I would try a stencil. WRONG. Stencils are made by the devil and so was this kitchen hutch. The glue was a brat to get off of the wood and the stencil didn't hold up for anything. So what did I do you ask? What I should have just done from the start? Paint that baby by hand. Yes I even re painted most of the top section where I "tried" (key word:tried) to be a bum and stencil it. Never again folks. 

Stencils=No sir.

Oh now what you ask? You know just some antique glazing with a q-tip, some staining on the body of the hutch, followed by MORE sanding, cleaning, and of course sealing. 

What was the very end result you may be thinking?

 A kitchen hutch with a drawer that only works when it feels like it and a beautiful masterpiece of pure frustration. 

So I sold it for half price and had a list of seven buyers in line to snatch it up. Honestly, I hated this piece so much that I would've paid them the $75 to take it to its new home.  Yes, I only sold it for $75. I know....I know. It had to go.

Good bye old friend...miss you I shall not.

Here are a few more photos of it along the way.....

:)