Furniture Makeover: Goodbye Knotty Pine
I FINISHED one of the DIY furniture makeover painting projects that I have been working on the past two weeks! It is the oak hutch in my dining room.
I am thrilled how it turned out and also thrilled to have my garage back.
I originally was going to spray paint the hutch a sisal color and the walls white, but that felt too cold to me so I reversed the colors and could not be happier. I also took a bit of inspiration from this photo from the Pottery Barn catalog. I don’t love everything in PB, but I always go for the white built- in look.
Before
Hand me down hutch. I loved the size of it, but not the pine. Too dated, especially with the curved sides.
After
I didn’t want to spend money on purchasing bead board for the back of the shelves and didn’t want to just paint them as I wanted to add some dimension and contrast. I also want to keep the furnishings neutral so that the table setting and food are center stage. More on this in an upcoming post.
How to Line Furniture with Book Pages
I opted to wallpaper the interior of the hutch with pages from some old books which are FREE. After removing the pages from the book, I put matte Mod Podge on the back and attached to the wood. I repeated the process overlapping each piece until the inside was completely covered. Make sure to apply enough Mod Podge so that you don’t have any air pockets. As I worked, I brushed Mod Podge on the surface to seal the paper .
You may see wrinkling of the paper occur as you work. When the Mod Podge dries, the wrinkles go away. Make sure to adhere each page thoroughly and seal in one step, this way you will get less wrinkling of the paper. The thicker the paper the less chance of wrinkling. If you don’t want to seal the pages, you can adhere them with spray adhesive.
I love how it looks. I keep walking into the room to look at it – with the hutch white now, the room looks so much bigger. (yellow cast on upper shelf, only in photo)
*When I moved to my new house, there was no room for this piece. I broke it apart and refurbished the top to be a fireplace mantel. Sometimes, you just need to look outside the box for ideas.
My decorating marathon is a “thrifty” one. I didn’t like the dark hinges and pulls, but could not afford to buy new ones so I white washed over them.
The baskets are from IKEA.
Before and After Interior. I traced the curved edge of the hutch onto the book pages then cut them out with scissors to get a perfect fit.
I like the off white of the book pages against the white plates, platter, and pitchers. It adds a bit of contrast, don’t cha think?
One project down, three more to go… and then I will unveil the entire room just in time for Thanksgiving – my deadline.