Found on the side of the road, this Garrison hutch had seen better days. From someone's treasured addition to their dining room in the 1960's, to a disguarded and forgotten piece of rubbish, this hutch had seen, and been, it all. But behind all the scratches, the chipped veneer, and the bleak-looking finish, it was still a strong, sturdy and quality piece of furniture. I knew I couldn't leave it behind.
The hutch sat in my garage for a year. So many times I let the piece of furniture speak to me, let it tell me what should be done. But this piece was silent. Every time I tried to start planning, nothing would come. Finally, one day while perusing Pinterest, it hit. This gorgeous, deep, striking teal color screamed out to me, and I knew right where it needed to go...but unfortunately, there was no recipe. Not even a brand of paint give any hints.
After conducting some extensive research (thanks Pinterest!), I finally had an idea of what may get me close to the color I desired. And of course, General Finishes gave me two great milk paint colors to choose from - Coastal Blue and Lime Green. Mixing tests confirmed it and it was off to the races!
I started with a good cleaning with TSP (great cleaner btw!) and after a generous amount of dry time, it was on to sanding. Let me tell you - sanding a hutch? Not. Fun.
Fast-forward (quite a ways) and it's painting time!! Something didn't seem right though. As much as I LOVED that teal, it's a big hutch and that's A LOT of teal. Enter from stage right: Candlelight gel stain!
I gave the tops of the shelves a thin coat of Candlelight gel stain, wiped it down and couldn't believe the result. After one coat of High Performance Topcoat in Satin, I covered the shelves, started up my Earlex paint sprayer and let the paint fly! (so to speak) The entire hutch was given two coats of High Performance Topcoat in Flat, the hardware was polished with Brasso and the sad, not-so-little Garrison hutch was now ready to become someone's treasured piece of furniture once again!
