Paris Grey Hutch Makeover

We’re back in the dining room today to share the Paris Grey Hutch Makeover reveal!

This year, we’re completely committed to simplifying so many different areas of our heart and home from creating stronger organizational systems to unifying our color palette of whites, off whites, grays and wood tones.

It all started late last August when we decided to give the breakfast nook a makeover. This seemingly simple makeover led us to paint all the common areas of the house in Valspar’s Bistro White because we have an open floor plan.

One of the last rooms of the common areas to be completed was the dining room.  It still wore the original “builder’s beige” paint color almost 9 years later.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t horrible at all, but it definitely didn’t have the same feel as the surrounding rooms.

I finally painted the dining room in Bistro White a few weeks ago and while it made the space feel fresh, the black hutch just wasn’t jiving anymore so I decided to paint the hutch with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey.

Full disclosure I was this closeto painting it in French Linen, but the breakfast nook hutch is already painted in French Linen and I didn’t want every hutch in the common area to have the exact same paint color.

Paris Grey is one of those chameleon colors because the intensity of grey can completely change based on how much or how little sunlight is in the room. This is after one coat of paint.

Once I had two coats of Paris Grey on the outside of the hutch, buffet and drawers I decided to turn my attention to planking the back of the hutch.

I started out by painting the back of the hutch in Vaspar’s Du Jour.  I know it might seem crazy to have to paint the back of the hutch when you’re just going to be covering it up with planks anyway.  But you’re going to be able to see the base color of the hutch in the gaps between each plank, so you need to paint the back of the hutch in the same color you plan to paint the planks.

And just as an FYI, the same holds true for planking walls.  If you have a yellow wall and decide to plank it, all that yellow will show through the gaps of the planks and it will look like you have yellow grout.

After allowing the paint on the back of the hutch to dry for a few days, I started planking the hutch. I used some of the leftover planks we had from the kitchen makeover, nickels as spacers and Liquid Nails to secure in place.

Now, I would normally use Liquid Nails and finishing nails secure the planks, but the back of this hutch is paper thin, so it wasn’t really an option.

Since, I’m already making full confessions, it was much harder than I expected to plank the back of this hutch without an extra set of hands.  Hence, all the tape and books.

Everything was going fairly well once I got into a groove, until I reached the top of the hutch and realized the last plank was going to be almost 2 inches smaller than the other planks.  Yikes! I can’t believe in my excitement to tackle this project completely by myself, I never thought to take the extra measurements.  Lesson learned, right?

Thankfully, I called my Dad to help me troubleshoot the issue and he agreed to not only cut the last plank but to also cut the boards for the shelves with his table saw.  I didn’t even think about it at the time but installing the planks, made the shelves super snug so keep that in mind if you ever decide to try a hutch makeover like this.  We wound up having to shave ¼ inch off each shelf board.

The following day and once I knew the planks were secure and the Liquid Nails was completely dry, I set about painting the planks on the back of the hutch in Valspar’s Du Jour. This is only one coat of Du Jour, but you can already see the transformation, right?

While I was with my Dad, he also cut the add on piece for the top too. I hadn’t really planned to use this piece on top but I’m so glad I did because it totally changed the look of this hutch.  I’ve had this architectural piece out in the garage for years!

There were several times I almost sold it or donated it but for some reason I just kept holding on to it hoping I would be able to use it someday.  I’m so glad I kept it now because it looks really pretty all dressed up in Paris Grey too.

To refresh the hardware, I simply spray painted the pulls with Rust-oleums Aged Copper from the Metallic Line. It’s the same color we used on our kitchen hardware too.

As far as decorating the hutch, I still need to go through all the ironstone and brown and white transferware.  I have so many pieces currently sitting on the floor of S’s office right now, it’s embarrassing.  I totally get why Marie Kondo tells you to put your entire collection together before choosing which pieces “spark joy” – the shock factor is real ha ha.

As I shared above, Paris Grey is a neutral color that reads differently based on the amount of sunlight entering the room.

Honestly, I think the hutch would be pretty with either the brown and white transferware or ironstone. I’m going to wait until I get the curtains hung before I make a final decision though.

I know I’ve shared a lot today, so I thought we should take one more look at the before…

 and after…

I mean, it’s bananas, right? It’s the exact same piece but looks totally different! I’m getting so excited to see how the rest of this room is going to come together now.

Have you guys been painting any fun piece of furniture lately? Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo