A Craiglist Hutch Tutorial

I love when the days turn warmer because it means that people start spring-cleaning! (Not me, of course, but other people.) They want to get rid of the old and freshen things up. What do you do with all the stuff then? You have a yard sale, naturally. The trouble is it is not warm weather here in Massachusetts and waiting through the cold months used to be torture. With the advent of the internet we now have access to year round yard sales, estate sales, ect.  I love Craiglist, Freecycle and local yard sale facebook sites!

Since we bought our home in 2003 I have had a love/hate relationship with the old steam radiators in our home. Some of them are gorgeous and because of that I do not mind terribly that they take up space in a corner of a room. At times I have placed a piece of marble or tray on top and made them into make shift tables.

U G L Y!

Neither of the two radiators in my living room are beautiful. They are short, squatty little things with no decoration at all. They weigh a ton so to try to bring them outside for a good cleaning and spray paint is impossible. They stick out from the wall about a foot and they are both placed in stupid locations. The one that caused me most trouble was between the two front windows. So this is the maybe-too-detailed story of what I did to deal with them. I have alluded to parts of this account in other posts but thought maybe I should just put it all out there.

My solution was to build display shelves of some sort to house collectibles, table lamps and whatever else I feel like. So the brain started thinking. It had to have an open bottom because Mister is insistent that we not block the heat in any way. Pedal back about a year or so before when I spied, with my little eye, two porch pillars being thrown out by my neighbor. After she left for work and before the garbage man came I, with cat-like maneuvers, made my way to her garbage pile and snatched the pillars stealing them away to the safety of my back porch. In hindsight they were in no danger from the garbage man as they would never have fit into little compressor thing but no doubt some crazed DIY nut would have snatched them up for some cockamamie idea! ....What?

Yes, you know when Mister saw them he rolled his eyes and asked about them. At the time I had no plans other than to hoard them like they were water and it was Y2K! Okay back to the present time. So now, I had a plan for those pillars. They were going to be the front legs to my shelving. But, what about the shelves? That is when I became obsessed with checking Craigslist in three different areas for like a week. One day, boom! There it was a top to an Ethan Allen hutch that some woman did not want anymore. I immediately emailed her. She forwarded the measurements and I was thrilled that it would fit into my SUV. Off I went with my $40 (either $30 or $40 I forget which).

A little too country rustic for me.\

My daughter was with me. In theory the top would fit into my car....if I could get it through the opening which is smaller than the inside cabin area! I was not letting it go. My daughter and I put it on top of the luggage rack but had only a few bungee cords to try to keep it in place. I drove back roads home 10 miles or so with the sun roof open, our hands sticking up through it holding tightly the top of the hutch. That my friends is determination! Once home I took it quickly to the basement until I could draw up a plan. Mister does so much better with things he can see.

Mister caught the vision and the whole family got involved. The girls washed the cut down pillars readying them for paint.

Mister cut the top from a piece of pre-packaged wood at Home Depot. He built the skirt out of 1x6 and used the corners of the posts to tie the skirt in,

Mister mounted the base onto the wainscoting using it as a sort of cleat. Then the top was placed onto that. Everything got a fresh coat of December Starlight from Lowes to match the trim in the living room.

I painted the top using paint from around the house. Now, please don't fuss that I painted a piece of Ethan Allen furniture. I did not pay $2000 for it and in order for me to have it the way I wanted it the color was going to have to change a bit.

And, done for about $80 in materials, including the hutch top and wood. The decor changes seasonally and it has become one of my favorite diy's.

Kinda makes me want to go see what I can find on Craigslist....and no, I have gotten no farther on the office.
                                           Thanks for spending time with me today!

Linking up:
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