Our hutch and our homes.

Besides making the best meatballs ever tonight (recipe to come later), today was a productive day. We worked on the hutch.

This is how it started.
For some reason this picture doesn't do justice to just how ugly it was. You can't tell at all in this picture but the original finish had like black speckles of paint ALL OVER IT. Were they going for an aged look? Because black speckles of paint over cream colored stain doesn't speak "aged," it speaks ugly. Or dirty. Or accidentally speckled with black paint.

This is the hutch sanded down.


And this is the hutch primed.

We're obviously taking out the hanging lightbulb, but we decided to keep the gold foil backing. Just kidding, obviously. I'm not going to show you the hutch painted until it's totally complete with fabric backing and hardware. I'd show you a sneak peak of the fabric and hardware but that would ruin the fun!

I also made these.


We are big on paying homage to where we come from and what we've experienced. These aren't a new concept but I love the way they came out. The maps are from a 1937 encyclopedia and some of the towns listed in Massachusetts don't exist anymore, at least to my knowledge. And also Google's knowledge. I also thought it was funny that Oceanside is on the California map. I don't know why but Oceanside seems so insignificant to me. I also made a larger U.S. map for a different part of the house that was a two page spread from the same encyclopedia. The California map is SO empty, but I can't wait to change that!