You know, painting a piece of furniture may not be as hard as you think. I love different types of decorating like folk art which is alot of black, burgundy, cream, dark green and grunge. There is the beach/ocean theme with star fish, navy blue, aqua, mint green, white, fisherman's net, sea shells and glass, chipped painted shutters. There is the garden theme with metal table and chairs (bistro type) geraniums, terra cotta flower pots. Industrial Chic-so cool, railroad type coffee table with sheels to move it around, large posters of names of cities, metal covers for overhead lights. Then there is shabby chic; white, pink, light yellow, mint green, aqua or baby blue/robins egg blue, cream, chipped everything, lace banged up furniture or furniture with loose covers, pillows made of burlap, fur, mantles with all kinds of decorations including deer head the big thing that is in. Shabby Chic is kind of country and there are mahy kinds of country that I have learned about like French, Swedish, Italian... Ecclectic which is a bit of everything, different colors like reds, yellows, oranges, crochet and knitted items, stuffed little animals, paper cut out items, rugs that don't match the mismatch chair. The ecclectic look reminds me of the 1970's with the wild patterns and the olive, orange, and gold colors. If yo ulook at Tupperware containers, you will see how style has changed by the colors and shape of the Tupperware. Oh yea, and there is Retro: the metal table and chairs, black and white square tiled floor, maybe a pink round cornered fridgerator, owls for decorations, gold lamps with huge lamp shades...
Well, I have enjoyed the shabby chiclook for quite awhile. And while I am ecclectic which alot of people declare me to be, I am a bit Industrial with my metal covered light in the kitchen and huge antique wooden sign hangingin my living room, folk art by some of the American Folk Art I have painted, ocean themed with vintage sailor statues and boat and ocean art work hanging, and French country with my huge wall unit for my tv that is painted a greenish grey with brown and hand-painted design, but oh my I love "shabby chic".
A few years ago, I admired a hutch in a store. The lady made all of her furniture. It was either painted bright colors or light colors. She made furniture out of other furniture pieces; crib rails to make a bench. She was willing to trade with me her hutch for a sideboard. I was in my glory. A white flat painted hutch with a robins egg blue on accents of the hutch.
I love cream and white and robins egg blue, and with a border up in my dining room of nests, eggs and feathers, with alot of cream and off white accents of crochet doilies and a pastel yellow desk, I decided I was going to shabby chic up the hutch. How, well, a little bit of paint here and there, another color of paint here and there, and rubbingit in with my brush and fingers. I didn't have to worry about over doing it because most shabby chic furniture is layers and layers of paint, chipped and banged up. So I just went to town with an umber mixed with glaze, these were my art paints I use all of the time in my collages. I didn't go out and buy anything. I used a cream color Americana bottle of paint. And just rubbed one color into the other, left some color showing more in certain spots and left it that way on purpose. I have not yet added any wax to the wood to preserve it more. After I do a project, I like to keep it that way to see if I really like it, if I want to change it and if I don't have the money to buy an item, it will just have to wait. My shabby chic pedestle table in the kitchen is like that. I know it would be good to put the wax on the table to purposely protect it from water and food. I can always sand it in the spots it gets stained and then add a bit of paint if need be and then the wax.
So here are some photo samples of the hutch.
