Resaling!

So, if you know us, you know I don't like to pay much for things.  Which is a bummer, because we also like things that are nice! What is a girl to do?

She's going to scour the internet and her surroundings for the best quality she can find, and only occasionally shell out for fancy stuff.  Also, she's going to marry up.  Kidding! Alex was doing ok but not a fancy man when we met and got situated.  I assure you, can show some photos of his clothing choices.

Anyways, this place does not have great storage for entertaining, linens, multiple seasons of clothing to suit winters of -40 and summers of 90+ humidity, so we've been getting creative. After a lunch with some of the best ladies in town, I wandered on further out to a mythical resale shop espoused by Kim and Scott of Yellow Brick Home, Jubilee.  No, I didn't take Alex. Then, he would have to tell me no in person (worse for him) and would also have the ability to tell me no (worse for me). And would have taken up a whole seat in the car!

I was on the hunt for a hutch for the dining room, to help in storing serving pieces and glassware.  Our wall shelves are great, but I'm not sold on storing our wedding flutes, antique wine glasses, and just generally anything we need to drink from on a shelf that is suspended in air and has not passed its trial period yet.  I found a number, and emailed my aunt at her work address to show the photos.  RE: IMPORTANT!  She must be ready to commit me.

Anyways, I narrowed it down to things that would fit on a specific wall, and that were tall or very tall.  One of my only tried and true tips: the taller the better, for storage in small spaces.  After a lot of back and forth with my aunt for advice and Alex for final say, I came away with way more than the hutch.  Whoops!

The other things were all of good use: a wooden stepstool that I am currently refinishing to dedicate for use in our closet/for Ny to get up on the bed, two rocking arm chairs that we have been trying to figure out the future of (so comfy!!), and a sleeper sofa that was a bust space wise but worked out for our friend Andy.  However, 3 out of 4, or 4 out of 5, is not a bad success rate.  The chairs have been living in the back two feet of our garage space since March, but we'll figure it out eventually.

When it came home, I was excited like a small child with a new toy, and we immediately dismantled our older oak hutch to move elsewhere.  I cleaned out the drawers and all of the interior surfaces with a quick furniture polish - it was in such good shape, no refinishing was required.

We moved it to the intended wall, where it fit almost perfectly, because I had finally wised up and took measurements during shopping! I lined the drawers and loaded it up with our wine glasses, table linens, and dish towels immediately. The lower cabinet doors became a home for our canned foods from last summer - so much room!

We did choose to do a couple of things to tune the hutch up.  First, the upper cabinet was missing the glass shelves within the side cabinets.  I made a cardboard template to get the exact measurements for the unique trapezoidal shape, and Ny and I took it to our favorite, Kim's Clarendon Hardware.

John had the glass cut within the day, and at ~$12 for the glass and cuts, this added four additional shelves of space for wine glasses, etc.  We also picked up two bulbs of the correct size at Kim's as they had a special base, and found out that the lights in the upper cabinet were actually on a dimmer - so fancy!







I wanted to love the hutch in its original state, so much - but the hardware finally got to me and I took to the internet.  We did like the golden tone of the original with the red undertones in its wood, so opted for a deep bronze to replace the drawer pulls and cabinet handles.

As the drawer pulls were spaced 3", it was easiest to just choose a style in that size.  Ultimately, we ended up back at Amazon for these Lombard Franklin Brass pulls, which were listed as ten for $17, and added onto our next order.  We loved the first package in person, so went ahead and ordered a second set of ten and yet another for an upcoming project.

Lower Cabinets

So, after several days of painting and flipping, painting and flipping, the lower cabinet doors and drawer fronts were all completed.  Mr. Alex was kind enough to put a few of each up as they finished to help encourage my progress and get the space back into working shape.

To paint the doors, we used Sherwin Williams Multi-Purpose Primer, and as a rule allow a minimum of four hours between coats.  We picked up two sets of Hyde painter’s pyramids (Amazon link is an affiliate), for up to five doors or a combination of doors and drawer fronts at once.  They allow you to paint, maybe get a drink of water, and flip without waiting to dry the full amount of time and we highly, highly recommend them for two-sided painting jobs.  I followed with two coats of Sherwin Williams Emerald Semi Gloss in Extra White, which we over purchased in our last place for a built-in update.  This is my new favorite brush for small-handed folks, and I used a small roller as well.
The doors were just not living up to their full potential before, and some simple updates were definitely worth it in the long run.  We’d considered the option of purchasing new doors or altering our existing ones to include glass panes, but felt that this early project could be done inexpensively and we could see where this left us.

When reinstalling the doors, we chose to add soft-closing hardware to the frames.  Our cabinets were new enough to have Euro hinges, but slammed OFTEN and this has already been a worthwhile endeavor for our time.  I found a package of 25 soft-close adapters on Amazon for $75, which will handle all of our kitchen cabinets.  We were also unhappy with the hardware, which included small knobs on the drawers and was left off of some doors, so chose to update that as well while we were at it.  On a Home Depot run, we narrowed our preferences to modern pull shapes, and confirmed that we had enough steel/nickel and didn’t like brass.  Unfortunately, nothing in store was viable pricewise and I took to the internet.  After sifting through, I chose something similar to what Alex and I had seen and ordered enough to cover all drawers and cabinets, three sets of 10 for about $75 as well. 

So far, we're pleased with the cabinets in relation to the countertop, wall color, appliances, and near the white backsplash.  The room feels much lighter and bigger, and we're happy with the results thus far.