Repurpose a china cabinet/hutch?
9 years ago
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China hutch questions
Comments (5)What you would be doing would be similar to the built-ins I have in my living room, except the bottom doors wouldn't go anywhere -- or could you put in some shallow space? -- a few inches could give you a place for some very clever options rather than nothing at all. Even recesses between the studs can give you space for charging stations, phone books (standing up), a horizintal magazine or newspaper rack, storage for bottles and cans. The drawers fronts could have pulldowns for charging stations, batteries, flashlights, pens and pencils. If you think of a way to capture some space, the fronts become clever instead of fake. ;-) As for the shelves, I would order them with matching moveable shelves, try them and get glass shelves cut to replace them if you find the paint dings up too easily. I replaced mine with glass, but in my case it was to not distract from the leaded glass in the doors of those cabinets....See MoreOCD furniture issue, need to repurpose china cabinet
Comments (5)We have an old pine china cabinet in our beach cottage bathroom, believe it or not. The house has an abnormally large bathroom/laundry room but no closet, so we have towels stored in the upper glass-door cabinet, washcloths in the drawers, and toilet paper, etc., in the bottom cabinet! You could also take off the glass doors on top (assuming you have them) to make it look more bookcase-like. Repair the holes from the door hinges and paint the whole thing a fun color....See MoreAnyone use a china hutch/cabinet post remodel?
Comments (26)First, stop with the toxic, stinky stuff! Try something nontoxic like the Citristrip or Soygel. It is SO worth the money!! I'm using it and it's absolutely fun! Particularly for lovely detail work. Your tool is a toothpick! You put it on (for stain) and leave it until the clear finish and/or stain starts to look like BBQ sauce. Then you gently rub it off with a kitchen scrubbie and water. (Mineral spirits liquifies the stain and old finish back into the grain of the wood. Give up that idea! :) They say NOT to use steel wool because Citristrip is water soluable and will cause the steel wool to rust. The plus side is the water soluable part! No chemicals, no toxicity, just beautiful wood. I'm on my 4th antique door today doing just this. I am WAY into watching old finish bubble up and scraping it off into a drywall bucket to bare wood. I swear it's almost too good to be true. As far as rehabbing a finish, Holly-kay, have you seen the incredible work online people are doing with olive oil and vinegar? Yup. Salad dressing. They're using the 0000 steel wool with that and scrubbies. I'm coming to find that horrible, burning chemicals aren't necessary and love it. As far as not liking your first coat finish? Before you put another on, take the 000 steel wool and water and smooth out the coat. You can also use a dry lunch sack. It doesn't leave any scratches to fill. Wipe all the dust off and put your 2nd coat on. I'd actually use the darker wax before your final finish coat. I think that's a good idea, though. You can feather it in where needed. I am so into this it's nuts. I can't wait to build my 2nd credenza!...See MoreHow to identify china hutch
Comments (7)It's often called a "shrank"....a very germanic style of china cupboard. I know that "brown furniture" seems to have fallen out of favor lately......but from what i have seen sell, you should have about $2,000 out of it....or perhaps more. But I have not seen any of the joinery details and other things that indicate age and quality, but what I do see looks like I am in the ball park. Currently, I know of at least 3 places, restaurants and a small hotel, that are furnished in that heavy Germanic style. Someone who is furnishing something like that would likely be your best bet. I sure woouldn't take it to an auction house, unless I knew that there would be a particular sale that featured more of that sort of furniture....See More- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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