Buffet to Farmhouse Hutch Upgrade

I’ve been painting and refinishing furniture for close to 20 years. Really much longer if you count the dresser I refinished in middle school! I can’t resist a good project piece, especially one with “good bones” as I like to call it. At a local garage sale I snagged this beautiful solid wood buffet/foyer piece for a steal of $75! Not a second thought went into the purchase, no haggling was involved. I just handed the seller my money as fast as I could! For $75 she was practically giving it away, and the quality was not lost on me. I wasn’t totally in love with it as it stood but I knew with a little thought, the right products and skill, I could totally transform it into exactly what I wanted at a fraction of the cost of the expensive ones I had been eyeing in my favorite antique stores. I loved it not for what it was, but what it could become!

In less than half a day we totally transformed this buffet into a huge statement piece perfect for a farmhouse kitchen! That does NOT include the time it took to paint.

I hope this post can trigger some ideas and inspiration for you as well. Maybe you’re wanting to upgrade an existing piece of furniture into something more substantial. With the right tools and a basic plan you can get started. Keeping in mind you’ll have to base your measurements off your buffet, console, foyer piece or whatever it is your wanting to reimagine. The great thing about solid furniture and wood is that you can easily add to it or take away and truly make a custom piece.

Tools used:

• tape measure
• Saw horses
• circular saw
• drill
• screws
• square
• compressor/ nail gun (finish nails and pin nails)

One of the first tasks you’ll want to do is lightly sand your beadboard. Due to the nature of this pressed wood and the manufacturing process the beadboard can be a little rough. Often times with a raised fuzzy wood grain. It’ll be easier to sand now then when its inside. Stick with 120 grit sandpaper or finer.

The beadboard will come with a lip like seen here. This would be useful if you were using multiple sheets on a wall but for this project it’s not needed. Use a circular saw and rip this edge off.

We had determined that we could complete this project using one sheet of beadboard. Yay for math (and my husband)! We’d need the piece on the back of the hutch cut horizontally thus leaving vertical leftovers of exactly what was needed for the cabinet door fronts. This is a very large piece of furniture so chances are this one sheet method would work for you too.

To get a good visual and before you start nailing it together, lay the pieces out in the same fashion that you want your add on to look.

Once you have it positioned start from the top. Line a bead of high quality wood glue on the edge where you’ll be attaching with a nail.

Using ***** nails or brads attach the side pieces to the top

Decide what distance you want your shelves. Here is where you have some custom flexibility. If you have a certain decor item or something of a certain size that you’ll be wanting to display. You can add more or less depending on your needs and total height. We went with about 15 inches in between the shelves. I felt like that was going to give me a lot of space to display many things!

Lay your cut beadboard directly on top of the structure. If you did your math correctly, and used straight lines to cut this should line up perfectly straight.

Nail all around the perimeter and shelves to fully secure.

For added security and to give a more finished look that’s keeping in era of old timey, handmade, farmhouse furniture you’ll want to add some small 1x . In addition to giving the shelf a little more support it will also hide any gaps in the corner.

From there you’ll want to add the exterior trim pieces. Start with the top piece first and then your sides last. This is going to nicely frame out your hutch. I wanted my hutch to have an antique/primitive feel so I stopped there. But you could totally add crown moulding along the top for a different look.

It’s very possible that you’ll need to sand the bottom super flat so that it sits perfectly on your buffet or furniture piece.

You’ll need additional wood pieces to go around the bottom in the same fashion as the support pieces. You’ll not only use these to attach to the buffet but also the top add on. I suggest screwing these in because that’s what will be joining the two pieces together in a perfect marriage. Initially, we thought we’d have to run some wood long ways along the back of both pieces joining them together but this did the trick. Its heavy and in perfect proportion so it not going anywhere. Proper proportions are important when planning this out. IF you have any doubt about the integrity of your piece attach to the wall using anti-tip wall anchors.

With just a little planning you can totally transform an existing piece of furniture into something more grande! Now that it’s finished you can further transform it to fit in with whatever your color scheme or desires may be!

To see the steps I used to finish it see below!

Since this post is already a little lengthy I’ll be shortly condensing the painting process to pictures and short steps. In the future I will do more in depth posts and how to achieve old world/farmhouse finishes. But this will give you a general idea. I repaint and refinish a lot of furniture so I have a stocked “pantry” so to speak. I often use a combination of different products, brands, tools and techniques to achieve the look I’m going for.

COMPLETELY CLEAN YOUR FURNITURE. MAKE SURE ALL THE DUST IS GONE AS WELL AS USING AN ALL PURPOSE CLEANER.