Transforming a Desk into a Hutch

This is one of those posts that I wish I had known I would be posting our projects on a blog one day, because I lack many before images on this one. Good thing is that this project has yet to be completed.

When moving out of the furnished dorm and into a furnished apartment (sans desk) for college, I still had super limited funds but a smart cookie of a boyfriend (now my hunky, genius husband). So below is the redone desk in my apartment. It needed a fresh coat of paint and updated hardware. We sanded that thing for what seemed like forever because there were about 5 previous paint colors on this freebie (from Chris's parents garage). The hardware was easily updated with some flat black spray paint we already had on hand.

Then, we got married and moved in together. Our apartment is tiny - less than 600 square feet. We both have a ton of hobbies and I love to use the kitchen so we knew the 5 cabinets and 1 drawer in the kitchen would not suffice. This lead to the next transformation of the desk. We pulled off the old top and replaced it with a piece of Aspen wood that mimicked butcher block and put a similar topper onto the 3 shelves we anchored to the desktop. Black knobs to match the black handles and a coat of matching paint all around gave us this beauty. It was lovely on move in day.

I snapped the shots below this morning. We have acquired more wedding gifts and random things since move in. We needed to store our printer somewhere, so it was placed under the desk atop an Ikea Lack table that fit snugly in. Beneath it is a basket with the extra printer paper.We received more casserole dishes and that made us rearrange the hutch and add some mug hangers. The basket on top of the hutch holds jars and a glass trifle bowl. Our mixing bowls and colanders are stored in the rustic bucket that was a part of a wedding gift packaging - very cute, by the way. We did do a brighter coat of food safe stain to brighten up the wood, which helped it match our island.

So you see, we need more space. And our hutch never quite got completed. Twine keeps the doors closed. There is no back or lighting. Some paint touch ups have to be done. Before we move to our next place in the next couple months with more space, this project has to be finished!

Here is the plan:

Add beadboard backing behind the shelving

Fix the tracks of the drawers (they squeal and squeak) with new tracks

Line the drawers with pretty wrapping paper

Put magnetic plates to keep the doors closed (and ditch the twine tie)

Touch up the paint

Brighten up the top a bit more with the food safe stain.
Add lights on each shelf and below the hutch for the desktop

I think after all of those updates, it will be complete. What do you think? Any more suggestions?