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good morning everyone i'm amy friesen
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and this is artful aging with amy i'd
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like to welcome back to pitchworth to
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the show sue and i are looking at how to
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repurpose your outdated or inherited
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pieces
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recently i've been tasked with fitting
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an old style hutch into a modern design
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sue welcome back to artful aging
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thanks amy so excited to be back i'm
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really happy to have you sue many of our
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viewers are inheriting their parents
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furniture whether they're finding it on
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purpose or they're actually inheriting
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it so they can give it new life or
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when their parents pass away they also
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want to keep this as a momentum and so
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they're also tasked with doing something
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with all of these pieces and trying to
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fit them into their homes
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like me many feel that their older
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furniture although it's well crafted and
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it's good quality doesn't quite fit with
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their own decor
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i know this isn't new to you sue what
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have you found to be the main concern
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when people are considering taking on
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their loved ones furniture
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you know so many of us are going through
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this and i recently um like you have
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gone through the same thing with my dad
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and i have to say um
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it's very stressful
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because you you as a you know a child
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doesn't matter how old you are you tend
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to
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you know okay we need to take everything
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well you can't take everything
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and then when you do bring whatever
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pieces into your home they obviously
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obviously don't go with what you have
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so hence the stress level increases
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again
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your house is more cluttered because
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there's more stuff you don't know what
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to do with it and it's just this one big
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stress ball that a lot of people um
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carry and they don't know what to do
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with and honestly when i go into
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people's homes and they're dealing with
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this i see the piece or pieces
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very differently
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you know not that as you said outdated
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piece or the piece you know that that
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looks terrible because the color is
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horrible or or what have you i see
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something totally different so that's
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why i'm so excited to be here talking to
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you about this today
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yeah i i tend to see things similar to
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you
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um probably even more so now that you
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and i have been talking a lot more so
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um i tend to look at pieces
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differently and when i'm looking for
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like we're doing a trailer we're redoing
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stuff and i want to add different pieces
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and i tend to
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look on you know thrift sites or
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facebook or whatever to get these pieces
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and i find that even
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that little bit of creative output
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uh actually helps me in my everyday
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business and things like that because
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your your brain's thinking differently
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about stuff um so i've always you know i
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always love doing that
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today you have a piece that you refinish
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that i'm going to pop up for our youtube
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audience to see can you tell us more
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about this dresser and what you did to
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repurpose it
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sure actually this is very much a french
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provincial style dresser i think most of
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us of a certain age either had one or
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knew someone who had a dresser like this
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and my clients had it in the garage for
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years
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happened to be over there one day and
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she was saying well you know i need a
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hall
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table or credenza where i can put a lamp
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and you know have our keys and all that
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stuff so i said well do you have a piece
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uh an old dresser or old table so we
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went out to the garage pulled it out
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and as you can see on the left this is
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the before
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and again very much french provincial
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very feminine looking
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and we had a great conversation about
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what we could do with it and how we can
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transform it and make it into something
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so incredible
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but also that's not dated anymore that
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fits right into her
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style i think that's lovely and i love
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that like you and i have talked a lot
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about
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not being afraid of paint and not you
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know just kind of
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i guess i look at furniture it's really
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funny because my husband looks at the
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piece that we're gonna talk about in a
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minute but he looks at furniture as
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keeping it in its original condition and
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you know he's
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much more nostalgic than i am um but the
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thing is is that um
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he's he's always looking at that and so
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every time i was like let's paint this
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he thinks i'm crazy and so i'm always a
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big fan of you know if if we're not
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going to use it or if it's going to be
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an eyesore we might as well try
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something with it and if it doesn't work
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it doesn't work but at the same time it
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might work amazingly um
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and and then we have this new piece of
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furniture to look at
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oh absolutely and all my clients feel
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that way especially the men and i'm
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generalizing here but it's very true
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the women are much more open to being a
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little more creative perhaps a little
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more colorful
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and i do
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i will say that every single person that
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i know every client that has painted
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something
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even if it's a small end table or a
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chair
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it gives them confidence and they see
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the changes that can be made and
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literally they walk around with the
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paintbrush to see what else they can
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paint so it's pretty amazing so i will
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say to your audience once you start
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you're going to be on a little journey
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yeah for sure i even got into chalk
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painting for a while so i was painting
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everything so let's let's look at this
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hutch that i have now inherited in my
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life so
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uh many people have styles of hutches
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like the one that we're going to show
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and we want to use it we inherited it
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from mike's dad and uh he's no longer
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with us and we wanted to incorporate it
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whether we incorporate it into our home
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or we're thinking of doing an airbnb or
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whatnot and it's a lovely piece like i
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said at the top of the show it's well
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built
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um you know it's sturdy right and it's
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not like there's a lot of furniture made
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now as kind of throwaway furniture right
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so
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we want to we want to incorporate it but
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sue it's a beast
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it's a beast and and we'll show
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everybody now um and so now i'm wrapping
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my head around it what would you do for
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this piece
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so as you say it is a beast and they
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really don't make furniture like this
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anymore so if there is an opportunity
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and i always use the word opportunity
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for you to
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repurpose and refresh and renew
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something
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why not because it's so what they are so
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well made so this the first thing i
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would do is
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you know i see many shelves
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hidden in this hutch
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and i would remove um
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the glass doors
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and uh
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probably the the door underneath the
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glass doors so then you will have like
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three shelves on one side then you'll
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have the shelf you'll have those small
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double doors and you'll have a lower
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shelf so that's the first thing i would
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do it's going to give it a totally
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different look
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it's going to be much lighter
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and it won't be as heavy looking
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i was looking at the handles we have to
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keep the handles there on
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because they're actually built into the
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unit and what i would do is i would
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clean the unit with tsp i would prime it
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and then i would paint it
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a really nice gray
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my goodness it would just be so fabulous
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you know and it's really difficult for
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most people to see
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a piece that's dated
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and think how it's going to look
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painted
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but i will tell you paint is the
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quickest fastest easiest most cost
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effective way to update anything
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especially pieces like this
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so i would do that absolutely i would
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paint that
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and then i've got a couple of props here
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that i wanted to show you
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then i would style it so style it for
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whatever your purpose is and i would
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think as you mentioned it was
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excuse me storage you know i've got a
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great basket here
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look how great that would look with the
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gray
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and i also have some greenery that you
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could put on there
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and
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then i have this which i want to talk a
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little bit about because you'll notice
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on the hutch once you remove the doors
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you're going to see more of the back of
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the hutch
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so this is a peel and stick wallpaper
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this happens to be a wooden style which
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look would look really nice with the
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gray and all you do is you measure you
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peel you stick and you put it on the
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back walls it looks amazing
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again updating it and making it look
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very very different if you're really
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looking to have this for storage
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then here's another basket which is
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great
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nice big basket you could put it in
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on the shelves you could have a
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different assortment of baskets they all
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don't have to be the same
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but really take that unit once you've
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painted it and update it
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and really give it
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um purpose
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you know i always think
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uh functional purpose but also stylish
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purpose and i think if you do all these
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and you put all these things together
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i think your husband's going to be
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amazed it really really will
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well and i think too it's you know
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because it's such a big piece
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um
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it has to have those extra design
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options like the extra colors and
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baskets and pops of colors and things
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like that because
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the piece itself
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i find huge right like it's a it's a
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double hatch essentially like double
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wide and so wherever it ends up going
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it's going to take up a substantial wall
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space and so
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that's also why it's you know helpful to
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redesign it because
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you know if it's going to be on this
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wall space it can either be the way it
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looks now which would not fit in
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anywhere or
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um you can do these pops of color i
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really like the background that you just
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showed as well with the peel and stick
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that's a really interesting idea
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because that way it really changes it
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and you just you know you just post it
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on facebook today another hutch right a
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lot of people are using hutches the
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singles
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like the
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not the double wide but the single ones
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um for like coffee bars and stuff which
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you happen to post today and i've seen a
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couple of remakes like that
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and it's just really kind of whatever
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your imagination can do
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and and having that one of the uh the
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thoughts that i was having was you know
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a storage piece um for going outside
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like on on a beach right so all the
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towels and all the different things
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there um but also you know just that
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coffee bar piece really also frees up a
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bunch of um counter space right
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absolutely and one other thing you know
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we don't have a picture of it but i know
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most of us have
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our parents have
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the typical buffet and hutch
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in the dining room so usually that's two
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pieces and what i absolutely love to do
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is separate them
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separate them paint them change the
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handles if you need be
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i would like to put legs on the upper
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hutch so now you have a totally
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different piece it's got glass in it and
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then again you could put that peel and
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stick wallpaper along the back
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and you could go bold or you can go you
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know softer whatever your style is
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and now you have two separate pieces
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that buffet
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i use many many times for
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uh tv stands
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it's great because it doubles as storage
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and it's practical storage but it looks
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good
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and so it's really
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you had mentioned earlier you know
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thinking creatively
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and opening up your mind and it's it's
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so incredible the feeling that you get
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it's like wow i never thought of that
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and i even do that for myself sometimes
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i'm like wow i do this for a living and
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i had no idea that that would look so
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good there
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i've seen those hutches being taken
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apart and the other thing that i've seen
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people do is use them as like kitchen
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cabinets like do the bottom as a cabinet
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and then they hang the top
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which absolutely i always thought that
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was really cool so i think that i'd like
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to encourage our viewers and i think
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maybe you would as well sometimes just
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going down the pinterest hole for a
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while and you know looking and getting
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those creative juices going and looking
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at re like purposing repurposing hutches
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or whatnot and just getting those things
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flowing
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and then looking at the pieces that you
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have in your house to see if we can make
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or you can make them uh more appealing
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to you and and if there's something that
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you've inherited or you need to
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repurpose which is happening quite a lot
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um maybe there's a way to fit that in
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somewhere as opposed to
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sending it to a landfill fill or you
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know thrift sending it to a thrift store
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maybe you want to keep that piece
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oh absolutely and i recently posted on
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my facebook page
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a beautiful pink
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hutch
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and it's very plain but you know the the
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person painted it pink and what they did
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that just blew my mind was they took the
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back off
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so when they put it up against the wall
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you saw the wall behind it and it was
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amazing
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you know to look at it because
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you know with the back on it it looks so
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much bigger but once you remove the back
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it just looked
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smaller and it looks so much more modern
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and how they you know you place all your
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items on your shelves again you know
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you've got that piece why not do
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something with it something different
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than you normally would have done
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absolutely i concur i've definitely seen
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that type of piece as well well sue i
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think that we've given our viewers
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hopefully a lot of ideas um i would
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encourage people to send me pictures if
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you're doing redoing stuff i'm sure sue
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and i would love to see it
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i send sue pictures all the time
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whether she likes it or not she gets
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pictures from me because i'm i'm always
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finding different things
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yeah
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and so we're finding always finding
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different things and it's just a matter
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of um you know putting your imagination
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to work and like i said i find that the
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creativity and getting those juices
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flowing actually helps me be more
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creative in my day job in my in what i
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do for work so that's always helpful so
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thanks so much for joining me today i
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really appreciate it
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thank you such a pleasure as always evie
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that's it for artful aging today i hope
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that you have found value today if you
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if you have please like and share us on
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your networks i'm sure there's lots of
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people in your life that are are
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tasked with repurposing items and a
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little bit loss and now you've got the
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tool to say hey what about trying this
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again i hope you enjoy your day from me
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to all of you i hope that you have a
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wonderful wednesday
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