Charming Corner Hutch Makeover: My DIY Guide To Painting An Antique Finish

I recently gave my corner hutch a makeover, and I wanted to share the aged antique finish painting process with you!

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Last week I shared some fun new antique finds, one of them being this beautiful European pine hutch that we got for our dining room space! This piece sort of sparked some changes in our dining room, and I just thought it would be fun to show you guys what I’ve been up to this week and the changes that we have made, specifically the antique finish we gave to our corner hutch!

After we brought in this beautiful pine hutch, it was a little too tight of a fit with the shelves on either side. I knew they would need to be cut down, but the main thing that was bugging me was the corner hutch on the opposite side of the room. It felt like there was a little too much brown going on in my dining room, and it needed a makeover.

This corner hutch has been through a lot of makeovers over the last several years, but I think this makeover may be my favorite! I gave the hutch an aged antique finish that adds so much character and charm to the piece.

Before we get into how I transformed this furniture piece, let’s take a look back at the transformations my hutch has been through. These are some old photos I took with my phone after purchasing it off of Facebook Marketplace. The first color was a dark, almost black color that definitely didn’t fit the neutral aesthetic of my home.

I painted it three different shades, changed out the hardware accents, and restyled the shelves but I still was not in love with the second color. I knew the entire piece needed a fresh coat of paint, so I began looking into new colors for a more natural look.

First, I primed the entire cabinet with Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer. It’s a great primer that adheres to any surface. I love using this brush whenever I paint. The handle is short and made of rubber and just plain genius and so comfortable to use. Next, I gave the whole hutch two coats of “Kingsport Gray” by Benjamin Moore. I used a latex paint finish, but I would definitely recommend using chalk paint to avoid having to sand and prime.

I really do love this color, but I wanted to give my corner hutch an antique painted look, and knew it was time for yet another makeover to give the space more balance with the antique pine hutch. I love chippy old furniture and wanted to see if I could achieve this look myself with some DIY.

I kept thinking about the color blue in this space and I happened to have some Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in the color Aviary, which is really awesome paint that I’ve used once before. You take the powder in the bag and you mix it with water to create your own consistency. You can make it as thin or as thick as you like, and add as much pigment as you’d like.

If you want to start thin, the recipe states to use one tablespoon of the powder to one tablespoon of water equal parts. I decided to do two tablespoons of water an one part milk paint because I wanted a sort of thin, uneven authentic coat of paint on my corner hutch.

As soon as I started painting it blue, I have to admit, I loved it immediately. I thought it was the right choice and I was so excited for this DIY project! I love the fact that it was uneven and some of the brown was still coming through the blue paint.

It was still just a bit too uneven with just one coat though, and I started to study older pieces of furniture on Pinterest and Google to get some inspiration on my next steps. I didn’t want to do a full second coat, so I searched primitive blue furniture to see where the natural wear and tear would be.

One thing I noticed right away is that on a lot of antique painted pieces, certain parts of the paint were more faded than others. For this antiquing process, I took some plain white paint and mixed it with water and added the mixture to some of the raised areas on the corner hutch.

I noticed that in any area where there was a panel, there were deeper grooves that always looked a bit darker likely from dirt and oil settling in them. I took some dark wax by Annie Sloan (one of my favorites) and just slightly touched up some of the cracks and crevices. I recommend using paint brushes specifically made for wax paint to apply your wax, but old rags will work too. If you get a little heavy handed with it, a magic eraser works great to touch it up.

I tried to be light handed on distressing the corner hutch because I didn’t want it to look too faux. I distressed a few areas where I thought natural distressing would occur, mostly the corners of doors and where you grab the handles on the dresser drawers. I usually use basic sand paper to distress furniture.

Speaking of handles, I switched from an oil rubbed bronze knob to wood knobs, and distressed the wood with 120 grit sandpaper. The piece was really starting to come together, but I knew it needed just a little more of an antique finish.

I took some very dark brown acrylic paint (make sure you seal your furniture after using acrylic) and mixed it with water to give the entire piece a thin coat of watered down dark brown paint. It gave the entire corner hutch an authentic antique finish that I really love.

Well friends, I hope you are feeling inspired to give the aged antique finish a try! I think my corner hutch turned out so beautifully and the blue really adds to much to my dining space.

It’s such a lovely pop of blue and makes so much more sense with my new antique pine hutch. Let me know what you think in the comments!

PIN IT FOR LATER!