Dorothy and Alice think that they're helping.
The filth and stink was remedied with a good scrubbing and sitting it in the sunshine for a few days.
I discovered while I was working on the hutch last winter (in my dining room, using the dining table as a workbench, because it was too cold at the time to paint in my basement workshop), that it is a perfect match for our Blue Buffet ... except the hutch is oak and the buffet is maple.
The hutch and buffet were both made by Cochrane.
The body of the hutch is Annie Sloan's 'Paris Grey', and the inside is 'Old White' ... very lightly distressed and clear waxed. I stripped the oak top and refinished it with clear oil-based polyurethane for durability, and replaced the colonial-style fake brass hardware with brushed nickel knobs and bin-pull handles.
This hutch was one of the stars of my booth at the Lucketts Fair last May. I wish I had kept count of how many people were lured into the booth and ooohed and aahhhed over it ... saying that the hutch was beautiful, my price was fantastic, then walking away. My husband is an expert salesman, and even HE couldn't convince anyone to take it home with them. At the end the weekend, the hutch came back home with us. (To be fair, I wasn't the only one with this problem. There was very little actual buying going on at last year's fair, according to the other vendors that I talked with, and a lot of us took home pieces that we had been certain would sell quickly. Live and learn.)
That little vanity with the Bakelite handles is still available, too.
The hutch was stored in the living room before the Fair, and it returned to the same spot afterward ... and there it sat for months and months ... and I went on to other things.
Last month, in the spirit of continuing to work on finishing what I start, I listed the hutch on Craigslist to see what would happen. In about a week, I received an email from a nice lady who was very interested in buying it. Bad weather and scheduling conflicts got in the way for a while, but we remained in contact via email and telephone and we finally worked out a day when she could come by. She loved it, of course, and she told me that it is exactly what she has been looking for! It's a small world, because this little hutch now lives in the same neighborhood as my parents, around the corner and about two blocks away.
I still have a lot of leftover stuff in the basement and garage from when I was painting and selling. Getting a large item like this hutch out of the house is an accomplishment ... baby steps, one thing at a time, finish what I start ... I'm working on it.
