When Mrs. Out of Money meets Mr. Creative

It all started with a plain white bookcase that came out of a friends colonial house.  They had it sitting in their driveway, possibly headed for the dump.  25 bucks and 20 minutes later it had a new home at the Gilded Barn.  A coat of black paint did wonders!  We figured it would be a while before we could have the lower piece made to make it look like a hutch so as you know the Cowboy raised it up on fence post to put in place until we could finish it.  Then out of the blue some other friends decide to renovate their kitchen and they were hauling their old oak cabinets to the dump!  Hold on! Load 'em up and get 'em to the Barn!

The Cowboy lined them up to see if the upper cabinets would fit. A match made in heaven! (Not many lower cabinets and they are going in Cait's kitchenette upstairs).  Ok so next order of business.  Tie the pieces together, add feet, remove hardware......

 Three cabinets hooked together made the perfect size base for the base of the "hutch"

A couple of coats of spackle to get rid of the seams where the cabinets are joined.

Holes filled where the old hardware was since the knobs will now need to be at the top of the door.

WHAAAAAAT?! Is that a nail gun sitting on top of my vintage linens?!

I leave for a few minutes and the Cowboy gets really creative and cuts one of the cabinets down so that along with another one they can fit perfectly in the corner right up to the old sink.  No feet underneath makes it sit lower than the "hutch".  Nice work!

The first coat of paint goes on.  I'm so excited!!!!!!!  A plywood top with a plain trim is added to give me a base to work with to create a thick faux "Carerra Marble" slab.

The Cowboy puts in new shelf liner so that I can start putting things away.  I know, he's a regular Renaissance man.

And.......VOILA!  A lovely old hutch.  I'm hoping to soon be able to enclose the pantry and install the antique swinging doors from an old local pharmacy no longer in business.  When it's done this is what you see when you walk in.

You can see how the corner sits back nicely.

Just a little lower. Perfect!

I think the coffee maker will go here along with shelves up above to hold all the white coffee mugs.

So much room!

So much Storage!

Finally out of the boxes and ready for use.  And yes I do use every bit of it.  Regularly.  I refuse to use paper plates and we always use the vintage linen napkins.  I love to serve food in pretty dishes even if it's just us for everyday.

Vintage linen napkins washed and folded, ready to be used.

Vintage silverware ready for service next to French bistro water carafes.

A very old French cake pedestal. I guess I'd better bake something.

So nice to see it all and so fun to use!

We estimated that between the cost of the bookcase, the plywood, paint,feet and knobs we spent about 90 dollars.  Worth every penny!