The $5 Hutch transformation

So, I have this china hutch. You've probably seen it before on my blog, as I use the top of it for my seasonal decorating. Here's the thing about the hutch:

I actually HATE this piece of furniture.

Oh, it's useful--it provides a lot of display/storage space inside, and the horizontal space up top is perfect for holiday displays and keeping items away from *little* hands. But I think it's just really, really ugly. It was a hand-me-down from some friends from before we got married eight years ago, and I think they probably owned it for at least that long before it came to us. When we got married I was happy to get it because I had no furniture and  it was FREE, and I really didn't have much of a decorating style anyway so it didn't matter to me what it looked like.

Over the last eight years I've finally developed a decorating style, and this hutch just doesn't fit into it. I've seen countless hutch transformations all over blogland, most of which involve taking a dated piece from a thrift store and transforming it with paint. Love the idea, but 1) I'm lazy and 2) my track record for getting pieces refinished within a three-year window of dragging them home is so far batting .000 and 3) I'm cheap. So, while I'm waiting to find the perfect, inexpensive vintage-style hutch to just fall into my lap, I found a way to make a quick fix for less than $5.

One of the (many) issues I have with the hutch is the mirrored interior. I use this piece to display mostly glass/crystal/silver items, and combined with the reflective mirrors, glass shelves and the abundant light that streams in from a south-facing window in the room, there was just WAY too much reflection going on. All of those shiny surfaces + light combined to make a whole lot of visual chaos, which wasn't helped by the fact that I probably had too much crammed in there in the first place.

See what I mean? Too much stuff to begin with, and the mirrors multiply everything anyway so there's no where for your eye to focus.

The fix was EASY. So easy, and required only four tools: decorative scrapbook paper, a tape measure, a paper cutter, and double-sided scrapbooking adhesive. I bought the paper from Hobby Lobby, but waited until it went 3/$1 (I'm cheap, remember?). I measured my mirrors ahead of time and did some quick math to estimate how many 12"x12" sheets I'd need to purchase. From there, it was simple: Apply tape to back of paper, adhere directly over mirror.

I had to do a tiny bit of trimming to make it fit, but I was lucky because the majority of the mirrors were just about 12" high to begin with. Where I needed to fit two sheets together, I just overlapped them slightly, and I didn't even try very hard to match up the pattern because no one will be looking that close and it will be covered up by the display items anyway (I'm lazy, remember?).

I LOVE the result! I think the non-reflective background is so much better and the neutral paper makes the items in front of it really stand out and be noticed, whereas before they just got lost in all the shine and reflection. I also removed some of the items I had in there to reduce the visual clutter even more. The black and white check goes with the decorating thing I have going on in that room right now (you can see a bit on the top of the hutch) but I think it's neutral and has enough vintage-style charm that it will go with my decor in the future as well. And hey--if I get tired of it, $5 more worth of paper will change the look again.

I like it even more at night, when there's no glare on the glass from the windows in the room and the lights inside the hutch cast a nice glow that makes the silver shine.

Is there a spot in your house where $5 worth of scrapbooking paper could make a decorating difference?