Are you a yard saler?
Have you ever been minding your very own business driving down the road with cute hair and red lipstick and flip flops and Taylor Swift?
And then?
You saw the very thing that made your heart beat faster and eyes blink 17 times and hands reflexively grip and un-grip the steering wheel to the beat of the siren’s song?
Your name might not have been on it, but you knew it was sending you an engraved invitation because it called your name from the street corner.there it was in all its glory.
Shining in all its fluorescent, hand-markered, arrowed glory.
A multi-family yard sale sign.
You follow the sign.
You twist and turn and lose your way and find it again and get back on track and finally arrive at the driveway with all of its wonderful treasures on display for the world to purchase.
And sometimes? There’s nothing there but a stack of old t-shirts and a broken washer and 45 glass vases with the leaves of old flower arrangements still stuck to the sides.
And sometimes?
There’s this.
The yard sale lottery jack pot.
When I first found this hutch all those multi-family yard sale signs ago, it looked nothing like this.
I don’t have a before picture. I wish I did because it would make you love it even more. I discovered it in the very back of someone’s garage that was hosting a yard sale. The hutch wasn’t for sale. They were using it for display and it was covered with tools and buckets and nails and old cans with emblazoned with pictures of tomatoes. It was dark and stained and broken and weary and just trying to hold its head up and sell produce labels.
But I knew.
I looked at its cheekbones and saw a supermodel.
I dragged it home and sanded it off and painted it blue with ivy vines and pronounced it beautiful.
I moved it from our first house to our next house and painted it white.
I drove it across the country to Kentucky and at first, I painted it a darker gray than this (SW Anonymous) and one day on the way out the door to book club—I distressed it.
Then I moved it into the kitchen and repainted it this gray.
People always ask me what color gray it is.
The color doesn’t have a name.
It’s all the colors of the projects that went before. I
I painted it one day with five different colors of paint from the workshop.
A little SW Mindful Gray and a little SW Repose Gray and a little SW Rice Grain and a few other friends.
I didn’t overthink it.
I just painted a little of this and a little of that. I’d walk away and let a coat dry and then come back with a new color.
Until finally I arrived at this.
It just seemed right that the hutch have its very own unique paint color—as incredible and wonderful and amazing as it is.
I’m so happy I was yard saling that day.
I’m so happy I turned at that sign.
And I’m so happy I found a hutch…
….that had me from the very first tomato label. 🙂
I love garage sales!! One day I looked around as a friend complimented me on my decorating and I realized it had ALL nearly come from garage sales!! I've moved to the mountains and there are hardly ever any! So sad 😢
What a great story! I love that hutch every time you feature it in a story. The color and the unassuming lines let the dishes and displays be the focus. Have you ever noticed that sometimes the furniture competes with the transfer ware or the ironstone? Thanks for sharing!
Definitely a wonderful hutch...and the color is perfect!
Beautiful piece with a great story of finding it and then loving it with paint. Once again, you told us not to "overthink" it. I followed your advice yesterday. I had been overthinking a porch decoration pie pan project since the spring. Yesterday, I just dove in, got out the burlap ribbon, black ribbon with white polka dots and some floral wire and did it! I put together the project, hung it on the back deck posts, and I am quite pleased with myself! Thanks for the inspiration and push--"don't overthink it."
I love this piece SO much! It is beautiful and simple at the same time! When you repaint furniture do you sand the former finish down or just repaint on the top of it?
I like that you mixed paints! When overseas, I mixed up craft paints with chalky whitewash to aore our home apartments. Glad to know there are other creative women out there who do that too. Now about your styling...I am going to copy you as soon as I figure out where to put the stuff that in there now. HAve a wonderful day.
I became creative out of necessity. My husband and I did not make much money and I shopped yard sales!
Oh Karianne, (I am singing your name with a trill in my voice here, hehehe) I do love the "knights in shining armor" now. BWAHAHAH. Do have such fun for the rest of the summer and yes indeed, some of our pieces need their very own unique colour! My garlic partner says that my goodies are not to be touched until he ha have everything I have picked up appraised when I die. Sheesh, nice to know the family has plans for me already, BWHAHAH. 'til the next time, Linda
The Mother Load! Each picture of how you've decorated it was so fun and elegant at the same time. Love it!
What a great find that hutch is and so lucky it had you to rescue it! Who ever had it in the back of their garage covered in what-have-yous obviously didn't see the same beauty in it that you did. And now it can live happily-ever-after with you and your family. It's a furniture rescue story!
Fun post, KariAnne. I've always admired this hutch/cabinet. The layering of colors is just beautiful!
Girl, you AMAZE me! I love it! Thank you so much for sharing it with us and reminding "me" to not over-think things! Awesome.....just AWESOME!!!!
KariAnne, you are just such a hoot! I'm not so much of a yard saler (can't seem to get my glorious self up AND out for that whole worm thing) but I love our thrift shop here in town and a couple of second hand/antique stores where I'very found some amazing things. I just love coming home with something and having hubby," say oh no how much was that?" And telling him, "ALL this was $6.50!" I love it AND he loves it. Good for you! Keep getting the "ugly" and making it beautifully yours.😊🐝
Ohhh, this yummy hutch is such a favorite of mine!! xoxo
That hutch is gorgeous. What a find. Congratulations. I love the Fall theme you have displayed. Marilyn
It was just waiting for it's awsome moment. AND TA! DA!! That moment has arrived! And you helped it! You are a miracle worker. That is a special talent, you know. Seeing beautfy where others just look right passed the incredible lines and all the potential. But rooms talk to you so it must be that furniture does too. Have a great day. 🤗
I love garage sales and the hutch is the best find. Isn't it fun to create a custom color? I do it all of the time. The hutch looks amazing.
I'm not a garage saler but your story makes me want to be! You always take me on an adventure I'd never do at this stage in life! Your hutch is gorgeous........just perfect for your farm house!
Looking around... all of the furniture pieces are quite old but in excellent shape. Inherited, estate sales, thrift stores, yard sales, Craig's list plus fabulous things from friends whose children and grandchildren didn't want them.
I'd love garage sales if I could just get up and remember I needed to be out there early. We have scored some really cool things though. My favorite? The light over the dining room table. I should do a post on it. Love your hutch. What did you manage to talk them into selling it to you for? Worth every penny!
I love yard sales too and like you, I'm forever the optimist -- I always assume I'll find a treasure when most of the time, I don't. But I think it's the thrill of the hunt, and treasures like your hutch or my hutch that's in my dining room that I paid just $10 that keep us going! You just never know what might be hiding behind that chicken shed or in that garage!!
I'm only a reader and never leave comments... but I'm eating lunch at my desk while in the office and when I read "I looked at its cheekbones and saw a supermodel"...I almost spit out my lunch from laughing out loud! TOO FUNNY. I LOVE a good yard sale too!
I love the story of your hutch and its 9 lives! If only it could talk and tell you its story from the beginning .... I'm thinking of it as a 'she' ... and I'm sure she loves the way she's been styled in her many different "outfits." So lovely.
I love this hutch. And I always love the story behind the piece. So glad you have given it its very own color. So appropriate. I can only imagine the rest of its story! Keep on loving it!!
It's a great find. I never find anything like that at yard sales. I think you have to sort through a lot of junk to find that wonderful diamond in the rough but you sure did polish it up and I can see why it's your favorite. It displays your dishes beautifully.
I am obsessed with this hutch! I love all the different ways you have decorated it over the seasons. I would love to have a piece of furniture like this. Thanks for the inspiration!
I'm so relieved, that repainting a piece of furniture a billion times isn't some sort of illness that I need therapy for. Love the hutch and the color!