DIY Dinning Room Table and Hutch

There are a few rooms left in my house that have not been 'decorated' yet. I just threw them together with the furniture, etc. that I had either inherited or my husband and I had when we combined homes. When I retired from teaching this May I vowed to 'finish' all those rooms and make them my own. The first room I tackled was my dinning room. I did not have a lot of money to spend so it had to be thrifty and I really wanted to use some of the pieces I already had in the house, but I also wanted a dramatic new look.

With a little paint and hard work I re-decorated the whole room for around $200.00. Below I will share some the things that went into the new decor and will reveal the new room next week!

The room before with a hodge podge of stuff. The green walls were there when we moved in, the table and chairs were inherited from my aunt, and the curtains were re-purposed from my old house.


I knew I wanted a hutch and buffet to hold all my grandmothers china and milk glass pieces but I did not want to spend a fortune. My greatest thrift store find was the hutch top at Habitat for $25.00. It was in excellent shape but missing a glass shelve. The inside light still worked and I loved the detail inside. I already had the buffet base, the piece had been sitting in my entry way. The hutch top fit perfect on top of the base so I painted it a gloss black on the outside and painted the interior a taupe color to match the fabric I was using. I took off the hardware that was a brass finish and spray painted it silver to match the hardware that was on the buffet base. Once the hutch was finished no one could tell the pieces did not come together.

Next I had to decide what to do about the table. In our basement we had two old sewing bases that had belonged to my husband's grandmother. They were a little rusty but in good shape. I found a hammered metal spray paint and painted the bases and added an old glass table top I had bought over 15 years ago at an after market sale. For the cost of 4 bottles of spray paint we had a new dinning room table and I re-purposed 3 items in our house. The chairs had been part of the dinning set my aunt had left me and I painted them black and recovered them with the fabric I had picked out.

Chair before, not really my taste but my aunt did love animal prints!

Next week I will show you my new chandelier that cost under $40.00, my original wall art, and the finished product!

Take a look at what you have, always be on the look out for good finds, and be creative!