To Paint of Not to Paint?

I spotted this hutch on Craigslist one evening while sitting in the stands at a baseball game. Directly after the game I drove to Washington (okay so it is directly across the river) and picked it up. The people selling it were very nice. The man was concerned about scratching it and even gave me an old blanket to cover it up. I didn't have the heart to tell him I would be painting it.

I posted a picture of it on Facebook to drum up some business and several people suggested I leave it as it was. It is in pristine condition so this is an option BUT Ethan Allen decided to go cheap on the back wood panel. Because of this I decided to paint some of it and leave part of it the original wood.

I found these pieces on Pintrest as inspiration:



Pintrest

Pintrest

The piece sat in my garage for almost the entire baseball season and All Star season. I have come to understand that once baseball season starts nothing else gets done. I needed some motivation and found some when I agreed to do a big sale at the end of August. Yep, all my furniture and projects had to be done by then.

I hauled it to the sale and used it to display items. It had a clear price tag on it, but there were no bites. Much to my husband's dismay we had to drag it back home. It sat in my driveway for a week and went on Craigslist. This evening I got a call from someone about 25 miles away wondering if they could come take a look. Now usually on a Saturday night I would be out on the town (or at least hanging around a baseball field), but tonight my daughter was done with strep throat and I was playing nurse.
I snuck away for a few minutes to wipe any dust off of it and they pulled up about half an hour later.
It was a lovely young couple with his parents. They are moving in to a new home and were looking for a small china cabinet. This one was perfect. We chatted for a bit and they loaded it up and took headed out.  I was excited and knew this piece had found the perfect home.

It had a beautiful side profile:

It was painted with Annie Sloan Paris Grey and Old White. I left the top the original wood color, but added a few coats of dark wax to make it tie in better. I loved how it turned out.