The Mariner's Hutch

UGH what a day. If today were a person it would be the woman who beats you to the grocery store cash register by barely a hair, has a cart piled to the tip top with groceries, and then insists on using ten thousands coupons on said cartful and then pays with a check.

          Nothing went the way it should today. Paint didn't adhere, or clotted, or dried too fast. I misplaced my thrice damned favorite phillip's head screwdriver fifty four times, and my workshop is a dreadful pig sty and overcrowded. And my house is a complete mess, which is amazing considering I cleaned it from stem to stern five bloody days ago. I don't have kids, But my god the mess a pair of puppies and a husband can make in that amount of time. AND I fell during a hike today and skinned my shins.

           *deep breath* So, I've done the only sane thing one can do in such a situation. I've written my husband a nice note telling him in no uncertain terms to leave me be, made myself a swimming pool sized martini, and barricaded myself in my office.

               Which brings me to this lovely solid pine hutch, which I finished and photographed today and was the only bright spot in an otherwise bitterly irritating and trying day. Well no, that's a lie, this martini is delicious. I got the hutch for free. FOR FREE. Isn't that always the best. It was on a buy/sell/trade website on Facebook and three separate people who follow the page messaged me to let me know about it. The gal I got it from couldn't have been nicer, and lived on a beautiful lane that I'd never been down before, and the day I picked it up was one of those perfect spring mornings where the sky is unbelievably blue, and the grass is absurdly green, and the tree's have that amazing purple hue that you only see in early spring, and it's all spiked by the spattering of bright cherry red tree buds. Ok sorry, the martini is making me wax poetic. Though truly, if you've never seen Connecticut in early spring, it's a wonderful thing.

                The hutch was solid pine but rough as hell. The top had warped and split in three or four places, and there were dings and chinks taken out of the fabulously chunky pine frame on all sides. I meticulously filled every single ding before sanding and prepping for paint, but there was no help for the top, so I added a new pine top with a generous overhang and beautiful grain figuring.

             Something about the solid honest construction of this piece made me want to give it a bit of a nautical twist, and so I custom mixed a deep blue that I've named 'Essex' for it. Essex, Connecticut was a hub of maritime activities in the late 18th and 19th century, and has just the same solid, stately, but slyly charming nature as this hutch. The interior is a Benjamin Moore cream that's name escapes me at the moment (martini), but is something along the lines of sugar cookie or cream puff...cotton balls? I can't remember, but aren't all color names absurd! There's another called 'Mayonnaise'. I absolutely adore the color on the chip chart but can never bring myself to buy it because, really, that's the most horrifying name ever. I could never sell a hutch coated in 'Mayonnaise'...