Thrift Store Finds: Decorating and Styling a Hutch

January 18, 2023

Do you love to decorate with thrift store finds? Here’s one of my favorite thrift store finds and how I styled it in my entryway.

It’s easy to make thrift store finds look like high end pieces with a little styling and some decorating tips.

A while back I was visiting my friend and we were laughing and telling each other that we forgot how much we loved stirrup pants and that Saved By the Bell was the best show in the universe and that we couldn’t believe scrunchies are even a thing again.

And mid-hair accessory conversation, I noticed her table.

It was chippy and distressed and had character and personality and joie de vivre. I told her it was amazing and that all tables should get in line behind it and asked her where she got it. She looked down and avoided my gaze.

As if she was sad. As if she didn’t want to talk. As if she was embarrassed to answer the question.

Then timidly, quietly, softly she said, “I got it at a thrift store.”

What?

That beautiful, wonderful, incredible, fifth-avenue-looking table came from a thrift store?

And she was embarrassed?

NEVER.

Did she read my blog? Did she know I shop the side of the road? Did she know I brake for yard sale signs? I told her I already thought the table was amazing and standing-ovation awesome, but when she told me it came from a thrift store….

…it made me love it even more.

That’s the thing about thrift store shopping. You never know what you’re going to find.

Sometimes it’s lame.

Sometimes it’s amazing.

But it’s always worth it. Especially when you find something like this.

This gray hutch in my entry is one of my favorite thrift store finds.

It was $75 at our local Habitat ReStore here in McKinney.

If you live within two hours of McKinney? This is my favorite thrift store. The furniture selection is incredible—there’s an entire warehouse FULL of furniture and lighting and vintage finds.

All waiting to be found.

By me.

It was damaged when we bought it and there were glass shelves and the wood needed a little TLC. We patched it with wood filler and sanded it down and replaced the glass shelves with wood shelves.

And painted it Mindful Gray SW 7016.

If you are looking for other gray paint suggestions? Here are a few of my favorite gray paints.

For a while, this hutch lived large in my entryway.

But then?

It started collecting things. This is what it looked like a little while ago. It was full of all the things from different decorating projects that were all jumbled together.

Yikes.

I’m not really sure how this happened.

I kept adding and adding and adding and oh wait…adding some more.

I’d walk by it and close my eyes and every now and then I’d add one more glass vase to the mix.

And yes.

Those are Christmas packages sitting on top of the hutch that I’m trying to pass off as if they are happy birthday presents for January.

Until.

Until now.

When I had HAD ENOUGH.

It started like all really good decorating projects do.

With a frenetic removal of everything.

It’s so much easier that way. You have a blank slate and you’re not distracted by the vases or the number boxes or the birthday presents.

If you love to decorate with thrift store finds like me and you have a hutch like this that needs a makeover?

Let me show you how I did it.

Thrift Store Finds: Decorating and Styling a Hutch

1. When decorating with thrift store finds–add vertical

When decorating a hutch or other thrift store find, it’s important to start with the vertical spaces first.

If you look back at the before picture, all of these platters were in the hutch, but they were off-center and hidden by other larger items in the space.

I brought them out and put them center stage.

These platters and plates add a backdrop to the painted gray background of the hutch.

2. Then add books

Next? I added books.

I love vintage books.

I love to cover books.

When adding your books, you want to create a random, symmetrical pattern. I know that’s an oxymoron, but it’s true. You want your shelves to have a mix of different types of books. Some flat. Some stacked. Some layered. Some tilted.

But you want there to be a pattern to the randomness.

Does that make sense?

3. Then fill in the holes

I edited out the stuff that was already in the hutch and layered it in.

Here are a few fun ideas for layering:

add a vase to the top of a stack of books
add a vintage stack of books as bookends
place a whiteware container in front of a group of books
stack several books next to a pitcher
set several books at angles instead of simply straight up and down

4. Keep everything in the same color palette

I know.

I get it.

When did our hutches start having color palettes?

It’s just so much easier to decorate and edit what goes into a hutch if everything in the hutch is in a similar color palette.

If neutral isn’t your thing, here are some other options for this hutch that would work:

blue and white dishes with whiteware
red and khaki books with wood accents
wooden boxes with fiesta ware
brightly patterned dishes with accents of greenery

To make it easier and take the guesswork out of accessorizing a hutch—-I put together some accessories for a neutral color palette and a blue and white color palette that work together.