Hutch Stylings

One of the earlier projects in my kitchen was styling my china hutch.  I was never really satisfied with the styling in our old townhouse and I set out to create something eclectic with a twist of country cottage.  First, I laid out all my china pieces, which I had personally escorted to our new home at approximately 30 miles per hour to make sure nothing broke!

For the top I leaned my vintage Minnesota map and put my ball canning jar on one side and my electric insulators on the other.  This created an asymmetrical look with pale shades of blue to tie in all the pieces and create some cohesion.  I hung my wine glasses from the top and displayed some crystal bowls and blue serving plates to create some balance since the rest of the shelves below would be asymmetrical.    

I started with my biggest and tallest pieces as bases to ground the design. 

After a lot of tweaking and re-arranging I filled in the rest of the pieces until it looked just right.  Somewhere between proper and disarray.  I wanted it to look not too prim and proper, but not haphazard enough to where it looked like I just threw the dishes in there. 

Then I hated it.  Something was just….off.  I decided that the bottom looked too heavy, while the top looked bright and airy with all the glassware.  I flipped the 2^nd and 3^rd shelf and as a result came up with a more balanced look! 

I definitely enjoyed all the small details of the piece, but there was one more big addition in store for my little hutch to make it complete.  Check back in this week to see the finished hutch!