If there is one piece of furniture that never goes out of style,  is diverse in all it’s many purposes and can be embellished with a cornucopia of fresh, creative decor, it is the ever famous, beloved and charming HUTCH!   For me, our hutches speak loudly of home,  history, collections and hobbies, create the MOOD of our room, display delectable hot cuisine, celebrate the joyous wealth of our adored seasons, create great conversations, bring froth “the perfect lighting,” to add to the ambiance of our rooms, and say, WELCOME, take your shoes off, get comfy and stay awhile! 🙂

There is nothing quite as warm , inviting and cozy as a ‘Country Cottage Hutch.” 🙂

The DISTINGUISHED QUOTE CORNER:

“Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there.” ~ Alek Sander Hemon

“Winter is the time for comfort, good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for talking beside the fire: It is the TIME FOR HOME.” ~ Edith Smith…. (Talking beside the hutch is warm and cozy too! 🙂

“Home is the nicest word there is.” ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“A man travels the world over, in search of what he needs and returns HOME to find it.” ~ George Augustus Moore

” If ever I go looking for my hearts desire again, I will not look any further than my own backyard . Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” ~ L. Frank Baum, The wonderful Wizard of Oz.

“There is no place like home.”  ~ L. Frank Baum

It is so true…Home is where the heart is. Whether it is your favorite hutch bedecked with all the things you love, your romantic or blue and white bedroom, the cozy kitchen, luxurious bathroom or the person or people who reside there with you that have captured your heart... they all are your HOME. I love the movie under the Tuscan Sun by Francis Mayes. In the end of the film, Diane Lane, (playing Francis in the movie,) makes a comment I will never forget.She says, ( as she is summing up her life in her new home in Tuscany, Italy; “What are four walls anyway? They are what they contain…the house protects the dreamer, unthinkable things can happen, even if it is late in the game. It is such a surprise.”  If you saw the movie you would know that yes, it was the romantic Villa that caught her eye, but it was the people who helped her renovate it along with her neighbors and new friends who became her family and made her house her home.  Just seeing that movie and reading the novella makes me want to live in Tuscany…especially the way Italians celebrate such wondrous  cuisine and  camaraderie. ( I just do not care for all the scorpions!)  🙂

Though our homes  truly are the people we love and abide with, it is also a place where our joys and memories tarry… Some of our felicity and blissfulness linger  in the very things we have picked up a long the way…Each piece of furniture my husband and I have, has either come from an inheritance, (thus bringing back many cherished memories from our family and origins,) or pieces we have chosen and purchased together. Our havens  are a  delightful hodgepodge of collections, a mixture of the old and new…and for me, our hutches, (we have three of them,) have so much history and are so diverse within their architecture, they are some of my favorite pieces of furniture in our home.. ) And oh- so- much- fun to decorate.) 🙂 Remember I shared with you that for some, “Less is more?”  Then there are those where “More is more.” OK, I am  one of the More is more people. 🙂  (Just a heads up!) 🙂

Here is one of my favorite hutches within our home…This is it ” Before.” 🙂

This is the hutch “After.”

This antique Spanish hutch is nestled in our “romantic style” bedroom. It is a hutch that sets the mood for our room...  I inherited  it from a family member. Because so much of my decor style is Victorian and country-cottage, I took the ‘vision’ I had inside of my heart, and created the hutch the way I wanted it to look. (Spanish architecture is not my decor style.)  For others, their style would be completely different, creating their inner ‘expression’ that makes them happy, revealing their personality. That is why decorating is so personal.

 

This next hutch brings forth the great idea of displaying beloved heirlooms... Our hutch is a showcase for all of our treasured gifts from gladsome travels. It is also the perfect place to show off our collections, whether it be antique tea sets, family silver, crystal stemware, sea shell collections or antediluvian and timeless china. Whatever makes you happy, dauntlessly take it out of your boxes and display it for every eye to behold. I guarantee you that you will find yourself smiling and remembering many happy and endearing memories everyday.

 

These next hutches are definitely  a conversation piece  and will have everyone asking you the questions, (where did you get this? How old is it? Is it European? French?)  Whether you have one item displayed upon it’s stunning and elegant shelves or a myriad of countless, treasured trinkets, it will be ‘the center of attention’ in any room you place it.   The regal woods, articulate designs, and appearance is anything but simple and ordinary…both hutches are exceedingly ornate and stunning! Perfect in a dining room or Living room. I would display topiary trees, dishes, photographs, or my collection of coffee table books on these exquisite  hutches.

 

This lovely hutch is an ideal way to add cozy lighting in your room. Many hutches have lights built within them and lowering the wattage creates a softer, more romantic glow. Candle light is very cozy and heartwarming. I always place votive or tea light candles on my hutches and not only do they enhance the charm of the hutch, but our entire room. For a different look, interlace tiny, miniature white lights within grapevine or floral garlands draped upon  your hutch to create a soft, amber glow and create a fairy- tale-like ambiance.

 

One of my favorite ways to display and embellish our hutches is to decorate them for each of  the four glorious seasons. Every winter, summer, autumn and spring, I can hardly wait to get out my seasonal decor and work away, creating and  bringing the season to life, enhancing the beautify of our hutches as well as our rooms.  I still have not decided my favorite holiday to decorate our hutches. My decision changes every season. 🙂 It is so hard to compare the beauty and majesty of Christmas to the the time of harvest, changing leaves and kaleidoscopic colors when autumn arrives in all it’s charm with so many fabulous and creative ideas. 🙂

For summer, fresh flowers, blue and white china, ivory tea pots, topiary trees, candles and decorative items that are light and airy are ideal for dressing up our hutches. Also, seasonal fruits, a summer wreath, crystal stemware with your favorite Chardonnay tucked away in a Tera-cotta wine holder, sea shells, or great summer novellas make for great decor.  Create summer and it’s buoyant and canty beauty  upon your hutches lovely and intricate shelves.

 

The autumn season with  it’s abundance of golden hues of reds, yellows, gilded golds, browns and purple, remind every guest as well as your family that fall has finally arrived. Cooler nights, natures bounty of color returning to our neighborhoods and pumpkin carving parties, trips to the Renaissance Fair, visits to the Apple festivals and Oktoberfest gala’s are right around the corner.

I  decorate our hutches with pumpkins, fall garlands, autumn scented candles, warm rich china of golds and sage or hunter green, scarecrows, red apples, cranberry-red roses, fresh green garlands with shimmering  lights and miniature pumpkins placed within the hanging greens. Petite gourds and  dried autumn flowers are also decor that will create  coziness and catch the eye of your family and guests.

 

In the delightful winter season, Christmas is my all out ‘celebration time’ of the year so I go absolutely crazy with my decor. These next hutches are both subtle and jubilant as they gesture to our hearts to greet the arrival of the new season of joy and glad tidings. Whether with creamy Lenox china, bright bows, fresh greens, candle lights, small topiary trees, wintry holiday themed plates, Christmas china or red berries, display all of your favorite Christmas collections upon your august and  enchanting hutch.

 

 

Lastly, our beloved Spring! There is an abundance of decor for spring time. These hutches invite this awesome season in and persuades all of it’s colorful beauty to stay around for awhile. You can never go wrong with ceramic bunnies, (whether in white, pastel or earthy, rich colors,)  topiary trees, fresh flowers, blue and white china, an abundance of fresh greens and the mixture of yellows and whites. Why are the colors yellow and white, when mixed together so alluring and beautiful? White is representative of purity, goodness, innocence, and considered to be the color of perfection. Yellow is cheerful, jovial, warm and represents hope…combine them together and you can feel this duo’s  gracious gift of serenity to the soul.

 

Have you ever thought or heard of a ‘hutch for the garden?’ Yes, now there are hutches to place outside for garden tools and accessories.  They really are quite charming.  Of course the  number one decor item for these quaint creations are natures bounty, fresh flowers… (Maybe sneak in a few bunnies, ducks or squirrels. 🙂

 

Another purpose for the ingenious creation of the ‘hutch’ is a place for our men to place some of their favorite things, trophies, photographs or maybe even a TV? Yes, It is going to be in their study or ‘man cave’ so leave it up to them to create and decorate in their own style…(In our home, my husbands study is off limits to my fingers 🙂 )

 

One of my favorite types of hutches is the kitchen nook hutch…It adds so much warmth and coziness to the kitchen. Some great decorative ideas are cookbooks, everyday china, adorable ceramic chefs, dried flowers, decorative tea towels, hot cocoa mugs, colorful candies in authentic candy jars…the list goes on and on. These hutches are not only decorative, but very useful!

 

The Dining room hutch is probably  the most popular, as many of the dining room sets that you purchase are accompanied by a matching hutch.  This hutch is another prosaic piece of furniture and is usually filled with fine china’s, leaded crystal,  china tea pots, and family silver. I enhance my hutch with bunnies, winsome wreaths, a “Bistro” throw, decorative painted plates as well as votive and tea light candles.

Another popular dining room addition to the hutch or in some cases, within your hutch, is the old fashioned sideboard. This is a place to display all of your cuisine before and while you are dining.

The hutch in this photograph is in back of this gorgeous table!

 

All of your hutches in the dining room that have a bottom shelf that is not glassed in or closely connected with an upper-shelf, can be used as a sideboard. You have two other options.Go shopping and purchase  for yourself, a new, authentic and gallant sideboard, (that would make for a  ‘supper-fun’ shopping day,) 🙂 or you can also add a ‘homemade’ sideboard to your dining room. I am blessed to have a  hutch that has a ample sized lower shelf that I use as a sideboard. I also use an ornate, cherry wood, antique dresser that I inherited from my parents, (the first piece of furniture they bought when they got married in 1945.)  It is covered with an elegant, embroidered table runner and lends me extra space so that I may display my side-dishes, casseroles, salads, bread, coffee carafe, ice tea and desserts. These hutches above are very classy , cozy as well as  convenient.

Here are just a few of the foods you can place on your hutch (or sideboard,)  to help you with serving…Have fun! (And take time to enjoy your cuisine, company and newly embellished hutch.)  🙂

Whether you are out looking for that perfect hutch, have one that needs restoration out in the garage, (maybe it’s perfect for your garden hutch,) or you have several hutches that need a ‘little dressing up’, I hope that this blog has brought you inspiration and some wonderful ideas. It has for me!

Happy Hutch Creating!

PHOTOGRAPHS:  In Placing your computer mouse upon any of the graphics or photos, it will display where the pictures originated from.

LINKS: will be arriving soon.