7 Simple Steps to Style a Hutch

Have a hutch that needs a little facelift? All you need is a little inspiration, a few white plates and these simple steps to style a hutch.

I have been trying to collect brown transferware for the last several years.

It’s been a hunt.

I’ve looked at yard sales and estate sales and thrift stores and my mother’s cabinets.

But with all that hunting? This is the entirety of my collection.

2 brown plates.

Sigh.

Who knew brown transferware was such a challenge? Blue and white transferware? That’s easy. That’s everywhere.

But I had about given up on the whole brown transferware thing.

Until.

Until I found this.

// brown transferware set //

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Look at this beautiful (affordable) vintage-looking set of transferware.

And guess where I got it?

WALMART.

I know? Right? I guess the Pioneer Woman heard my pleas and created this brown transferware set just for me. The set comes with four bowls, four plates and four salad plates.

You can see it here.

It arrived yesterday and I knew that I wanted to use it to makeover the hutch in the family room for spring.

Just in case you were wondering, this is not Extreme Makeover: The Hutch Edition.

No laser wrinkle removing.

No hair extensions.

Nothing drastic.

It’s just a mini refresh.

Here are 7 simple tips I used to decorate this hutch.

7 Simple Steps to Style a Hutch

1. Take everything off the shelves

I know.

I get it.

It sounds counterintuitive.

But sometimes it’s really hard to see the hutch forest for the trees. You need a blank slate to help you figure it out. So let’s start our hutch styling with taking everything off the shelves. Then stand back and take a good look at that hutch.

Isn’t it so cute?

Pat your hutch on the back.

It’s about to get even cuter.

2. Change your hardware

This is one of the simplest things you can do to make your hutch even cuter.

Hobby Lobby and Anthropologie are two of my favorite places to find hardware that’s unusual and fun and creative and inexpensive.

When I’m in doubt about the hardware?

I usually stay neutral like these crystal knobs.

/ handmade wood houses //

3. Add height

This is the first step I take whenever I style a hutch.

It’s just hutch common sense.

If you lined the shelves of your hutch with bowls and stacked plates and you never added anything to the back of the hutch it would look empty. This hutch is a little challenging because the back of the bottom shelf is so tall.

I took all that beautiful brown transferware and added it to the back of the hutch

Here are a few simple tips for adding height to your hutch:

plate holders
simply add plate holders to the back of your plates and hang them up on the hutch
add oversized platters to the back of the hutch
add two plates (a larger and a smaller plate) to give smaller plates height

4. Stack it up

Don’t just think about the back of the hutch for height.

Think about height with what you are adding to the shelves.

I add stacks of plates and stacks of bowls. The stack makes it easy to get everything at the right height.

/ handmade wood houses //

5. Keep it odd

When placing things on your hutch, you want to add things in odd numbers.

Some people call this the rule of threes.

(total aside: but really—between us? Why stop at three?)

I’m not really sure why, but odd numbers just make everything look better. Add three bowls on this side and five plates on this side and add pitchers in groups of three.

/ handmade wood houses //

6. Add an organic element

When I decorate the hutch, I shop the yard (or sometimes the fridge).

I added this tree next to the hutch to give it a little greenery. I’m also thinking (after looking at all these pictures) that I might add little sprigs of greenery in some of the pitchers on the shelves to make it feel more like spring.