Repurposed Hutch to Jewelry Cabinet

My friend and neighbor was wondering what to do with the top half of this Dresser/Hutch Combo and it had been sitting in there garage for many months. One day when we dropped by, she wondered if I wanted it. My eyes focused on the apothecary-esque drawers and I said, "Yes!" Even before that happenstance, my partner was talking to her about the jewelry sorter I made for her with a repurposed key/mail sorter. Unbeknownst to our neighbor, she was going to be getting one, soon.

For this build, I used so may hand and power tools. If you have the inspo itch, you will need something to pry, pound, measure, cut, sand, glue, stain, and polish with. I will let my pictures tell the story of what tools I used since your individual process may vary, if you are playing the home-game :)

Follow along with my thought process and problem solving with this video!

I will start of by saying that throughout this disassembly, I save the "mantle" type top and the apothecary style drawers but will not use the wood from those sections. The rest I will utilize and modify to suit this build with the mindset that, aside from stain/polish, I didn't want to spend any additional money on this.

The original hutch came from Pennsylvania House Furniture out of Lewisburg, Pa. They pride[d] themselves with their craftsmanship and I would like to do this build some justice. Granted, I do this for fun and not a profession but still. Some may call it "imposter syndrome," or "confidence dysmorphia," but I call it passion, hehe.

The first step was to get that giant backer off. This was stapled in place with 1,000 teeny tiny staples...well it seemed like that anyways. I researched it, and "they" in fact make a specific tool to take these things out. Screws were easy. I just used a drill for those (pic 2). I had to use needle nose pliers for the easy staples (pic 3-4) and for the hard/buried ones, I had to get creative and use a pry system with a small flathead and my bench knife (pic 5). After what seemed like ages, a little movement turned into a lot of movement. That was until I realized that not only was the perimeter stapled, but the shelf sections as well... More staples to remove.

At last the backer came off and I stored that away for later.

I wasn't worried about marring the edges of the backer as I knew I wouldn't need the entire thing. I can saw off the rough edges and cut out what final dimension I would need later on.

With that backer off (pic 1), I could move on to removing the shelving. I used a rubber mallet to start loosening the glue ups (pic 2). Once again, a little bit of movement soon turns into a lot of movement and eventually I got one side shelf off (pics 3-5).

I flipped that bad boy over and started working the opposite side's shelf but hit a road block. Surely, I would just have to repeat the process on the other side, right? Well, after battling and contemplating my decisions (pic 7), I took it to the garage. Time to use some more powerful tools (pic 8). I used the circular saw and a guide (pics 9-10) to knock off one side of the "mantle," and when I went to repeat it on the other side, I hit another snag. Without wanted to bind the blade (the orientations were different), I started a cut and finished with the hand saw (pic 11). Now the top was off (pic 12).

All of the railing pegs will be reutilized to hold necklaces, I decided. I didn't want to risk breaking them so the path I chose was to loosen them with the pry bar (pic 1), knock the glue loose from all angles (pic 2-3), and pull them out (pic 4). This worked extremely well and now I can move on to removing the drawers.

I waxed up the bottom of my cross cut sled (pic 5), and lined up the blade to just "kiss" the side of the drawers (pic 6). I repeated the process on the other side (pic 7) and the drawer section was mine (pic 8).

Pic 1 shows all the wood I will use to glue up the outside and pic 2 shows it milled up. My wife thought just using the long cuts by themselves would make for a small box and wouldn't hold a lot of necklaces (she knew our friend had a LOT of necklaces) and suggested I extend it a smidge (pic 3).

I drilled holes to attach some dowels in order to extend the top and bottom section (pics 4-5). I had these (pic 6) dowel centers to ensure a proper glue up and align everything properly. I stuck the center in the hole (pic 7) and tapped the mating board with my homemade recycled HDPE mallet (pic 8-9). Using a guide to help me keep my drill at 90-degrees (pic 10-11), I drilled the mating holes, inserted glue and the dowels, and glued them up. I like using the screw F-style clamps to get more clamping pressure, especially to keep the two boards as flat as possible during glue up (pic 12-14).

The next day, I cut the groove for the two side pieces to mate into (pics 15-19). Another glue up after checking for square, and we are done with that part (pic 20-21).

I used a router to ... route out the section for the back to sit. Doing this, however, leaves a roundover that needs to be chiseled out for my piece to lay (pic 1-3). Once that was accomplished this guy sat in place. I almost didn't need glue as the press fit was pretty spot on (pic 4)! I felt very accomplished then. A dry fit showed the piece is starting to come together (pic 5) but needed some sanding first (pic 6-7).

Remember when I said I didn't want to buy anything for this build? That was a lie...

Not directly but I had an idea to use a mesh I had in my shop already however the holes were too big. Fine if you only have hoop earrings but she may have studs, too, and the holes would have been too big.

New idea was to use the mesh in a mail sorter I found at my local thrift shop for $3 (pic 1). It just need to be cut and the two inner parts removed for my usage (pic 2). I used a dremmel to get those out.

SIDE NOTE: If you do something similar, IDK why, but that coating on the mail sorter stank something bad when using a rotary tool on it, so...yeah.

Now that I had two pieces (pic 3), my idea was to have it move freely on a track (pic 4). This way both sides of the necklaces would be accessible by sliding the earring door back and forth. It just needed a proper door frame.

I cut some extra sections of the backer board (pic 5) and fashioned a frame. After a glue up, the exposed ply was covered with some of the extra (I am assuming Cherry) hardwood (pics 6-9).

These pegs had two edges (pic 1) so I just used a hand pull saw to knock off one of them (pics 2-3). I wound up with 23 total so I decided to drill holes for 12 on top and 11 on bottom, staggered (pic 4-6).

The next thing to do was to glue the pegs to the back and the rails for the door on the top. BUT only the back section of the rail (pic 7)! I still had to get the door in there so measure and plan appropriately!

After a little oil and wax (pic 2) this thing was finally done. Well...Almost. I did wind up putting that Pennsylvania house patch back on the back (pic 5). This actually went over very well when I showed it to her!

Pic 1 is the star. She sent a pic two hours after delivering it to her of the completed display. She was so excited to get this repurposed and have a proper display piece to showcase her jewelry, and for that I am so happy. The only compensation I need was that reveal. I did it as a surprise gift but I know people do this type of stuff for a living / side hustle and it must be so nice to get those reactions. Especially because she even mentioned that this was her grandmother's hutch and she didn't know what to do with it. Now, she mentioned, she felt a reconnection to the piece and her grandma so that is also nice.

I hope you enjoyed this build with me and I hope you catch the next one!!