Refurbished, painted thrift store hutch DIY

Our house is not huge and while we've turned the would be "formal dining" into a playroom, somehow the kids stuff still seems to creep into ALL rooms of the home.
We've had a hand me down piano sitting between the entry way and the dining room for a while.  I was hoping one of he kids would develop an interest in it.  Plus when family offers furniture and such, I have a hard time saying No as there always seems to be a use for it.  In this case, not so much... No one plays, it just gets banged on A LOT!   Time for it to get shoved into the playroom and listed on the web.
I need more storage.
The dining room table is always riddled with crayons, loose leaf paper, coloring books, pencils, and all other school or craft related items.  I need a place for all this mess to go when not in use.
Ideal vision would be a mid-century modern credenza.  Ya know, the kind with the doors that slide across the front.  But, obviously, with that being the trend it's not easy to find that kind of thing anymore without a dealer already having jacked up the price at a "repurpose" thrift store.  I went on a hunt anyway.  I thought I found this cute 70's side board with accordion doors and sides that folded up to make more surface area, but when we got to the dealer it turns out it was that fake formica-like wood on top.  Nothing I could sand off and therefore useless.  I was feeling pretty bummed, but my mom insisted we stop at a few random Thrifts on the way home.  One was asking $4000 for a "Mad men" look-a-like dining table....uhhh....bee line for the door, this place is way outta budget.
Another had some cute stuff, but no credenzas or hutches.  (although there was a super cute chest of drawers that I wish I had a place for)
The last place was a Hospice Thrift.  They mostly had clothes and crock pots, but in the  corner were two tall pieces of furniture.  One a particle board entertainment stand, the other.....

This piece.
Full hutch.  Top and all.
What caught my eye was the hardware.  I really like that style of pull.  It was priced right at $60, but I wasn't sure I could bring it back to life.  Then these two ladies started eyeballing it, too.  At the same time I realized they were having a one day sale...25% off all furniture!  45 bucks..I'll take it!  we can figure out the details later.  :)
Since I didn't want the top part that houses plates and such, it's currently listed on Craigslist.  Hopefully I will be able to update this post with a "sold" comment and the expense would be even less.
Anyhoo.
We put it in the garage and I got to sanding the top.
From experience of painting other pieces, I knew it was in my best interest to NOT paint the top.  The two little boys of mine can quickly undo lots of hard work.
Deciding on a color was pretty easy.  My mom had a bunch of swatches from an end table she had been debating color on.   I loved one of them called Royal Palm by Olympic.  I knew that was going to be the one.
Here's a look after sanding lots of old varnish off the top and a coat of primer for the bottom.  It already looks 1,000 times better.

Again, boys.  So I wanted to go for a kind of distressed look on the top.  I had a bit of gray wood stain, so I put a little and almost immediately wiped it.  I didn't want it to penetrate too much, just give a bit of a whitewash look.
Just a note: If you look close at the drawers you can see that the cool handles I fell for are not the original hardware.  The three middle drawers have an extra hole drilled where the new ones need to fit.  That worked out well...saved even more not having to go buy updated pulls or a can of spray paint. 

Here it is partially painted with one coat of polyurethane on the top.
The first coat never goes on perfect.  I hate having to wait overnight, re-sand and apply more, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.  I used clear satin for the poly finish. 

And here's the finished product

I'm super happy with the way it turned out.
And as soon as the paint is all cured all this...

Will be neatly tucked away in this.....

So for a grand total of $55 ($45 for the hutch add just over $10 for a sample jar of paint ((sings "Sample in a Jar" for my phellow Phish heads)) and small can of polyurethane) I have an awesome new buffet to greet anyone who comes through the front door. Sweet!
Gotta love those thrifty finds.

Bonus: 
A few days later my mom found a cute little end table for $5!!
I used the leftover paint and poly from this project to spruce it up.

Sanding off the top and drawer revealed a cool distressed look that I couldn't have created if I tried, so I left it.  The top even had an old, barely noticeable drink ring and what seem to be burn marks for added character.

Cool!