Hi I am Beckie, author of Infarrantly Creative, where I transforms roadside finds into treasures for my home.  I dubbed my quest Roadkill Rescues.  I would love to share one with you today.  I turned an old hutch into a puppet theater/snack shop for my kids…

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It seems there is a never-ending supply of the hutch part of dressers at Goodwill, thrift stores and on the side of the road.  After driving by this baby for days I finally hauled it into my mini van totally unsure of what I would transform it into.

After I cleaned it I took off the backer board.  It wasn’t stable enough to handle my crazy kids so I knew I had to stabilize it somehow. I got out some scraps of plywood and measured the width of the hutchy thing and that is how wide the top of my parallelogram is. Then I widened the bottom to give it the stability it needed.

Using a circular saw, I cut out two of them and screwed them into the sides of the hutch and I achieved the stability it needed.

Then using a 5/8″ drill bit I drilled holes in the sides and inserted a 5/8″ dowel rod (cut to size) for the curtains to hang from.

Next I sanded the whole piece down and gave it a coat of primer followed by two coats of red paint.

Then I decided to to use the backer board as a chalkboard on the front. I cut it down using a utility knife since it was just a thin wood composite. After primering it and painting it with chalkboard paint I nailed it in place with thin brad nails.

Since it did not cover the entire piece I cut some trim to frame it out using my miter box and saw. I just used the foam composite stuff because it is so easy to cut.
Then I laid it out in place to make sure it looked perfect..and it did!
I sprayed the molding with black spray paint. Since there wasn’t anywhere to nail it in, I used Liquid Nails and clamped it in place. Some of the glue oozed out but I just touched it up after it was dry.
I made little curtains out of fabric I had on hand and hung them from the dowel rod.
We use it for puppet shows…

and a snack shop…

You don’t need a hutch type thing for this project. Any small book shelf would work. This one I used an old laminate shelf and just propped it up higher.

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Bookcases are perfect for this project because you have the shelves in the back to store stuff…

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Do you love trash to treasure type projects?  Want to see more…

Hutch Turned Pottery Barn Kids Bookrack

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Vintage TV into a Console Table

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Old Nightstand into a Lap Desk

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Comments

  1. This is such a great idea! I love that it can be both a puppet theater and a snack shop. Great DIY idea!

  2. AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME! Have been wanting one forever and NEVER imagined using a hutch. Perfect! Will be doing.

  3. This may be the coolest ‘homemade’ play thing ever!!! *Wishing I were little again…* Going to be making this for my God-daughter when she is big enough!!!

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