New Uses for Old Hutches

If your local Craigslist is like mine, old hutches are a dime a dozen.  Well, maybe not quite that cheap, but they’re usually listed for really good prices, with people trying to get these big pieces out of their homes.  By doing a quick two-minute search, I came across these four (in the Charlotte area) that have lots of potential without hefty price tags:

 

 I searched by “hutch” and “china cabinet” to find these.

 

So, why my sudden interest in old hutches?  Lately, I’ve seen some fun examples of how people are using these in new ways for extra storage in their homes.

 

For example, you know those little office nooks in kitchens that some of you actually use but more of you just pile stuff on?  Brett, one of the bloggers at Naptime Notebook, decided she would rather have more storage in her kitchen instead of a catch-all desk.

 

 

 

They ripped out the desk and upper cabinets and replaced them with this $200 hutch:

 

 

    

 

They had to do a little “leg surgery” on the bottom to accommodate for the baseboard unit underneath. 

You can see the full project here.

 

 

This makes me think of a similar project that was recently featured in Better Homes & Gardens (Sept. 2012) where the homeowners used an antique buffet and built it into their kitchen by adding cabinetry around it:

 

 

 

 

Here’s another quick idea if you have a hutch that feels to “heavy.”  Take the doors off!  Easy, right? 

 

 

 

This example was shown on Craftivity Designs (which also happens to be my husband’s cousin’s blog).  I love how she hung the art on the front.

 

 

Craftivity Designs 

 

 

 

I’m also loving this photo of a hutch filled with books (this piece could work in any room).

 

 

source