More to love about Melissa & Doug toys: turn the packaging into a frame or a tray

Who doesn't love Melissa & Doug toys? My daughter spent countless hours cutting up their wooden vegetables (such a satisfying TWACK sound when the knife hits the cutting board), and my son's been having fun with their magic set.

But Alice has figured out a great way to reuse the wooden box the toys come packaged in:

I recently got my son a set of wooden beads to string from Melissa & Doug. (love their toys!) It came in a nice wooden box as does many of their toy sets. It was too nice to throw away so we reused it. My 3 year-old son and I took one of his many pieces of toddler artwork and cut it to fit in the bottom of the wooden box. Then we covered it with contact paper and pasted to the bottom. Voila! Now you have either a shadow box framed piece of art or a serving/baking tray for a toddler kitchen, which is what ours became. The wood seems to be unfinished so I assume it could be painted or stained as desired too. Photographs would work nicely in place of the artwork.

So smart!

Related: Salvage the wire toys from toy packaging for use around the house

Comments

[harmzie]

I use a box that their (M&D's) magnetic dinosaurs came in to put the measuring spoons (mine) in that had been rattling around our drawer and impossible to find. It has a wonderful tough plastic sliding top - like Alice says: too nice to toss!

I didn't realize it was a hack - sorry or I would have shared too!

[Amy]

BRILLIANT!

It kills me to think how many of these I've thrown away over the last 3 years... I swear, we've put Melissa and Doug's kids through college.

I love this site. Yay!

Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com

[Mary]

We have a large crate that that the band set came in. It is currently upside-down on the living room floor being used as a mini-stage for tap dancing. A noisy, noisy tap dancing stage. It has also been used as a doll bed, a tray, and as part of an "obstacle course". Funny thing though - it has never been used to hold the band instruments.