DIY DREAM PLAYHOUSE
MY DREAM: As a little girl, I always dreamed of having a playhouse where I could play make believe with my friends. Once my second daughter arrived, I was finally able to convince my husband and bring my childhood playhouse dreams to life! I was SO excited! I envisioned a tiny white picket fence, window flower boxes, and dutch door. The only problem, there was nothing ready-made to purchase that fit my criteria. That's when I knew I had to get creative and put a lot of time, paint, and visits to the local Home Depot to make it the itty bitty playhouse of my dreams.
THE BARE BONES: As much as I would love to take credit for the entire house, I didn't make it from scratch. That would have been exhausting! I found this playhouse from Costco. The picture above shows how it comes out from the packaging, unpainted and pure cedar. It smelled amazing! The link I attached is very similar, but they updated the model with some faux brick siding which is not included in my model. Another thing that is not included with the playhouse is the deck you see the house sitting on. I had our carpenter friend build a deck for the house because I didn't want the playhouse sitting in rocks, prone to having bugs and other unwelcomed critters inside it.
Once the deck was down, the house was fairly easy to assemble. All four walls folded out to a standing position, and it was just a matter of securing it to the base of the deck. I'd recommend recruiting a friend when putting this together. Its definitely a two-man job!
THE DOOR: I knew I wanted a dutch door, so I cut the original door in half and added an arm rest to the top. I found the latches at Home Depot and replaced the original door hinges with the dutch door hardware. For the safety of the kids, I didn't want the top half of the door swinging in and out and causing smashed fingers so I added a little latch on the outside of the door to attach the top half to the bottom half. The door knob is faux, it doesn't really work but looks cute!
THE PAINT: This was all trial and error! When choosing paint colors I always go to Home Depot and pick out at least three different options. I knew I wanted a white house with a darker trim. The door color was the one I was unsure about. I ended up going with this light cottage blue. I'd recommend looking up ideas on Pinterest to help you pick out what colors you like. I had a whole Modern Moni board dedicated to helping me pick out a color scheme for my, I mean my girls ;) play house.
THE FINISHING TOUCHES: I found the two flower boxes at Michaels and painted them white to match the house. The succulents inside are fake, because here in Arizona real plants would get fried in the sun. I purchased floral foam and put them inside the flower boxes to use as an anchor to hold the succulents.
The white picket fence was an add on that my carpenter friend was able to install within an hour! Thank goodness for him. Oh and last but definitely not least was the little pendant light we have hanging inside for nighttime play! We attached it to our outdoor lighting system so it shuts on and off with our garden lights!
I hope this inspires you to build for your little ones! Enjoy!