Playhouse Planning

As soon as my sister and brother-in-law moved into a house with a playhouse, the wheels in my head started turning.  I'm pretty sure my four year old self would have loved a playhouse in the backyard and I was pretty sure my four year old niece would love it too!  For her birthday in January, I told everyone my gift was to fix up the playhouse and I've been planning ever since.  #ILovePlanning

I started searching for inspiration pics - here are a few:

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And I started making lists.

And at her party (in January, at night) I went outside and took pictures and measurements.

And I drew schematics.

Here are the categories I started thinking about:

Paint
Flooring
Furniture
Lighting
Exterior
Decor/Styling

That list seems pretty small, right?  I'll write a short paragraph about each category so you'll see my thought process.

Paint

I decided right away that the walls and ceiling should be all white because it's a small enclosed space and bright white will make it seem larger and brighter.  I researched whether I should choose interior or exterior paint.  I learned interior is used in a climate controlled environment, so I bought a paint that had exterior properties.

Flooring

I didn't know what options were out there, so I researched painting/staining concrete and laminate flooring.  Then I stumbled on to foam tiles that look like a wood surface and just lay on top of concrete.



Here's a customer picture that used this tile:

I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out in the playhouse!

Furniture

Back in March my mom and I took a  trip to IKEA and I had a list of playhouse furniture to get!  I got a kitchen, table and chairs and bench with storage tubs underneath.  At Target I found a bean bag chair and at Hobby Lobby I got a little metal drum table.

Lighting

I considered a string of battery operated lights or a grouping of lanterns, but I ended up with one pink sparkly paper lantern, with a remote, which should be pretty fun!

Exterior

Blogs and Pinterest reminded me to think about the exterior of the house as well as the interior.  To add "curb appeal" I bought a mailbox (mailboxes for kids were crazy expensive, so I used a grown up one from Menards); solar powered sconces (also surprisingly hard to find for a reasonable price); a windowbox (Menards); two pots with small boxwood bushes in them and a stone paver as a porch.

Decor/Styling

Styling a room is seriously one of my favorite things, so I may have went a little bit crazy, but how many times in your life do you get to decorate a playhouse?

curtains
shelves
wall art
chalkboard
dishes
stuffed animals
books
rug
pillow
bunting
garland

all fall into this category -

follow my blog to see all the pictures in the next few weeks.