Ten Ideas for a Playhouse Exterior

When fixing up a playhouse - don't forget the exterior!  Pretty much anything you can do to add curb appeal to your house - you can do with a playhouse on a smaller scale.  Here are the ideas I gathered when planning for #HadleysPlayhouse.

Here is the before picture:

1. Porch
I used a simple landscaping paver as a porch.  Something similar to this:

2. Shutters
Shutters add wonderful charm and are an easy way to add an architectural element to the exterior.  You can make faux shutters with just three vertical boards with two horizontal boards across.

3.  Mailbox
Adds curb appeal and fun for the little one - any mail they get should definitely be delivered to their playhouse!

4. Window Box
This is a must - it adds so much charm!  Along with this remember to get a little watering can and remind little ones to take care of their flowers.  I got brackets to mount the window box.  It came a natural wood color and I spray painted it white.

Look at that pretty face!!

5. Sconce Lights
I found fairly inexpensive solar powered sconce lights on Amazon - the small size that would mount to the wall were pretty hard to find.  The ones I found really didn't work well, but they were just the right size and added tons of charm, so I decided to keep them.

6. Landscaping
As with each of these - it can be as simple or elaborate as you would like.  You could add shrubbery and flower beds around the entire house.  I chose to add a couple of potted boxwoods in front of the house.  Boxwoods are very sturdy and can survive without much water and they stay green all year round.

7. House Numbers
This is something I didn't get around to - but I saw the idea somewhere and loved it - take your address and add ½ to it.

8. Wreath
I almost forgot about a wreath for the door until my mom asked if I had something planned for it - a miniature of whatever you have on your door is adorable.  Or a wreath that matches the season.  Or one that the kids helped make.  Or a colorful one.  Or one that matches the theme of the interior (which is the idea I went with).  You can see all about how I made it here.  I had the thought that if I glued some moulding to the door before painting, it would give it more character, but I let that idea go.  The pin below shows you what I mean.

9. Picket Fence
I saw some little white fencing for flower beds at Menards that I was really tempted to get!

10. Outdoor Furniture - kid-sized of course!

In the same theme as the interior which you can read about here I kept the outside simple, clean and modern, but I love all the charm and character these simple additions added to #HadleysPlayhouse !!

Hadley's Playhouse Interior

Welcome to the BIG REVEAL of #HadleysPlayhouse!!

After months of planning and days of working - I got to the most fun part - styling!!

Here's how the playhouse looked on Wednesday:

Here is the playhouse cleaned out:

Wednesday Evening - Hadley and I started priming.

This is one coat of primer on the walls (at which point I ran out of primer and so I had to wait until morning to go to the local hardware store).

The days start to run together, but at some point, we finished two coats of primer and two coats of paint:  (I'm too tall to stand up in the playhouse so I took apart a desk chair to make a rolling stool and it was really invaluable!)  We painted everything - walls, ceiling, baseboards, built in shelf and decorative accents, metal door, etc.  Which really brightened the space and gave us a beautiful, bright blank canvas.

Hadley helped me every step of the way - here we are working on the flooring!  3/4 of the installation was very easy, but then when we got to the last two edges that required a lot of measuring, calculating, cutting and engineering.  

This is the type of flooring I used and I was very impressed with it! 

   

 The most difficult part was that the room wasn't a uniform square, the wall pictured kind of curves out, so I couldn't just cut a straight line, I had to cut it in place.

Then I had three pieces of IKEA furniture to put together and that took more time than I expected.  Also at this point I was really worried that all these pieces of furniture were not going to fit in the space or if they did, it would be too much.

Then I got shelves hung, pictures hung, chalkboard hung, the light put up and the curtains sewed. 

   

 Then we took a break for dinner and went to my favorite Mexican place in town.

 Then my sister Jordan kept Hadley busy by playing in their little pool because even though she had seen every step so far, I wanted her to be surprised and wowed at the final reveal.  At this point I felt like Joanna Gaines (from Fixer Upper) and it was the most fun thing ever.

And here it is - all done - all styled.  Jordan I and sewed the curtains, the fabric is from Hobby Lobby, as is the mini cake stand.  The table, chairs, storage bench, foxes and apron are from IKEA.  The bean bag chair and pillow are from Target.  The magnetic strip is from The Container Store.  You can see all about how I made the mini bunting here.

The picture frames are from Dollar Tree and the art is just free online printables I found.  The little side table is from Hobby Lobby and spray painted white.  Kitchen, dishes and felt vegetables are from IKEA.  

One of the themes running throughout the playhouse was alligators (other themes are pink and black & white stripes, modern) and here are two of the three.  The magnetic chalk board is from Walmart.  The alligator is named Cornelius and is from Kohls Cares.  The mix and match magnets are by DJeco and I got them on Amazon.  The felt ball garland is from a seller on Etsy - Simple Details Design and the seller was great to work with.

Cupcakes are from the local grocery store Thrifty King.  The little alphabet sign is from Target's dollar spot.

This would be SUPER CUTE in a playhouse! They're so much fun to decorate!

The little book on the side table is from Chatbooks and it has a bunch of my
Instagram photos of Hadley.

The three tins are from antique stores, because just like in decorating your own house - you don't want everything to be brand new.  Old things add depth and uniqueness to your design.  The little broom is from Hobby Lobby.  The cupcake rug is from Target's dollar spot.  Both shelves pictured are from IKEA.

For rainy days or after dusk - I got a paper lantern, light and remote from http://www.save-on-crafts.com/.  And it is just as fun to click on as you might expect.  ;)

Hadley walked in and said, "Wow!" and she moved to each area, taking it all in.  Then she got started playing.  It was a very happy moment.

Next week I'll blog about all the things I did to the exterior to give this playhouse some curb appeal!! In the comments below - tell me your favorite part of the playhouse.