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
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.
