DIY Playhouse Transformation
A few months ago - in the middle of quarantine life - I was in the backyard with my kids watching them play in their “treehouse” (which is basically a tree that has branches coming up from the ground, they stand on them and then yell for me when get their shoes stuck every 10 minutes…haha there is no resemblance of a house or climbing going on whatsoever), so they were walking around in circles pretending it was a “house” and although it looked like they were having fun, I thought the sight was quite sad. They kept asking Cody and me to build them a treehouse, but like I said, the branches are literally almost vertical so there’s no way that was going to happen. Plus, we live in the Rockies, so besides a few giant evergreens in our yard, we don’t have an abundance of large trees like oaks that you could actually play in. So I was sitting there, trying to think of something else we could do or build outside during this weird quarantine phase and I thought “what about a playhouse?!”
We went on Craigslist and found a perfect one that a sweet family had outgrown and we decided to fix it up. I believe the original playhouse was from Costco a few years ago because I have since seen it on Pinterest. When we got it, it was raw cedar and still had the green and white trim.
I knew I wanted to change it up, so after researching a lot of playhouse DIY’s on Pinterest, I decided to follow Katie Lamb’s DIY instructions for her cedar house and I liked the colors that she used. She recommended using a cedar stain instead of paint because a lot of people had warned that it chipped quickly, so that’s what I went with.
materials I used:
Behr Premium Solid Color Stain & Sealer in ‘Pinto White’ (used 2 gallons for 3 coats total)
Rust-O-Leum Satin All Surface Paint + Primer in ‘Black’ for the windows and trim.
Rust-O-Leum Metallic All Surface Paint + Primer in ‘Aged Coffee’ for the sink and kitchen appliances.
Rust-O-Leum Metallic All Surface Paint + Primer in ‘Oil Rubbed Bronze’ for the faucet, stovetop, doorbell and window boxes..
Behr Premium Solid Color Stain & Sealer in ‘Blackout’ for the door and roof (used 3/4 gal. for all)
Pavers: Home Depot
Pea gravel: local site here in Denver, but you can find it at Home Depot as well.
Wreath: Amazon
Lights: Amazon
Rug: Target
A few things I learned after doing this projecT:
1
WEAR A SHOWER CAP. I didn’t do this to start, and let me tell you, I had paint in my hair for WEEKS. I could not get it out. I scrubbed, used toothpaste, baby oil, hair masks…none of it worked! I don’t know if it’s because it’s a stain/sealer and not an oil based paint, but that stuff didn’t come out of my hair. And it’s white. And I have dark brown hair. So if you put those two together, I looked like I had white-gray hairs all over my head, y’all. Or like I hadn’t showered in days. Or both. After painting the interior roof and having drips fall on my head, it was game over. I finally had the grand idea of wearing a shower cap halfway through but the damage was already done.
2
Don’t spray paint your coats too close together. I did this on a few of the windows and sink because I got impatient and they ended up sticking to the tarp underneath and I had to redo that coat when I flipped it over. Light and quick coats work best.
3
Make sure the roof/shingles are flat when you start painting. If your playhouse is new this shouldn’t be a problem, but since ours was used and the shingles were a bit warped, we had to nail them down in the middle of painting the roof because it became really noticeable when the paint wouldn’t roll on correctly. It would have been faster if we had checked this first.
4
Try to select a spot that is not directly beneath a tree. We don’t have any other options; this was literally the only spot in our yard for it to go where it wouldn’t get hit by sprinklers or kill the grass underneath. We also thought this would be a great shady spot for it. So Labor Day weekend we leveled the ground, laid pavers, had a neighbor help us lift it up over the fence and called it good! I was so excited to finally see it out there all finished! Then two days later we had a fluke snowstorm and the tree above it dripped onto it and left yellow streaks all down the inside. I was so sad. I HADN’T EVEN TAKEN “GOOD” PICTURES OF IT YET! Sigh…such is life. I knew it would get dirty being outside, but this was a gut punch after all of that time I just had spent on it. The magic eraser helped, but it didn’t take the streaks off completely. I might try to power wash eventually but I’m a little afraid that might be too hard on it. Will do an update on this down the road and let y’all know!
5
Seal your concrete stone pavers if you are using them. I didn’t do this and I wish I had. I’ve read a few posts that gave instructions how to do this, but for us, we didn’t do it in the 2 days before it rained/snowed, so the pine cones and leaves left orange marks and dark spots on the concrete from the tannins. The power washer might work for this too, but since it’s Fall now and I know the rain and snow are coming, I’m probably going to wait until it’s our dry season again so that I don’t waste my time having to constantly wash it off.
That’s it! I really love how it turned out and the kids really love it too. It’s such a fun place to go when we get a little cooped up inside. They love to eat their snacks out here and it warms my heart to watch them play “house” together. I think some days they get along better out there in the fake house than in the real one! Happy DIY-ing!
