New Digs || Playhouse Hack

I’ve loved the idea of trying to give Alexandria a playhouse in the backyard. It was always my dream as a kid to have a little house of my own so giving this to her was something I really wanted to do. And then I saw “Monty Don’s Italian Gardens” on Netflix and that was it. I built the garden first and you can see that process here.

I decided to start with plain playhouse and give it a renovation! I like the KidCraft houses because they are made out of cedar - good for outdoors and easy to paint! We found this one at Costco and my brother sweetly bought it for Alexandria for her birthday. :)

I decided to paint the entire house BEFORE assembling it and I’m so glad that I did. It was MUCH easier to just lay all the pieces down on a table and go through with a roller over each one, wait for it to dry and rotate them. That way you wouldn’t see the brown peeking through between the slats after it was all assembled. I gave it 2 to 3 good coats of exterior paint in Behr - Polar Bear.

Next came the assembly process which was pretty simple. The hardest thing to assemble was the roof. I would recommend having someone to help you with that part.

Deciding on the door color was kind of a longer process… considering it was a playhouse. I picked a light blue that ended up being WAY too light on the doors since the house would be in full sunlight most of the time. I ended up repainting the door in Behr - Oslo Blue. Which was EXACTLY what I was looking for… A vintage style blue that would look good with brass accents.

For the brass - I went to a vintage hardware store here in Dallas called Uncommon Market. I walked in an asked for mail slots and she pointed me in the direction saying “Let me see if I can find you some bigger ones.” I was like noooo this is PERFECT! Its amazing to see how small mail slots needed be before fedex, when people just sent hand written letters.

After some good steel wool/Brasso scrubbing the mail slot was good as new! Just make sure you spray paint them with crystal clear enamel so they stay shiny outdoors. I also found these tiny cabinet pulls I used on the door. I had to use my Dremel and cut off most of the metal hinge in the back as well as make the hole in the door so that the knob would still work. I also used the Dremel to make the rectangle shape hole in the door for the mail slot so it would be inset and usable.

Hanging the doors is also a step I would recommend having help on. It so important to me to make sure the door handles lined up as close as possible!

I added pavers leading up to the house to bring more attention to the front doors. See here how I built the surrounding garden!

I had to spray paint the kitchen awning white too since it was a bright red (see “before” photo below) I used a spray primer to help keep the paint from scratching off the plastic surface. And I spray painted the grey faucet & stove gold to match the door accents.

See this post about the garden surrounding the house and how I built it from scratch using old fence panels.

Thank you so much for reading!! Let me know if you decide to make a playhouse/garden of your own. I linked a few playhouse options below for you to check out if you decide to try this out!

Xo -Shirin