Kids Playhouse Blog

I love telling my readers about other people who have great kids playhouse ideas.  This playhouse idea is indoors.  Melissa, from Kensington Cottage blog, set up this cute little playhouse room off of her daughter’s bedroom.

The room was more of a storage area with slanted walls.  She transformed that space into an play space area for her daughter.  The “playhouse” has a kitchen with a pantry that keeps her dishes, utensils and food.  I liked the pantry idea…it really keeps all the kitchen stuff organized.

An inexpensive oriental rug made a great living room area where Melissa put all her daughter’s dolls, doll beds and doll high chair in the room.  This is a great place to pretend to play house and tend to the babies.

Check out how this small place was made into a warm and inviting playhouse for a lucky little girl!

Technorati Tags: decorating a playhouse, indoor playhouse, Kids Playhouse

Love a show? A kids playhouse will be the main attraction as your little ones convert it into a theater fit for any playwright or actor. Someone once said that life is a stage. For kids that enjoy making their playhouse a stage, this adage is even more true. For the parents and friends that will giggle, laugh, and smile as their children perform, this adage is priceless.

While it’s relatively easy create this theatrical environment, young children may need a little help from their parents. Here is how you can assist your little one with making sure that the show does go on:

1. You have got to have costumes! The kids with a box of dress up clothes. If you don’t have extra clothes lying around, then take them to a thrift store or garage sale where they can find plenty of clothes to use for putting on a play in their kids playhouse. Another option for costumes is to have the children make their own out of form, paper, and bits from around your home.

2. You have got to have scenery! The kids playhouse is a great setting for plays like Hansel and Gretel, The Three Pigs, or Little Red Riding Hood. Otherwise, use big posterboards, which cost roughly 30-50 cents each and create your scenery. The children may decide to make the scenery with a sheet or just to use the kids playhouse as the backdrop.

3. You have got to have performers! Your little ones will relish the time that they get to spend entertaining the audience. One of them can be a master of ceremonies, a narrator, and of course, an evil villain!! The sky is the limit as to what they can do when they take to the stage. By keeping the clothes inside of the playhouse, the children that are performing can run in and out of the playhouse, changing costume for each scene. That makes for an amazingly exciting production!

Putting on a kids playhouse production may be an event that your kids will never forget. Just provide them with a few items for costumes, scenery, and props and your little Thespians are sure to make everyone in the audience see their awesome talents. Don’t forget to record their works for future smiles!

Technorati Tags: Acting, Kids Playhouse, Theater

Pirates are popular with children and turning a kids playhouse into a pirate’s hideout cove is easy to do.  There are plenty of pirate movies and engrossing books like “Pirates Don’t Change Diapers” that kids have a hard time putting down.  So, bring that trend to your family’s kids playhouse!

Try these awesome tips to bring the playhouse up to p-AARRHH:

1. Add a telescope to the window ledge or porch railing of the kids playhouse. For any sea-faring pirate, a telescope is a necessity. Imagine all the foreign lands your child will see! Of course, don’t forget watching out for approaching pirate ships or spying on others that may be after their treasure chest.

2. Fill up treasure chests in and around the kids playhouse. Pirate costumes and plastic or foam swords can fill up one treasure chest while another may be used as a drink or snack container. To create a drink container “treasure chest” purchase one of those foam travel chests from a local dollar store. Together, with your child, paint it and embellish to look like a real treasure chest. Fill it with ice, drinks, and fruit snacks! Of course, you can’t forget about having a treasure chest that holds all of the real “treasures”. Your child may get really creative and keep their favorite books, games, or trinkets in the treasure chest or they may go the more traditional route and keep fake jewelry, golden coins, and dazzling crowns.

3. A flag pole and pirate flag readily transforms a kids playhouse into a fierce and mighty pirate strong-hold. You can purchase a ready-made pirate flag or you can make one. Making a pirate’s flag is simple. Purchase an inexpensive black pillow and some white felt. Cut the pillowcase down to the desired flag size. From the white felt, cut out a skull and cross bones and glue it to both sides of the black pillow case. Now, string it up the flag pole and everyone will know to beware of pirates!

Your little pirate’s kids playhouse could be the talk of the neighborhood.  You may even want to provide a water slide or water sprayer on the outside for those that have to “walk to the plank”. Have fun with it and let your children be as “arrhh-tistic” about it as they would like.

Technorati Tags: Kids Outdoor Play, kids play house, Kids Playhouse, kids playhouse ideas, Pirates, Treasure

Your kids playhouse could be the nucleus of a wildly cool neighborhood carnival. Using your child’s playhouse is naturally a fab place for holding such a fun event because everything is kid-sized and easily accessed. There are so many different activities that you could do to make this colorful event happen in your area. It takes a little prep work, but the end result will be a memory that lasts a lifetime. Here’s how to get the fun started:

Decorate the kids playhouse for the occasion. Use lots of balloons, streamers, banners to identify each game, and ribbon. The more festive it looks, the more the kids will want to stay around and play. Be prepared to use the area around the wooden playhouse also.

Along with your children, select activities that will keep kids excited and engaged. You may want to set the spaces up as stations. Some ideas for games include silly games like having kids eat fruit from a string while blindfolded, fishing for ducks or plastic fish in a little swimming pool, or using a water gun to shoot an empty can off of a ledge.

Dress up for the carnival. Whether you don a clown outfit or a master of ceremonies type of get up, the kids will love it! You may even want to have a station where the kids can get dressed up or get their face painted. Face painting takes a little while to do and could really work well in the loft area of a wooden playhouse.

Set up food stations. Kids love cotton candy and popcorn. One of the windows of the wooden playhouse can be transformed into a concession stand. This will be an event favorite for sure.

Your kids playhouse could be the stage for the best neighborhood kids carnival ever! Don’t forget to post signs and to enlist other neighbors. You may be able to get some people to donate their time or possibly even some prizes!

Technorati Tags: carnival, Kids Outdoor Play, Kids Playhouse, party

When building a kids playhouse, a solid foundation is critical to the safety, sturdiness and appeal of your playhouse.  To ensure that the foundation is property prepared, the following step-by-step method is provided so that the resulting playhouse will give your child years of playing enjoyment.

Select a level well drained area for the location of the kids playhouse.  Stake out the perimeter (footprint) of the playhouse using mason’s line or some other string and cut in the grass or dirt using a garden spade.  Remove all grass and vegetation from the area that will be covered by the playhouse foundation.  Construct a form for the concrete foundation using either 1 x 4 or 2 x 4 pieces of lumber.  The form will be held in place using stakes every two to three feet will define the perimeter as well as the thickness of the concrete slab.  The form needs to be level at the top edges so the boards you use for this should not be warped or twisted.   In addition to the wood form you will need steel reinforced mesh, crushed stone aggregate or sharp-sided gravel, sand and cement.  Additionally, you will need to rent or borrow a vibrating plate soil compactor.

Once you have dug out the area for the foundation fill the area with about 3 inch deep layer of grade 5 crushed stone and pack it down using the the compactor.  Cover the layer of crushed, compacted aggregate with 3-4 inches of sand and tamp it down with the compactor.  The layer of sand is critical for the curing of the concrete to maximize the strength of the slab.  The sand layer will also help prevent the cracking of the concrete while the concrete expands or contracts during changing cold or hot weather conditions.

Place the wooden form on the prepared area and using wooden stakes on the outside of the form, secure the form in place so that it will not shift or move when adding the cement.  Again, the form must be level so take the time to make adjustments to assure that the form is level at this point.

Lay the steel reinforced mesh over the form and cut the mesh to fit inside the form.  At the time of pouring the cement, you will pull the mesh upwards to the middle of the cement.  Smooth the excess concrete off the top of the form so it is even and level.  Allow the concrete to cure and remove the form and securing stakes.

You now have a solid foundation that is level, sturdy and safe for building that dream kids playhouse for your child.

Technorati Tags: building kids playhouse, How to build a playhouse from scratch, Kids Playhouse

This kids playhouse is located in northern Wisconsin at a resort that has been around for at least 100 years.  I always walked past this playhouse and loved the rusticity of it.

The kids playhouse is quite small with the door kid-sized, so I had to crouch down to see into the playhouse.  There were spaces between the logs and even a fireplace.  I wonder if the fire place was ever actually used?  My youngest child loved playing in this unique log cabin.  It was a fun experience for her to pretend she was a pioneer, just like Laura Ingalls.

This little log cabin must have provided a lot of enjoyment for many kids over these past decades.

Technorati Tags: Kids Playhouse, kids playhouse ideas, log cabin, wooden playhouse

If you’ve ever wanted a small wooden kids playhouse that is somewhat rustic, then view the playhouse is the video below. I was able to interview the owner of this playhouse who fondly recalled the wonderful times her now grown children had playing in the playhouse.

The owner said that she wanted a kids play house that had open windows, with no glass, so that the kids could have a pass-through window when they played restaurant.  She also did not want a door on the playhouse so that she could always see her child.  The playhouse has lasted through the growing up of three adult individuals.  She said she now looks forward to the grand kids enjoying the kids playhouse her children loved to play in.

Technorati Tags: Kids Playhouse, kids playhouse ideas, wooden playhouse

If your daughter has been pining for her own kids playhouse and your wife has been asking you how long it will take to build it from a kit, the easy answer is a few days!  That is, if your day job doesn’t get in the way.  Although many of us wish that we had 2 days of work and 5 days off, that’s just not reality and we have to work around our job when building a playhouse project.

Doug McCaughan, from Reality Me, and his wife have been documenting the building of their daughter’s playhouse and so far they are up to day 10 (and still counting!).  They are building a playhouse from a kit and so far have made great progress.  In the picture below, you can see what was delivered as part of the playhouse kit.

Ultimately, the playhouse will look like the Little Miss Kit available from Wood Manor.  The playhouse is 8 feet wide, 8 feet deep and 8 feet high and is extremely quaint and adorable.  You can see what it will look like at the end of this post.

After 10 days of working on the playhouse, the playhouse is almost fully constructed.  Once the roof is put on, there most likely will be a huge sigh of relief that they’ve made it this far in the process.

Although there still is decorative mill work, painting and finishing off of the inside that will still need to be done before the playhouse is completely finished and ready to “move in”, the sense of accomplishment of getting the playhouse to this stage is huge.

Here are some pictures during the building process of the kids playhouse.

The ground was prepared and the foundation was constructed.  You can see the outline porch entrance.

The channel shiplap panels were added to construct the walls of the playhouse.

This picture shows the finishing of the walls, addition of the windows, and the rafters that have been added to the playhouse.

You can see the three cute hexagonal windows.

If you look at the porch floor edge, it is being protected until the railing goes up.

This is what the kids playhouse will look like when it’s fully completed.  I’m sure Doug’s little girl will absolutely love her birthday present when it’s finished – especially knowing that her Dad built it for her!

Technorati Tags: building kids playhouse, kids play house, Kids Playhouse, kids playhouse ideas, Reality Me, wooden playhouse

Here’s a great example of a very charming kids playhouse from Linda at TheBlogFrog.  The yellow color of the playhouse combined with the white trimmed windows and pale green/aquamarine accent color makes for a very attractive playhouse.

The window box filled with overflowing flowers, trellis and creative kid’s stroller flower box with purple and pink flowers makes for an inviting playhouse.  I love the star above the door, the mail box and the hanging lanterns.  Each of these items really add to the charm of this playhouse.