Kids Playhouse Blog

Choosing seating for a kids playhouse should be more than just throwing some chairs its way. Where your kids rest their little bottoms is as important as any other furnishings or toys that are incorporated into the overall playhouse decor. A really cool type of seating that often has versatile utility is a stool. But not just any stool will do.

Automatically, when one mentions a stool, people think of a square with feet. Well, a Square stools can be just…square.  For your child’s favorite play space, go for a more zany, whimsical, and just plain old fun type of stool, or get inspired by one of these unusual stool suggestions:

Turn seating into a game with a set of Puzzle Stools! Puzzle Stools are designed to loosely interlock with each other when placed side-by-side. These stools are fantastic for use by multiple children that can use these toy-like seats to construct a string of stools or for a more interesting version of musical chairs! Some of the styles actually allow for interlocking on multiple sides of the stool, so there is even greater flexibility in the seating arrangement.

Go for a very “natural” stool such as a mushroom or flower! How cute is it for your child to have little mushrooms or daisies popping up all over his or her kids playhouse. There are some super sweet looking, nature inspired stools that can bring the forest inside of your child’s playhouse.

Mushroom or floral inspired stools can be purchased or you could make your own by securing a puffy and colorful cushion to the top of a basic round stool or heavy metal trash can. You could add fabric “petals” to the cushion to create any type of flower that you would like for your child to have.

Your families kids playhouse should be interesting and engaging for your children and their friends. Filling it with your own version of these wild stool designs may give it just the intrigue that you want. The truth is, children don’t always like to take stuff too seriously…especially when they are trying to get to the “bottom” of the fun!!

Technorati Tags: decorating a playhouse, Kids Playhouse, Stools and chairs for kids

Giving a kids playhouse a more comfortable and home-like feel is a goal that many families set for themselves. Creating a very warm atmosphere for your child’s playhouse doesn’t have to be a mammoth task. One great and easy way to add a fun yet classic look to your kids play house is by adding what has become a staple in real homes around the planet…a pretend fireplace.

What can make the hearth area of your wooden playhouse that you turn into a pretend fireplace even better is to design the fireplace so that it can be changed at any time. In essence, you would create an interchangeable fireplace for your child’s play house. Here’s how you can make it happen:

Plan out your hearth. Designate an area of the kids playhouse for the pretend fireplace. Design a hearth that would include fake flames, the look of wood logs, and a darkened background. This hearth can be made using felt that is affixed to the wall for a 3-dimensional appearance and to add texture.   If you want fake flames, hang gold, red and orange foil or tissue paper and get a small, battery-operated fan to make the flames move.

Use a variety of wall ornaments and textures to create 3-4 different fireplace surround themes. Wall decals that are designed to look like stones, bricks, tiles, and wood can be assembled to create the look that you and your child want for your kids playhouse. Your child may want the look of wood one day or a mix of tiles and bricks another day. By providing a number of different style alternatives, your child can try his or her hand at interior design as your child plans and arranges the fireplace parts.

Another option for creating an interchangeable fireplace surround is to use felt shapes that are made to look like masonry items such as river rocks and decorative tiles. In order to use the felt, you will need to create a cloth background that will allow the felt to stick to it. Imagine the possibilities. Add a bit of whimsy by providing your child will a multitude of colors and patterns.

Don’t forget the mantle.  You can use a wooden shelf or scone as the mantle so that your little one can place select valuable to be displayed over the fake fireplace.

Your child’s kids playhouse fireplace could become the focal point of his or her play space. Being able to make the fireplace look exactly like he or she wants will give your child an even greater feeling of pride knowing that he or she has made their playhouse look even more smashing! That is sure to make playing in their kids playhouse feel even more special!

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Spending time in a kids playhouse is made even better when you and your child integrate some fun holiday themes into your play. One of the holiday seasons favorites is gingerbread. Whether it’s a busload of gingerbread men, a gingerbread house, or just the aroma of gingerbread wafting through the air, this spicy treat just has a way of making any space holiday perfect.

Here are a few activities for using these tasty and playful treats in your family’s kids playhouse:

Create life-size gingerbread men out of cardboard. You may be able to get large cardboard boxes from a local supermarket or “big box” retailer. Otherwise, you may need to buy them from a moving company.

Use the boxes to create a gingerbread man figure. If the boxes are not large enough, you may need to piece them together to make the figure.

Use brightly colored duct tape to secure to assemble it and for decoration! Try this, use it as a belt around the center of the figure to connect two boxes for the upper and lower body portions. Use puffy paint to finish decorating.

Set up a table inside of the kids playhouse for decorating real gingerbread cookies and the gingerbread house. Making a gingerbread house is all time kid activity that is sure to keep your child engaged and mesmerized as he or she creates various parts of the gingerbread house with candy, frosting, and other goodies.

Buy some pre-made gingerbread holiday curtains or make some of your own. During the winter months, holiday inspired fabric is everywhere. Grab some and make some no-sew curtains for your family’s kids playhouse.

Your family’s kids playhouse will inspire your child to have visions of gingerbread dancing in his or her head after you transform their play space. Not only will the kids playhouse have a warm holiday feel to it. It will also smell just as yummy as can be!

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White goes with a kids playhouse the same way that a red-nose works for a reindeer. It can make the playhouse stand out and be extra special. This holiday season, you may want to consider sprucing up your family’s kids playhouse to reflect some of the more ethereal or angelic themes of the season.

For those that celebrate Christmas, angels sitting atop a tree are a norm when it comes to interior decor during the holidays. Along with the holiday playhouse look comes a renewed feeling that can help to refocus Christmas from simply gift-giving to recognizing the amazing miracles that happen in our lives everyday.  This is especially true during the holiday season.

Here are a few ways to make your family’s kids playhouse glow as if an angel has ascended on it just for your child and his or her friends:

Outline the kids playhouse with a blend of plain white lights or icicle-inspired lights, and small angel ornaments. The way to meld the look is to hang the angel ornaments repeated after a certain number of lights, for example, 12 lights then an angel, 12 lights then an angel, etc. The hanging angels will almost look like they are floating around the playhouse.

Go over the top, literally, and set an “angel” on the roof of the kids playhouse. You may consider doing some fancy artwork or use of lights to make it look like the angel is hugging the playhouse. You can create “wings” from white fabric netting that can be hung on either side of the playhouse for a truly uplifting effect!

Place angels in the windows and on the door of the kids playhouse. Children will love looking at their angel friends as they enter and play inside.

Animatronic decorations are still popular. You may be able to find some angels that sing or move at a local retailer. Place them right on the patio of the kids playhouse for a real effect.

Your family’s kids playhouse can look as if it has been touched by angel. Try these little design tricks and you are sure to create a look that is gorgeous. A happy and heavenly holiday season could start with making your own little angel’s playhouse extra special!

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Winter ushers in kids playhouse moments that may be hallmarked by lots of cold, fun, and snow! So, why not let the snow in? Not literally, of course. But, how about giving way for some really cool snowmen in your family’s kids playhouse?

Snowmen have been the cornerstone of the holiday season for hundreds of years. From rounded mounds of snow dressed in clothing and carrot noses to films of talking and dancing snowmen, children have a deep love for these jolly creations.

Here are a few ways that you can turn the fun up to a wild flurry in your family’s kids playhouse as your décor becomes overrun with fun, fat, and fluffy snowmen:

Spray some white, friendly snowmen on the windows of their kids playhouse using canned snow. Finish off the look with window safe markers. Let your child’s imagination rule the roost by having him or her draw a funny scene around the snowmen or wacky clothes on them. They may even decide to make a snowpeople village, complete with snowmamas and snowbabies!

For the winter months, change up the décor of the kids playhouse by adding a snowman motif that would include a border around the wall, snowmen curtains, and lots of plush snowmen scattered around the playhouse.

Make a funky snowman pillow with your little one. Using a white pillow case, pull the inside down about 3 inches and wrap it with a rubber band. Then, stuff it full of cotton stuffing or old sheets. Once it is full, wrap the middle with a length of ribbon to create a “belt” on the snowman. This will also make it look as if it has a midsection. Finish by closing up with the bottom with Velcro that can be stuck on like stickers. Then, draw on any facial features that you want. You could also add embellishments to the front to create the look of clothing.

Your family’s kids playhouse can definitely be holly and jolly for the holidays. A little paint, a little creativity, mixed with a little time, and your family’s playhouse should make it “cool” enough for any snowman that your kids want to hang out with! They are sure to have a ball!

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Many people don’t have the space for an indoor kids playhouse.  But that didn’t stop Gillian, a mother and blogger at Dried Figs and Wooden Spools, who turned a spare closet into a playhouse.  Yep, she was resourceful and creative.

She was able to stencil flowers on the closet wall, with the help of her son…cute, huh?  Also, because closets don’t usually have windows, look at how she created a “window” with curtains for this kids playhouse.

The playhouse is decked out with a play kitchen, a baby cradle and other fun toys.  So now when you tell your kids you don’t have room for an indoor kids playhouse…hmmm…you may have to rethink your answer!

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Here are some great peaks inside multiple kids playhouses.  After you check these pictures out, please let me know what playhouse is your favorite!

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Blending favorites and a kids playhouse are a super way to ensure that your child will have a blast when he or she has playtime. Your little one will feel like their world has been transformed when you work together to turn their playhouse into a storybook adventure featuring their absolute favorite book and its characters! You may be wondering how you can pull off such a metamorphosis without too much stress and/or money. It can be done by using a few simple, and inexpensive, decorating tricks.

Here’s how you can turn that kids playhouse into a marvelous dream:

Choose the main scene that your child loves from their favorite book. Let this scene dictate the color of the kids playhouse walls. If it’s a walk in the park, then opt for sky colored walls or forest green to represent the trees in the park. If it’s a scene that takes place high atop a building, you may choose colors such as steel gray or brick red.

After selecting the wall colors, you may decide to actually recreate that scene with photos, drawings, or decals. Consider bringing the scene to life with decals that help the image to “pop”. If you can’t find the specific elements that you may need such as buildings, trees, or even candy, you can use other general design elements to make them.  For instance, to make clouds on the kids playhouse wall, you could use pure white decals from a cheap dollar store decal set that can be cut to look like clouds.  For something silly like foot prints, use blank brightly colored dollar store decals that you can mix and match, and cut to look like big feet!

Set up an area in the kids playhouse where your child can dress up like his or her favorite character from the book. The experience wouldn’t be the same without being able to look like the people or things from the book!

Have an area of the kids playhouse, potentially the loft area, where you stencil or type out words and passages from the book. This will serve to encourage your child to read also! This would also be a fantastic place to have a book nook if their favorite book is a part of a series.

Your family’s kids playhouse will be the ultimate play station for your little one when you decorate it so that their favorite book becomes real for him or her. Your little one is likely to be the envy of the kid set with such a cool place to have fun. Plus, just think of how excited your child will be about reading even more!

Technorati Tags: Kids Playhouse, Kids playhouse design, kids playhouse ideas, Reading

Did you  know a kids playhouse can be decorated with butterflies to suit any butterfly-loving little girl or boy?! In fact, butterflies are very gender neutral and are easily adapted for boys or girls when it comes to using them to make a play space more personalized and fun. When most people think of butterflies, they only consider its use for “girly girl” type of designs, but that is not the only way to accessorize with them. Check out these really cool ways to deck out a kids playhouse with these wonderful winged creatures:

For boys: Select butterflies that are true to life to create a very natural look for the kids playhouse. Your playhouse walls can pop in 3-D by adding those “life like” butterflies to the wall. It will look as if the butterflies are hanging out with your little boy in his playhouse. To make it blend even more, paint the lower half of the wall to look like tall grass and fields. Then, stick those funky butterflies to the walls.

Use colors of brown, tan, green, gold, and blue to give the kids playhouse a more masculine look. Set up an area where he can do some scientific investigations with real butterflies that includes a microscope and bug boxes for capturing butterflies. He will need a net and possibly even a camera.

For girls: Let pink and purple butterflies charge their way into her kids playhouse. There are so many fun and abstract butterfly decal sets that you won’t have to paint the butterflies on the wall yourself because you will be able to find a set at places such as the local dollar store. Go for really cool butterfly inspired curtains, rugs, knob and door pulls. Get really creative and let some sparkly butterflies hang down from the ceiling to look as if they are flying and flitting around the room.

Your girl will need her own butterfly wings, of course. Set up a dress up area where she can change into her butterfly costume. You may be able to find wings and a more elaborate costume at your local thrift store or at a yard sale, or you could always make her a set using your own creativity and craft skills.

Butterflies will make any kids playhouse a beautiful sanctuary for play, research, or just for admiring these graceful insects. Your child, whether it’s a boy or girl, can have a fantastic butterfly inspired kids playhouse. Just be creative, choose colors that are more suited to your child, and watch as hours just fly by because your kids will be having the time of their lives!

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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