What the what? Playhouses

When I was a little kid, I always dreamed of having a playhouse in our backyard. So now that I have my own baby girl, I thought it might be nice to investigate getting one for her.   Granted, our backyard is postage stamp size and we live right near a great park and I'm sure once she is old enough to play in it, she will be driving a hoovercraft to preschool but a girl can dream, right?  So off to google I went and found this.

in case you are made of money, buy it here
WHAT THE WHAT?  Aside from not having room for a second home in my backyard, I will most definitely not be shelling out twenty large for a child's toy. But I wont lie - I would love to! 

Forget giving it to my daughter, I want to be the lucky kid that gets to play here.  Look at that outfit she is wearing on her hot date!  Is that couture?  I die.

Alas my child will have to rough it with something more pedestrian.  Do you have a playhouse?  Did you DIY or buy?  Does your child actually play in it or is it just a giant paperweight?  Please share.


  1. haha! I love your comments about that playhouse! I agree that it is aggressive!

    I'm also thinking about a playhouse for our kiddos but it would be a DIY project... once we decide to ever get around to doing it.

    Out neighbors have a "tree house" which is almost like a mini mansion with a hot tub in the bottom and a spiral slide... so for now the neighborhood kiddos play at there house.

  2. well. As a child I didn't have any playhouses. Which explain why we have three in our back garden for our daughter. I wanted her to have the things that I didn't have - but desperately craved.

    One of the playhouses - the Fairy Tower - has just had a makeover. We've wallpapered the inside, it's just gorgeous!


    Mulberry Manor went up last year.

    They are so popular when her friends come round. So I say yes, they were worth the money, time and effort. Plus, I sneak in and sit with a magazine and a cup of tea when I want a truly quiet time!

    I agree, that's an awful lot of money for a playhouse, but oh my goodness, if I had the money (and the space) I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

    1. Those are really sweet play houses... it must be so much fun for your child and her friends to play in!

  3. Ha! I wouldn't even want something so so ...

    My child has a teepee in the back yard. And once in a while the lucky girl gets a huge box and we cut out windows and a door! My 10 year old boy still loves playing in a box. (BUT yeah, some playhouses I have seen are really sweet and it would be cool to have in the back yard.)

  4. I should see if I can dig up the photo of the one we had growing up. My dad built it for us, but I don't know if it was a kit, or a plan or what. But my sister and I loved to play in it (well other than the bugs!)

    If I had kids I would definitely want one in my yard!

  5. My sons had a tree house when they were growing up - nothing as fancy as these, by any means, but they loved it. All the boys in the neighborhood played in it. Had lots of water balloon fights from the tree house into the neighbors yard. Lots of fun.

  6. As a parent of 3 kids aged 11, 9 and 5, I highly recommend a play house. That and a play kitchen (inside) are two toys that are worth every penny spent - most kids never tire of them.

  7. One of my favorite blogs has an annual playhouse competition. There are some pretty fabulous designs to review: http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/the-winners-2013-life-of-an-architect-playhouse-design-competition/

    The winning playhouse gets built to raise money for charity.

  8. My date built me a playhouse in the backyard with plywood sides and a tarp roof. I think I played in it for 2 weeks and then got bored. Treehouse would have been cooler!

  9. We have a little land so my husband & my son built a fort in our woods together. The experience was so much fun for both of them. We also made a teepee for him in a clearing in our woods (which just collapsed last weekend in a freak late snowstorm in Arkansas!) but my son is 20 now so it stood there for a long time. We always had some kind of garden house in the summer too - a sunflower house, an arch covered with cucumer vines & morning glories, ect.

    Actually the best play houses were blanket forts inside. He played in them so much more than anything else we did with him. From the time he was a toddler through to about 10 or 12 he loved these. When he was small I made them & as he grew he would build elaborate blanket forts. My rule was to build them on very hot days when it was just too hot to be outside or cold winter days. They could only stay up for a week - the longest I could handle the chaos. He slept in them, had snacks in them, played with friends....they were so much fun & one of my favorite memories.

    And I didn't have an extra room for these forts either - they were always in the living room where anyone who came to my front door could see them. We just lived around them & played with him. It really was worth the stress of having the mess for a week at a time.

  10. We used to go to a church that had an adobe playhouse the kids had made themselves. I'm seriously considering something similar. In the mean time, they have a hedge tunnel in the yard. :)

  11. Build one yourself! My father and I designed and built this play castle together for the Dayton showhouse a couple of years ago. It was a blast and only cost about $400 for materials :)


  12. I had a playhouse when I was a kid. My mom and I built it together (well - she probably did most the actual building). If I recall correctly, it was made out of plywood and had proper roofing and a plexiglass window. I loved it until it got too spidery. And then we got an alaskan malamute for a pet and when it outgrew its puppy sized house (didn't take long) it moved into the playhouse for awhile and we filled it with cozy hay for her to sleep on, haha.

    We did have an acre sized property at that time of my life, so we had plenty of room for it then.

  13. This was always something I wished for when I was a little girl. I was never lucky enough to have one of my own.

    If you are curious about the luxe world of child's playhouses, you need to check out the Posh Tots website. They are magical, and would require me to take out a mortgage to afford one!

  14. We had a little playhouse that was purchased at Home Depot , it was wood with shake roof, it was cute, but very small so they out grew it very quickly.
    I built a backyard bunkie for all sized people and that was less than $4000, $20,000 for a kids playhouse , insane.

  15. We have a tiny yard and fit a small playhouse in. We put it together a few years ago and I'm happy to say it has been well loved and our 7 year old still plays in it. A larger one would be nice at this point but we don't have the room.

  16. Anonymous10:23 PM

    cardboard box. done.

  17. Whooooa! Looks gorgeous on the outside, but to me it seems that floor plan leaves a lot to be desired for the price paid!

    I kind of had a playhouse as a kid. My dad was building it but never finished when I was young enough to enjoy it, and it now serves as their pool house haha.

    As for Halle, B and I have been talking about a playhouse for her. We may buy something simple, but B also says he'd like to build it. I just hope if we go the "build it" route, that she will actually have a chance to enjoy it, unlike me! ;)

  18. That pretty much is almost fancier than my house. Ridiculous.

  19. Ridiculous and adorable all at the same time.

  20. We had a very tiny lot growing up and 6 kids. My mom and dad build a playhouse. We played in it when we were little and camped out in it when we were tweens. A foam mattress on the floor and a bowl of popcorn were the beginnings of a night of fun for 3 or 4 girls. It had glass windows, a shingled roof, a door that locked from the inside. We would run an extension cord from the big house for light.

  21. We had a tree fort I loved when I was growing up. My two year old daughter has shown no interest in playhouses yet, choosing to play with trucks and wagons instead of in the house when we are in yards that sport them. So, for now, we're holding off. Her interest may change, and we can reconsider later.

  22. 2 boys at my house and we have a play structure, it sure got used up and was worth every penny!! One of my fondest childhood memories was the playhouse that my neighbors had, it was about 6 x 5 brick house in the corner of their yard, I think their grandpa made it, had a shake roof and real door, we played in that thing all summer long. It was awesome!


  24. Both Lowe's and Home Depot have sheds that start under a grand. And Lowe's even has a cute 8x8 Heartland Cobblestone Cottage with some cute details for $1499. You could jazz that up a bit and still come in way under 20 grand. :)



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