Extreme Makeover: Playhouse edition! {Part 1}

Friday, April 29, 2011

Extreme Makeover: Playhouse edition! {Part 1}

Our playhouse is SO cute! It is...my hubby decided, a few years back, that he wanted to make our daughter a playhouse. But, the time and cost was a lot! Instead, he found one on Ebay and trucked it to our house! Funny thing is that it cost less to do it that way than he could even buy the supplies for it!

Playhouse: Circa 2007

Well, it's had lots of use over the last three plus years. Lots...so much so that the inside is just depressing! So, I told my seven year old daughter that our spring break was going to be all about having a make-over for the inside of her playhouse and she got to choose whatever colors she wanted - from the vast array of paint I already had on hand, that is! This was going to be on the cheap....so, she chose to paint the walls yellow {with the leftovers from the kids bathroom} and paint a bench green {with leftover paint from our green powder room}.

If I don't keep up in there, it gets trashed! Not a fun place to be.

As you can see, the inside of the playhouse looks pretty nasty. So, the kids started by priming the entire inside - it's all plywood! Yes, I said the kids...I didn't do it! This was the perfect opportunity to let them paint and learn how to do it on something that I wasn't overly concerned about! The loved it!

The kids had paint in their hair for weeks, but it was a lot of fun for them!

Once they primed it, it looked like this:

They actually did all this themselves, after a short lesson from mom on how to paint.

Much improved, and then they painted it yellow {semi-gloss}:

The semi-gloss is actually great to keep it clean and wipe up stuff!

Rachel and I scoured thrift stores together. We found curtains in green {with rubber backing on it} for $2 a panel. I cut and sewed a hem. {Yes, I actually sewed, which my daughter was shocked because she didn't even know that I could use a sewing machine}.

The green curtains have rubber backing on them so they are perfect for outdoors!

We found sheets that matched to use on our bench that we found at a thrift store - to cover some old chair pads we had from my bench in my awkward room {I got a new pad and my mom made the current one that's on there}. I was specifically looking for a bench that was VERY sturdy because lots and lots of kids would be climbing on it.

Rachel's friend/neighbor was a "workhorse" and did a great job painting, too!

Here is Rachel and her friend painting the coffee table. I had a $20 limit - and this was $20! They primed it and then painted it green! Since we had curtains in there before {but they were a bit sad now} there were already curtain rods but had gotten a little rusty. I spray painted them with some silver paint I had leftover.

I used a pizza box to hold all the rings and rods.

There were also plans for this area with the "X" on it! Can you guess what it is?

Looking good...

There was also a trip to a very fun place...

ReStore has all kinds of building supplies!

If you've never gone to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, it's a great place to find stuff for your house {or for us, playhouse} for a great price. I bought three sets of shutters for the windows on the playhouse for $2 each!! I bought a bifold door {which my hubby hopes to turn into a door} for $10, and the hinges were 50 cents each. I also bought some door knobs for $1 each.

Now, you want to see it, right? Well, you're going to have to wait! I'll show you the whole thing done next Friday!! Stay tuned....and keep watching cause it's SUPER cute!!

Parties: