Every little girl dreams of the perfect little playhouse. I decided to glam up this simple playhouse and turn it into the dreamiest addition to our backyard. All it needed was a little paint and a few accessories.
Here are the supplies you need to create your own DREAMHOUSE:
Kidkraft Gardenview Playhouse
2 Wooden pallets
4’x8’ Advantech board
1 gallon White semi-gloss exterior paint
1 quart SW Downing Pink semi-gloss exterior paint
2 cans Black semi-gloss plastic spray paint
1 can Gold plastic spray paint
Accessories: House number, wreath, faux potted plant, garden lantern
We started with this affordable KidKraft cedar playhouse kit. It already came with a mailbox, phone, working doorbell, chalkboards with clocks and awning.
We assembled the “skeleton“ of the house and painted it with an exterior white semi-gloss with primer. I was glad we spring for the paint with primer. It took two coats to cover. It would have taken three or four without it.
Audrey even helped with this part. The window panes and chalkboards are plastic so any over painting was easily scraped off. There was no need to do the tedious job of laying down painter‘s tape.
Before assembling the rest of the house I spray painted the roof with a semi-gloss spray paint. You really can use any spray paint as long as it says “for plastic”. Other spray paint will peel off easily. It took a good two coats but really could have used a third. You can see below how very little the first coat covered.
Then I spray painted the mailbox gold. Once it was dry I was able to add the door and flag and attach it to the house.
I painted the front door with an exterior semi-gloss paint in Sherwood Williams Downing Pink. I also used two coats on the door. It ended up being the perfect pink!!!
This playhouse does not have a floor and you know how muddy and messy it can get so I decided to add a floor and a porch.
This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. We got two wood pallets to raise it off the ground and one large piece of Advantech 4’x8’. This is the wood they use for the flooring in your home. It’s a very rough wood so I painted it with the same white exterior paint as the house to prevent splinters. I did two good coats.
It was now ready to move to the backyard and start assembling! We didn’t add the ledges until it was in the backyard because it wouldn’t fit through the gate. *Note that you might want to measure before completely assembling. You might have the same problem. We also didn’t want to add the roof before moving because it would make it heavy.
We laid the pallets down and the painted Advantech on top. We then laid the frame of the house on top toward the back so it was flush with the backside. This allowed for a few feet of front porch.
Then we just started assembling the rest! I would like to say it came together easily, but it did not. We kept having an issue with the roof not being flush to the frame. We ended up going ahead and screwing it in and you couldn’t tell. We later realized the roof‘s windows were supposed to be on the sides and not the front and back. Oops!!! I thought that was a poor design and the windows being on the side would have been boring so we kept it the way it was! I’m so glad we did. My design is way better LOL!!!
Once everything was assembled, I painted the ledges we had to add and started decorating. You know the details are what makes a great dream house!!! I added a house number, faux potted plant that I actually found in the attic, a wreath my mom made from a couple ropes of ivy and a garden lantern complete with a battery operated tea light for summer evenings.
We still need to plant some flowers in the window box, but we have all summer to do that. They will enjoy this for years to come and the best part is that it’s not another ugly kid‘s toy junking up the yard. It’s a quaint little addition. 😊💕
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