Family: Lynne, Ed & Amelia (5)
Location: Portland, OR

We took our empty, covered porch and turned it into a wonderful play area for our fanciful five-year-old and her friends. Knowing that I wanted to create a light, airy, and super-feminine cottage, I bought a dark wood, much-abused playhouse on Craigslist, cleaned and painted it, added paper embellishments from a scrapbook store and affixed these wonderful pink flourish vinyl decals on clearance at Michael's...

I also decorated the outside with IKEA picture frames featuring my favorite paper remnants, hung a great pink lantern from the ceiling, and gave our daughter her own green lawn—a piece of artificial turf offset by a white picket fence with climbing plastic roses! IKEA hot-pink polka dotted curtains conceal the play porch cupboard for storing play kitchen staples, and nestled next to it, I created a mini-grocery store and kitchen with a shopping cart and wooden refrigerator bought at a garage sale, scalloped white shelves refinished from a thrift store, a pint-sized kitchen table and chairs that I painted, and an extra seating area with a small rug and rocking chairs for easy conversation.

Needless to say, Amelia’s cottage play house is the hit of the neighborhood!

Of course it is! Thanks Lynne!