All month long we are looking outside for fun, which means lots of wonderful playhouses. But how do you choose? The hope is that these little places will provide several years of fun, so parents want to get it right when it comes to size, materials and other considerations.
Wood or plastic? From an aesthetic and environmental standpoint most parents are likely to favor wood, but it may require more maintenance when left outside to withstand the elements all year, and it can be a haven for wasps. As we have seen in several makeovers, plastic is easily gussied up with special spray paint, and it is easy to clean.
What's the right size? It should be big enough for a child to invite a friend or two inside, but it shouldn't devour too much backyard real estate.
What matters most to the average child? None of the above. We've seen kids take equal pleasure in beautiful custom playhouses and garish plastic numbers picked from the curb. When all is said and done, a playhouse needs to be inviting to its little occupants, but for design-minded parents it also needs to be copacetic with the landscape.
How did you choose?
(Image: KidKraft)
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$15 at a garage sale made the decision easy for us! Plus, it was really amusing to my son and me to watch my husband drive home with the plastic playhouse strapped to the top of his bright red VW beetle!
i want to build something that is both inviting to my kids and a place that us adults can use to get out of the sun or rain. i'm going with a slightly elevated, standalone covered deck. hopefully this fall or next spring!
www.kidscrookedhouse.com.
we entered a survey & chance to win won last fall & we won! it totally makes our backyard & our kids (and all the neighborhood kids) love it!
Our Playhouse was featured last week on this site, and I feel that while a wooden house would be lovely, ours was more environmentally sound since it was literally a discard saved from a destiny in a landfill. Sure, buying new wood would seem greener, but there is no shortage of used plastic ones for cheap (or, in our case, free!) that can find new life with a new family.
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/my-great-outdoors-2011/two-tremendous-little-tikes-makeovers-my-great-outdoors-149379
Our playhouse was an easy pick - it was put out in the trash and we were driving by!
http://ana-white.com/2010/05/playhouse-gable-end-walls
This is the playhouse we are building for our kids. If you don't raise it above the ground and do the bare minimum in decorating extras and get the OSB board on sale (for $7 a sheet like we did) you could do it for around $100.
We built one because we will have to look at it. Plastic play houses - and my daughter has a great time in them - evoke this profoundly depressing vibe of 80s home daycare for me. It's easier to give away later if you get a freebie plastic one though vs. building it yourself!
I got my son a plastic play house, we got it on craigslist about 3 months ago and I am spraying it, so it's a bit more boyish.. I would love a wooden house for him but I know he will only really play in it for acouple of years. I would much prefer to put that money to something else that he can enjoy for longer or buy him a really nice bit of furniture etc etc