Family: Jeff, Jen, Joshua & Justin (19 months)
Location: Crystal Lake, IL
We scoured Craigslist and garage sale listings to find second-hand outdoor toys for our twin boys who are 19-months-old. We lucked out and got a playhouse and an infamous Cozy Coupe car from a neighbor down the street.
We scoured Craigslist and garage sale listings to find second-hand outdoor toys for our twin boys who are 19-months-old. We lucked out and got a playhouse and an infamous Cozy Coupe car from a neighbor down the street. They were very well-loved, worn and faded. A little elbow grease, some spray paint for plastic and creative shopping online yielded some very fun results. Our kids now have a fort and arguably the coolest car in town. Plus we saved two large plastic toys from a destiny in a landfill and gave them new life. Now our yard is a fun place for our kids and they really love their "new" toys.
Thanks Jen & Jeff! What a fun re-fresh you did on these! Readers, catch up with this family at Go Team Wood.
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Love this! Nice job!
You just inspired me to give my kids' tired looking playhouse a fresh coat of paint this summer!
We've just been planning to do this to our outdoor playhouse - also a craigslist find. Our home depot doesn't carry any fun colors of spray paint for plastic so we haven't started painting yet. I'll send pics when we're done! Good job :D
OMG, I want that car. Off to scour my local listings....
this is so awesome.
we have that same playhouse- my parents kept mine and its in great condition. my daughter loves to play in it. i think your kiddos will too- especially since its all tricked out!
That car looks amazing!
I love this! I'm curious if they could share what kind of paint they used and how much it ended up costing. I'm worried that I will spend a fortune on plastic paint, which is not cheap.
We used krylon fusion spray paint for plastic. It was $6/can. We went to two different home improvement centers which didn't stick krylon. Ultimately we found it at ace hardware.
The house was 4 cans total, two for the brown, one green and one orange for the chimney. The car was 2 cans- white and red. Used the red to touch up the doorway.
Free car, free playhouse, $40 in paint total for both projects.
Dear self,
Learn to read better, I thought it said 'mistakes' rather than 'makeovers'. and was horrified that ohdeedoh would call these children mistakes.
When I saw this I was amused. I was raised in Crystal Lake and a friend of mine in elementary school had that same playhouse on her porch. I couldn't help but wonder if it was the same one!
(Their house was on the corner of University and Wallace Ave.)
Awesome!!! My husband loves it, too, and he usually couldn't care less about this stuff. The mini symbol on the front of the car is the best! How did you paint the flag on the top?
The flag was a custom order vinyl from etsy. It was a splurge but was much easier than painting the union jack on top.
Super cute! I bet the neighbors down the street want them back.
If you contact Little Tikes, they can send a sheet of new decals for the gauges and mirrors to refurbish a Cozy Coupe. Also decals for the stove in the playhouse.
i love the cabin, all it needs is it's own little gnome to inhabit it.
brilliant! i'm inspired.
We just got a Little Tykes playhouse from a garage sale and I'm ready to paint it but after I went to Lowes I was uninspired by the plastic paint choices. Looks like I"ll have to hit Ace - thanks for the tips! You guys did a great job!
totally awesome! I have a badly sun damaged Ikea play table outside and some new paint will totally be the trick. Thanks for sharing!
The Union Jack decal...what vendor did you purchase it from on etsy? I love the redo....would like to try to make one for my son, I have a mini and it would be awesome to have a mini cozy coupe!