Our “Playhouse under the stairs”!

My hubby was doing some traveling for work over the last 2 weeks…so of course that  meant it was time to take on a new project! This time, I decided to finally convert the space under our basement stairs into a playhouse for Liam and Emily.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now, and thanks to inspiration from Pinterest, my friend Janny, HGTV, and the wonders of Google and YouTube, I finally made it happen!! I think it’s genetic, taking on projects around the house with an independent spirit.  I remember a story of my dad falling asleep on the couch one afternoon and when he woke up, my mom had wallpapered the entire room around him…so there ya go, it clearly runs in the family 🙂

Here’s what the space looked like before (minus the expedit shelf that was in front)…I started by taping out a rough idea of how I hoped the design would come together.  I tore down the existing drywall and put up some new framing for a  window and door, then put up some new drywall.Let’s just say, I won’t be offering my drywall services professionally anytime soon. But all in all, it’s “good enough” for our little playhouse. I would definitely try it again…practice makes perfect. I covered the outside walls with inexpensive cedar shingles and stained them a dark brown.  I let Liam pick the colour…and man did I try hard to convince him that we should make it blue, but he was dead set on brown, saying “mom, it’s my FAVOURITE colour!”, which was news to me. The door was actually a 24″ standard door that my dad helped me cut down to about 54″ high.  I cut out a spot for the window and a mail slot, and added some trim.  My dad helped me put up an exterior light and worked on the electrical stuff. Inside, I painted the walls white and put down some vinyl wood flooring.   And here’s how my little project turned out! We’ve got some decorating to do inside (and a door knob and door bell for the outside)!  So far, it’s got our play kitchen, a toy workbench and all of our dress up costumes. It’s not perfect, but it’s still pretty awesome and the kids are having a lot of fun with it.  I can’t wait to put Christmas lights on it 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Pam

(the word art on the photos posted here are digital stamps by Ali Edwards, available here and here 🙂 )