Saturday, February 19, 2011

Crafty Mama:How to make a box playhouse

One of my fab friends had us over the other day and they had a playhouse, which Ella absolutely adored.   So, i started the search for the perfect playhouse.

Unfortunately, the one I wanted, was $350 online! Yikes!  Here's a pic of the one online:





Time to whip out the glue gun i guess!

Type A crafty Mama's steps to making a girly playhouse:

What you'll need and costs:
1. Wine...any kind, color or price will do. The higher the alcohol percentage the better your box playhouse will look.
2 large box (so free) and a large peice of cardboard for roof (more free, yay);
3. Fabric, enough to cover inside and outside of box ($15 for 3 pink gingham showercurtains off craigslist)
4. Glue...a LOT of glue (a large bottle 16 oz is about $6 at Walmart). I like Arlene's, way better than average white glue (more stickier as my friend Bri would say);
5. Duct tape, don't buy the cheap kind like I did (about $5 at Walmart);
6. Kraft dinner box (wooohooo KD for lunch) yet another free box;
7. More fabric for curtains (you can use old tableclothes, pillowcases, whatever or visit the Thrift shop. I cut up an old bedskirt)
8. Ribbon (i just used what I had around house)
9. Fake flowers (I had some, but Thrift stores have tons or Walmart)
10. Brown felt, light brown and dark brown are cute together but you can use one color. Or use fabric, no biggie at all.  Cost is about $10 for a yard (i got 2 yards on sale 1/2 price);
11. Old sheet, fabric, towel whatever for the floor (freeeeee);
12.  White paint (craft paint at Walmart is about $2);
13.  Wine, any kind.

Steps:

1. Ensure wine is close at hand...so far so good;
2. Cut your cardboard peice to fit the box and bend in half
3. Use massive amounts of duct tape to secure to box roof;
4. Use colored felt marker to outline your doors and windows (i used a peice of paper for window outline. I also made sure to centre the doorway;
5. Cut out windows and door;



Ok!  We have the basic playhouse, now for the fun part, DECORATING IT!
4. Measure your box sides and ceiling;
5. Have huge gulp of wine;
6. Cut your fabric to fit (plllleassse don't worry if you overlap, it so doesn't matter, I cut and pasted fabric inside and it looks just fine);
7. For the roof,  I made a cardboard form for the shingles and just outlined a whole bunch of peices with a marker then cut them all out;
8.  Start at bottom and place shingles left to right with shingles and overlap sides a bit;
9.  When you start the next row, make sure to overlap 1st shingle row as well;
10. For the peak, place shingles left to right, then right to left until they come together in the middle.  Then use an oval shingle in the middle




8.  Raid cupboard for cookies, chocolate you've hidden from husband or some kind of sugar based food (chips count);
9. Wash junk food down with wine..ok, good to go, let's continue;
10.  For the floor, I used an old foam baby play mat for padding and covered it with a pink crib sheet;
11. Cut Kraft dinner box in half and paint white;
12. Wooohoooo GLUE GUN TIME! Celebrate with wine;
13.  Glue your flowers into the KD box and then glue box under windowsill;




14.  Cut your curtain fabric to size and glue over windows and doors (i glued fabric onto a peice of cardboard then glued cardboard onto inside of house);
15.  Glue ribbon onto side of house and tie back curtains;
16.  Ignore husband asking "What's for dinner" (if he persists, advise Domino's Pizza is speed dial #9);
17.  Sit back and enjoy your fancy schmancy new playhouse (I also advise making a sign that says "The lights are on but nobody's home" for new Moms such as myself...just a suggestion.




MY TOTAL COST:  $36

1 comment:

  1. Love the idea. I'm going to have to make this dream come true<3 thanks.

    ReplyDelete