Childs wooden playhouse

[Bikesalot]

Daughter turns 3 in a few weeks and we want to get her a wooden (don’t like the look of plastic) playhouse for the garden. We’re fortunate enough to have a sizeable garden so any playhouse won’t be over bearing.

I’m interested to know any particular supplier / reviews people have used before. Here is a link of the sort of thing we’re after https://www.screwfix.com/p/shire-pixie-6-x-4-nomin...

My intention would be to put the play house on a base so it doesn’t rot from the bottom up, I do appreciate there is a limit to the quality for the value spent..circa £500 maximum for the playhouse.

All suggestions welcome!

[Rampant Golf]

We got our outdoor play set from here:

https://www.outdoortoys.com/products/rebo-lookout-...

Good quality and has stood up to the children and their friends abusing it for 5 years. Its due some treatment but there are no signs of rot, it just needs a freshen up.

[Purosangue]

without doubt the two best things I ever bought for our kids was a "built it yourself Big Backyard house with swings and slides ...and also a bouncy castle .

as it came with a manual and over 1000 parts ..






so well built has lasted over 12 years ,

bouncy castle was £400 , absolutely brilliant .. ended up having neighbours kids playing in the garden most of the summer

[kambites]

I looked at all the climbing frame/playhouse kits and they all seemed a bit... half-arsed so I ended up building one from scratch. I wanted it to be solid/waterproof enough that she could use it with her friends in poor weather, which nothing commercially available really seemed to be designed for. It ended up with a little four-seater picnic bench thing inside at one end, and just open space at the other, and it worked really well for somewhere to play when she had a few friends 'round, regardless of the weather.

It's gone now and sadly I don't really have a decent picture of it. This terrible thing taken by my daughter when she was about six with her finger half over the lens is the only one I really have.



I think it cost me a couple of hundred quid to build, but that was pre-covid so you can probably double that now. When I came to tear it down 6-7 years after building it, I realised I'd probably rather over-engineered it.

Edited by kambites on Friday 16th January 21:09

[TT86]

We went with this one from TP toys

https://www.tptoys.com/products/lavender-cottage-w...

Added the wooden side shutters. They are always on sale, I think we purchased at 20% off.

I went a bit OTT with it and treated all the knots properly and painted it up very well. Used felt shingles on the roof (it doesn't come with a roof covering). £30ish on Amazon and look super.

For the base I fitted some thin timber bearers and it's sitting on gravel grids as it's on a flower bed. Been in 18 months and no signs of any issues.

My 4 and 2 year old girls love it

[beambeam1]

We bought ours in 2024 from BillyOh! but the one we have doesn't seem to be listed anymore. Grand little thing, the perspex windows are a bit thin but the girls love it. I have had a small issue with water soaking the front as you can see in the first image, monitoring to see where the issue stems from and think I need to extend the roof overhang a little.





It is set between raised flowerbeds and sits on slabs and gravel grids. We keep an Ikea PLUFSIG folding mat inside it to make it a bit softer inside for the girls. I have wired an outdoor plug behind it and the plan is to turn it into a mini-cinema room for the girls and their cousins as they get older with some beanbags.

Edited by beambeam1 on Friday 16th January 23:40

[DonkeyApple]

kambites said:

I looked at all the climbing frame/playhouse kits and they all seemed a bit... half-arsed so I ended up building one from scratch. I wanted it to be solid/waterproof enough that she could use it with her friends in poor weather, which nothing commercially available really seemed to be designed for. It ended up with a little four-seater picnic bench thing inside at one end, and just open space at the other, and it worked really well for somewhere to play when she had a few friends 'round, regardless of the weather.

It's gone now and sadly I don't really have a decent picture of it. This terrible thing taken by my daughter when she was about six with her finger half over the lens is the only one I really have.



I think it cost me a couple of hundred quid to build, but that was pre-covid so you can probably double that now. When I came to tear it down 6-7 years after building it, I realised I'd probably rather over-engineered it.

Edited by kambites on Friday 16th January 21:09

Of course it was. Not at all taken by you during lockdown after the usual breakfast of gin on weetabix.

[Danns]

TT86 said:

We went with this one from TP toys

https://www.tptoys.com/products/lavender-cottage-w...

Added the wooden side shutters. They are always on sale, I think we purchased at 20% off.

I went a bit OTT with it and treated all the knots properly and painted it up very well. Used felt shingles on the roof (it doesn't come with a roof covering). £30ish on Amazon and look super.

For the base I fitted some thin timber bearers and it's sitting on gravel grids as it's on a flower bed. Been in 18 months and no signs of any issues.

My 4 and 2 year old girls love it

Cracking job on that, love the additional details - exact thing I’d do.

And a timely thread, also on the hunt for exactly this sort of thing, keep them coming!

[UTH]

Purosangue said:

without doubt the two best things I ever bought for our kids was a "built it yourself Big Backyard house with swings and slides ...and also a bouncy castle .

as it came with a manual and over 1000 parts ..






so well built has lasted over 12 years ,

bouncy castle was £400 , absolutely brilliant .. ended up having neighbours kids playing in the garden most of the summer

What’s your neighbour situation?
When I lived in Fulham, gardens stacked next to each other like a sardine can, in Covid our neighbour got a bouncy castle. The noise all fking day long drove about 30 people mad. I assume, because that’s probably how many people could hear it.

[Vincecj]

We used to build these. If you're going to build one yourself, allow for the growth of the child.

[Glassman]

When my two were young, I picked one up from an eBay seller. Whilst not enormous, it was large enough to have an upstairs in it (a section of floor about the size of a single bed) with a five-runged ladder rising up to it. From memory, I paid about £400.00 for it and hired a truck to collect it from Cambridge.

The main house was four panels. I bought two new sheets of shuttering ply for the roof and, with the help of a friend, constructed a frame to sit on stilts for the floor.

I loved doing it and saved a big chunk of money against what a new one of that size and style would have cost. Completed over a long weekend.

[alfabeat]

I built this years ago for my kids....I loved it :-)

Rope swings, rickety bridge, climbing wall, slide, cargo nets.....They loved it until they grew up :-(

[SKM1984]

If your anywhere near Derby we have a wooden swing set and slide/play house we want gone

[andyxxx]

I built a frame from scratch (purchased the plastic slide) which I attached to a large tree house.
I enjoyed designing and building it at a fraction of the cost of flat pack.

However neither of my girls used the tree house more than a handful of times (cos spiders/creepy crawlies)
They loved the climbing frame but the best bang for buck was undoubtedly the trampoline.

[kambites]

andyxxx said:

However neither of my girls used the tree house more than a handful of times (cos spiders/creepy crawlies)

Fortunately my daughter loves spiders and such like.

[Bikesalot]

Thanks all, in true PH fashion my definition of sizeable garden is vastly different to others.

Really like some of the examples above, particularly TT86 choice of colours.

Settled on this; https://rowlinsongarden.co.uk/playaway-playhouse-p... Have got a roll of thicker roof felt I’ll use and it’s going on a gravel grid base I’m yet to prepare….

[Purosangue]

UTH said:

Purosangue said:

without doubt the two best things I ever bought for our kids was a "built it yourself Big Backyard house with swings and slides ...and also a bouncy castle .

as it came with a manual and over 1000 parts ..






so well built has lasted over 12 years ,

bouncy castle was £400 , absolutely brilliant .. ended up having neighbours kids playing in the garden most of the summer

What s your neighbour situation?
When I lived in Fulham, gardens stacked next to each other like a sardine can, in Covid our neighbour got a bouncy castle. The noise all fking day long drove about 30 people mad. I assume, because that s probably how many people could hear it.

No problem at all Bouncy castle came out in the summer at weekends and parties , Fortunately we are surrounded by trees wood at the sides , large gardens ( New Forest ) so neighbours couldn't hear it .

one of the reasons we moved so as to have a peaceful large garden

[UTH]

Purosangue said:

No problem at all Bouncy castle came out in the summer at weekends and parties , Fortunately we are surrounded by trees wood at the sides , large gardens ( New Forest ) so neighbours couldn't hear it .

one of the reasons we moved so as to have a peaceful large garden

In that case, bloody awesome. Think I’d be doing the same.