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For my daughter’s birthday, we got her the KidKraft Modern Outdoor Wooden Play House. I’m sharing how we built it and what we think so far!
I think its every kid’s dream to have their own play house. When I was growing up, it was those hollow plastic fisher-price houses. Apparently now its sleek modern cedar sided houses with picnic tables 😅. Of course we could have gone with something simpler, but honestly for the price of this vs the price of less involved play houses… it was a worthy investment.
I chose the KidKraft Modern Outdoor Wooden Play House because it was aesthetically pleasing. It also had the most opportunity to personalize it. I kept seeing DIYs pop up on Pinterest of them painted in cute colors and really wanted to do that. (But that’s for another post).
The prep
We don’t have a nice, flat yard to build this on. In fact, we lovingly refer to our backyard as the ski slope. Its amazing in the winter for sledding… not so much for building play houses. Or anything else.
Our side yard near our fenced-in garden was the clear winner for location. It still needed some leveling to make it an ideal spot, though. We thought building a wooden deck platform was going to be the best option, but lumber is astronomical right now. Instead, my husband bought a few lengths of landscape timbers and created a level 8’x8′ pad. We ordered a yard of pea sized gravel and packed it in to create a nice surface for the play house that could handle the elements.
The total cost of the pad was about $175. The timbers and screws/brackets were about $90 and the gravel (delivered) was $85. This figure can swing pretty drastically in either direction based on where you live, how big/deep your pad is, etc.
We built the pad the weekend before we ended up building the house. With 2 kids, even the best laid plans get derailed sometimes! It worked out for the best though because we got some good rain in the week it sat and washed some of the dirt and sand off the gravel.
Before we started building, I arranged all the pieces in a semi-numeric order. The box it came in was very neatly arranged and none of the parts were damaged. The package with all the screws, etc. was also well done and clearly labeled. Each piece has a little sticker with a number on it that corresponds to the instructions. I assumed that even if they weren’t assembled in order, it would be easiest to find them if they were laid out that way. This took maybe 15 minutes, but saved us lots of time overall.
The build
My husband and I tackled this on a Saturday morning and it was done before breakfast. We are both handy people and have plenty of tools at our disposal. The play house was easy enough to build that I’m confident anyone could do it, but I definitely think we had the upper hand.
Since the play house is not designed for adults, space was a factor. My husband did most of the building and I did the holding/prepping/piece grabbing. The instructions didn’t have any writing in them, but the pictures and diagrams were easy to understand and didn’t leave room for interpretation. There were only a few steps that had us hesitate but they were quickly figured out.
I really liked that almost every single hole was pre-drilled and in the correct location! Too many times I’ve gone to build something and the holes won’t line up or don’t even exist. This was not the case here. If something didn’t line up correctly, it was because we had it backwards or upside-down.
From start to finish it took us 3 hours. The last hour of which our oldest was awake and “helping”. We read reviews online and went in to it knowing it took some people 2 hours and some people 12. Luckily we fell in to the much shorter range and are so happy with how it came together!
The results and future plans
We built the house about a month ago and our daughter is obsessed. She has a bin full of wooden play food that she cooks and serves us every time we’re out there. The features on the play house are so cute, too. It has curtains, a picnic bench, a grill with knobs that click when they’re turned, and a tiny kitchen sink. The exterior has a silver wooden mailbox and chalkboard for little restauranteurs to post their menus.
I have big plans for this outdoor wooden play house! I want to paint the exterior a fun color, obviously. Plus, I bought house numbers and a dinner bell to hang, too. I’d also like to replace the curtains with something a little cuter and add a window box with some plants.
Overall I’m very happy with the quality of this modern outdoor wooden play house. It’s cedar which will stand the test of time, and perfect for my imaginative daughter to flex her creative muscles. I can’t wait to watch her spend countless hours playing in it this summer!
