A playhouse can be a great option for families with young kids. Little workshops, ice cream shops, or veterinarian offices are great ways for kids to express themselves while playing pretend. Plus, getting children outside and spending less time with electronics is always a bonus.
A project of this scale requires planning and attention to detail in order to transition your storage shed to a playhouse. Depending on the state of your shed’s interior, there might be some work that needs to be done before you can get started with exterior and interior decorating. After all, you want your kids to feel right at home!
Install Insulation
Before you jump into accessorizing your newly converted playhouse, you need to make sure it is properly insulated so your children can enjoy hours of fun in all types of weather.
Insulating the walls, roofs, and floors of a playhouse will not only prevent cold air, hot air, and wind from making their way inside the playhouse, allowing for a comfortable temperature inside, but it also serves an acoustic purpose. Less outside sound is going to penetrate the interior, allowing your kids to fully immerse themselves in their new playhouse.
Add Curtains
To make the interior feel less like a shed and more like the playhouse it has now become, playful and colorful curtains will do a lot to make the interior feel welcoming. This seemingly small detail will go a long way in making your kids feel like they are actually in a small house of their own.
Paint The Walls
If you decide to go for a more vibrant and kid-themed color scheme, it’s a good idea to let them choose the colors that they like. It will let them feel like they’ve really had a hand in building their play space, which they’ll love.
You can even involve them in the painting! Using stencils, they can paint shapes and clouds on the walls, making them feel helpful (and taking some of the work off your hands!).
After the walls are painted, you can put paintings on the wall or add shelves to store their favorite toys and accessories.
Add New Flooring
You can really bring a playhouse together by installing some fun flooring. It’s a good idea to choose a durable material that will hold up against the wear and tear of your children playing with shoes on. A durable vinyl tile is a good material to look at for your playhouse as it will hold up well and can be found in countless styles and colors.
You can also add small rugs to accent the flooring and give kids a comfortable place to play on the floor.
Include Lighting
Many storage sheds don’t have quite enough windows to let enough light in, and if your children plan on playing in the evening and after it gets dark, it is a good idea to install lighting. It’s highly recommended to hire a professional for the original wiring, and if you are thinking about using electricity to power the lights, you are likely going to need a permit to do so.
This option would be the most labor-intensive option as you are going to be running wires through your floor and walls. Also, depending on what type of light set-up you are going for (lamp vs overhead) you might have to install a light switch.
There are battery-operated options out there as well that would be simpler and more cost-effective. Take a look at the options and go with whatever works for you!
Decorate With Furniture and Toys
There are plenty of different stylistic routes you can go depending on what your children like. If they want it to feel like an actual home where they can pretend to be adults and play house, then choosing decor that is child-sized but still looks mature will complement the desired use of the playhouse.
When approaching this theme, consider breaking up the space you have into small “rooms.” One corner can be a kitchen and the other a living room. Furnishing kitchen could be an entire project on its own, but one that could make your children really feel like they are living in their own little house.
If that’s not what your kids are interested in right now, then you can go all out and create a themed room! With some creativity, and even more elbow grease, you can turn the space into a castle, or a ballroom, or even a jungle. Let your kids pick the props, and have them feel truly engaged in the transformation process.
You can always make it feel like an extension of their own room, as well. You can display their books on a shelf and have storage bins filled with their toys. Feel free to include every color of the rainbow with your decor to create an inviting space for them to play in.
Transforming a storage shed into something your children and their friends can enjoy for hours on end is such a worthwhile and gratifying project. Your kids will appreciate having their own place to call their own where they can play and let their imagination run wild.
We recommend our Signature Garden Sheds for transforming a shed into a playhouse or you can begin creating your own with our online shed builder!