Not too long ago I shared this play house / play fort that is in our backyard as part of aWork and Play tour.
Today, I want to share a little more about it. As you can see from this before and after picture I have recently given it a bit of a makeover.
We love this play house in our backyard, in fact it was one of the reasons I wanted to buy our house years ago because I knew my two boys would have so much fun playing in it.
But it was starting to look a bit run down and so I wanted to give it a little attention. The first thing I did was scrape and sand off all of that chippy paint.
In my mind I could picture the fort being painted a bright green and while searching around our garage one day I spotted a can of the perfect shade of green in an exterior paint. I couldn’t believe it, it felt like fate. But once I got some of the paint on, the green just didn’t look right.
I never planned to paint the house part of the fort since it was still in really good shape. It is actually the same color as our house and so I liked the whole cohesiveness of that, also I don’t own a ladder tall enough to reach it.
So back to the garage I went, and you know what I found? A can of the pretty green that was on it before that I had just scrapped off. I seriously didn’t even realized I had these paints in our garage, and if I did, I would have thought that they would have been all dried up, but being an exterior paint, I guess they can handle the elements. All the paint needed was a really good mixing.
So I gave it a fresh new coat of paint, and Yes, I realize that the before and after don’t look a whole lot different in color, but it does look so much nicer now.
I was just happy that I was able to work with paint that I already had so I didn’t need to go out and buy new paint. Remember when the same thing happened in our kitchen? Sometimes the perfect color is already sitting in your garage or basement.
After it was painted it was time to bring in the furniture. Because the bottom portion of the fort is covered we like to use this area as a patio. I don’t have to worry about my wicker and furnishings getting wet when it rains, and this space is always shaded so it really makes for the perfect space to hang out in.
Next to the fort is a sandbox and can I just tell you, I love to play in the sand with my boys, it’s so relaxing! Someone made a comment about the skateboard in the corner of the sandbox when I shared this picture before. It was something I just put there, but it does work great for a little corner seat. The skateboard has a hole in it because at one time we were using it as a swing.
In our garage I also found some extra tiles which I have used as stepping stones.
I added Curtains, pillows and rugs to make the space comfortable.
I turned a wicker planter into a coffee table by placing a metal trash can lid on top of it. It works great for placing down your drink.
And then I hung up this driftwood garland that I made and will be blogging about soon.
I also hung up an old boat paddle with some rope. I painted stripes on the paddle with the same green as the fort.
I used rope to also hang up some boat buoys. I like the whole nautical – lake house vibe going on here.
I didn’t do much to the upstairs of the playhouse, but I still plan to hang baskets on the wall to hold water guns, bubbles and other outdoor toys. I think some bean bag chairs would be perfect up there too. So it’s still a work in progress, and luckily I’m still allowed up there. My son Liam made and hung this sign up all by himself.
That’s my boy!
My boys only have a few weeks of school left and then they will be home all day. I have a feeling that we will be spending a big portion of our summer in our backyard.
Thanks for stopping by,
Emily
