DIY: My Playhouse Redo

In early May I was driving around a community yardsale in our area when I struck gold for any mother of four young children: a large Little Tikes outdoor playhouse. And in very good condition. And only $40. SOLD. My car literally did an only-in-the-movies skid into the family's driveway, I yelled out the window, "I'll take it", loaded it and peeled outta there.

The trouble was, the colors were awful. My backyard already looks like Romper Room. I did NOT want to add to it with this Smurf blue door and teal roof. Uggghhhhh. Shuddder.

So I did a little research on spray painting plastics. It turns out there is a whole line of spray paints just for painting outdoor plastic things! I went to Home Depot and gathered the necessary supplies. I took the structure apart (which was very easy considering it is just 10 screws) and began.

First I power washed the structure and let it dry completely.

Next, I roughed up the whole surface of the play structure. I used painters tape to tape off parts I didn't want certain colors on. This part was time consuming (as all taping with painting is). I spray painted over a few afternoons when I had time and when additional coats were necessary (the black roof required several coats of paint because that teal kept bleeding through).

Once everything was dry, I glued a steel number '8' to the front door, moved it into place on our patio and called it a day!

I am SO much happier with the finished result. In truth, this project took twice the amount of time I thought it would and I made a lot of mistakes that I now have to live with (but hey, its a kids plastic playhouse so I'm not going to beat myself up over it).

At least the play house and my backyard looks cohesive now and much less like Romper Room.

Except of course, for the kids :)