Just before Clover arrived, I shared the tour of our family room/Archies playroom that we converted into the new nursery. After stealing away Archie’s playroom we wanted to give him a special place of his own so we  built him a whole damn house! ha Ok it is a tiny house but it is insanely cute and a spot of his own, none the less.

I thought about designing and building my own but with an already too full work load and the baby well on the way, I knew I didn’t have the time so I started looking around for kit playhouses and landed on this one from Wayfair that was the perfect foundation for just a little bit of customization…

The kit house ships right to your door arriving on two big palettes which house about 500 pieces of wood, windows, bolts etc. Everything you need to build the house aside from the concrete for the foundation and the mounting brackets to set in the concrete (which you can get at any hardware store).  Ok, 500 might be a slight exaggeration but at first it seemed a little daunting putting it all together. Luckily I had my handy dad in town and he made such light work of the house, it was complete in two days!

To make it our own we did a few things. 1: For a more modern look, we painted it all one color to match the house. 2: To modernize it further we left off some elements like the window flower boxes, and some trim pieces that felt a little extraneous. 3: We added a slide (you have to order that separate). 4: We also made our own door handles using a 1.5” round dowel (staining it to match the wood doors on our house). I cut the dowels into two pieces and attached them to the door from the back, using long wood screws.  5: And finally, we added a little flag on the door clearly making this “Archer’s Playhouse”

I had a playhouse like this when I was younger that my dad built my sisters and I and I remember it well. There is something really special about having your own hide out (maybe that is why I am also so pro cabin/hideaways. hmmm. Michigan Cabin, Palm Springs A-frame… I definitely haven’t let the idea go) and it has been so fun seeing Arch play and playing with him in his. We haven’t quite finished the inside yet but will share soon! (and by soon i mean probably this summer because… babies).

Playhouse from Wayfair // My Dress by Rachel Pally  // Archie’s Jeans & Tee from Zara

Family Photos by Nicki Sebastian