As above. Minibeagle will be three at the start of January, and number 2 is due not long after. So naturally, Mrs Beagle wants an outdoor plaything. Initially it was swing/slide set, now it could be a playhouse or similar.

Mrs Beagle’s usual M.O. with any house project is to buy the first thing she sees in order to tick it off and move onto the next job on her list. We spent a fair amount landscaping our small garden last year and I refused to buy cheap tat to clutter up the space we have. It’s really shaded by big trees. So I’ll have to be on top of the wood are as it will green up pretty sharpish. It’ll go over the current border in a corner, where plants struggle to grow.

Who’s built their own or adapted an off the shelf item? Surely this is a pretty STW topic? I’m thinking little tower, few climbing holds, maybe a slide down onto the turf (artificial). Something that doesn’t look ‘twee’ like 95% of the ones online?!! Essentially clean lines to deal with my OCD..

theres a few ‘wooden build’ threads on here, mcmoonter and kayak being the main men so some of their threads may give you ideas. i also built a shed/gazebo type thing (threads still on first page for now) and theres a few links to other peoples work within some of those too.

you dont say if you have any experience or need any help, but i did mine with no prior knowledge/experience, got all the help i needed from on here and a mate at work.

what worked for me was finding a pic of something like i wanted, then adapting that idea onto fag-packet sizes to fit the space i had. all my drawings were rough lines on A4 paper, then screwed up and start again whenever anything changed.

keep this thread going, ask anything youre not sure of and im sure there’ll be plenty of help offered. for now tho id start with an idea and picture of what you actually want.

good luck 😀

I built one years ago. Just a simple wood base with four walls attached. The walls were just a simple frame of (something like) inch square lengths. I used the cheapest tongue and groove for the walls, simply painted with blue outdoor paint (no primer). Roof was some chip board panels covered in roofing felt. Perspex windows on two sides.
I wasn’t expecting it to last long, but it out lasted my sons childhood and we passed it on to a friend.

I built this one for the Stonerissimos. They werent using it much of late so it’s now been donated to a neighbour for their chickens.

2×2, 3×2 and a load of featheredge. All mounted on a 12″ square, 8′ gatepost set into postcrete. A plasticised canvas roof to keep the weight down. Slide bought of eBay. As was the swing set that was added on the side.

Threads searched!

Quite like the lines of this. http://www.diy.com/departments/command-post-6×4-playhouse-assembly-required/537191_BQ.prd?ecamp=Seapla&ppc_type=shopping&ds_kids=92700014019293806&gclid=CM-ottXz2NACFQ0z0wodwSgN7Q&dclid=CLXt5dbz2NACFZPjGwodDXkPpA

Painted properly. Obviously. Not sure about the roof. Tomorrow will be drawing it all out. Thanks for he ideas all and tips Sadex. I wonder about materials in a shady corner of the plot!

I’ll post up designs when done. Part of me feels like buying a kit and hacking/adding to it as I want, I suppose that’s just lazy really and design up what I think will be best.

Cheers

I assembled a TP Forest Cottage in the corner of our small-ish garden.

It goes atop a small concrete base put over the existing border (where little apart from child-unfriendly rhubarb would grow). It’s been quite a hit.

Search taylormadeplay.com for some ideas.

Just get a cheap tent, it will last the couple of summers that kids are in to these things, and it is more novel because it is not always there. Unfortunately you can’t attach a slide to it though….

Here’s my offering:

A dark, shaded corner that used to be an uncontrolled bamboo plantation in the corner of the ‘wild’ garden.

The base is a decking platform suspended above the hedge beneath. Front posts are reclaimed pine trunks from a local wood, one cemented in and the other on a pad stone amongst the tree roots.

Main structure is recycled fence posts from the field out the front, lots of featheredge board, most of which is left over from fence repairs after the bamboo came out.

Inside it’s tongue and groove boarded with rockwool insulation between to keep draughts down. The back wall is open to the granite as a ‘feature wall’, with a hidden gutter above to catch any water running down the back of the main fence.

Doors are cheap plastic advertising banners, which I had printed with a random door image. These roll up with velcro, with elastic to keep them closed the rest of the time. Child-sized table and chairs inside that they can drag out to the enclosed balcony to read in the sun or eat pizza if the pizza oven is lit (again, built from mostly reclaimed and leftover stuff). The slide is lethally fast, the kids are all a bit scared of it, but the swing in the big tree behind is popular.

Careful measuring means if I’m really naughty, I can just about fit in there to sleep should I be banished from the house. In the summer it has off-grid solar lighting, and this winter I may make up a tiny wood burner for out there.

Bivvy and Fresh pizza. Awesome! Thanks for that!