Eventfullyou: A Fabulous Playhouse Renovation

As our moving process began I started on lots, I mean LOTS of projects! Refinishing tables, chairs, coffee tables, reupholstering and spray painting everything. Our new house will have a completely different look than the eclectic shabby chic country style we had before. And naturally with a new house you want new everything! Well, maybe not all new pieces, but at least a new look on my existing pieces.

My desire for new extended into my daughters toys as well. We have a hand-me-down Step 2 playhouse that was passed on from my Aunt and Uncle. It had been given to them from a friend who no longer needed it...so it's been around for some time. That being said it was faded, dirty and looking pretty tired. So I started searching Pinterest for ideas and there were so many people that had painted their plastic playhouses.

I did some research on which paint to use since there were mixed reviews on the plastic specific paints. I settled on the Rust-oleum paint from Home Depot in a Semi-gloss. Not only did it have good reviews for outdoor applications, they also have a wide variety of colors!

So I settled on White, Graphite, Red and Teal. A fun combination of colors that will go well in our new backyard.

First step was taking it apart...easier said than done. Since this wasn't our house originally we weren't sure how to take it all apart. This while process would have been so much easier if we could have taken each piece apart to paint it. Instead we took apart what we could and taped and painted where we needed to.

I started with painting 2 coats of white on the side pieces, it seemed to cover ok, but it was taking a lot of paint! Dreading how much paint it would take on the 2 larger pieces we decided to take a different route. We found a plastic primer that was clear and easy to apply. It was a thin primer and took just minutes to lather it on with a brush. After drying, which didn't take long at all, we were able to spray on the paint and it seemed to cover much better. I would suggest doing the primer from the beginning. I think it might have saved several cans of paint.

The trickiest part of the whole project were the items I couldn't figure out how to take apart, the shutters, door etc. We had to paint the white first, and then tape it off and paint the other color...then touch up where things ran. We did quite a bit of touch up throughout the process.

In the end I'm glad we did it, but it was a very long and tedious project. Lots of layers, lots of cans of spray paint and lots of patience.

Little S was so happy to get her playhouse back!!! She's been in it for hours today and probably won't want to come out tonight!

Final steps are to relocate it to our new house, plant some flowers around it and give it some great curb appeal.