DIY Parents Quoted £1.5k For Pink Playhouse Build Their Own For Just £400
- Amy Townsend, 27, wanted to buy her daughter a playhouse but they were super expensive
- Instead of splashing out £1.5k for a new one, she made one with her partner for £400
- She accessorised the pink playhouse with items from B&M, ASDA and Amazon
If you have children who have been begging for a playhouse, you might have been put off by sky-high prices.
But one couple didn’t let inflated prices put them off, building their own for just £400.
Amy Townsend, 27, a mum of one and salon owner from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, found online pink playhouses for her daughter but they cost up to £1,500.
Instead, Amy and her partner Morgan decided to build their daughter her very own unique playhouse themselves.
Amy told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: “We came up with the idea as it was my four-year-old daughter's birthday in September.
"I'd been looking at playhouses for a while online and they all seemed so expensive for the size plus almost all of them were out of stock and couldn't be delivered in time.
"I really wanted one with an upstairs but just couldn't afford to buy one that expensive as they were upwards of £1,000!
"My partner Morgan who is quite handy and has a passion for woodworking told me he could build me a playhouse twice the size for the same amount as the smaller ones I was looking at.
"He used wood we already had from previous projects and bought some new treated shiplap cladding, OSB Boards for the floor and roofing felt from our local Wickes store.
“To build it, my partner created a frame for each side first in the workshop he has. We used Perspex for the windows and the sliding window on the side.
“He’s used to working with wood so it only took him four days to make the actual frame. Even if we had bought a playhouse online we would have had to build it ourselves!
“He built it from scratch inside his workshop from a few inspiration photos that I sent him to make sure it had all the features I wanted.
"He then brought all four sides over to our house to build in the garden.
"We dug up an unused piece of our garden and covered it in weed membrane and stones to create a small area in front of the playhouse for her.
"I painted the inside and outside myself with Frenchic Alfresco Paint in Dazzle Me and Dusky Blush which I got from a local stockist Connie & Jo.
"All in all, it cost around £350 to £400 rather than paying for one that size that would easily be around £1,500!
“It cost £350 to buy the paint and wood, and around £50 for all the interior bits, which were all from B&M, ASDA and Amazon. I made the prints myself.
“It took Morgan just under a week to make.”
Amy is delighted with the look of the playhouse - and needless to say, her daughter is over the moon too.
“She absolutely loves it and has played in it every night since,” Amy adds.
“It was really helpful having a project to stay busy with during lockdown and it made it really special as my daughter has been stuck inside for six months unable to go and play anywhere other than our house!
"It was really important to us to save as much money as we can as I have my own beauty business and during lockdown I wasn’t able to work for five months so I didn’t have the funds available to buy her the house I wanted.
“It made me feel so happy to be able to give my daughter the playhouse I wanted for her for far less. It also means we will have the extra money ready for Christmas!
"It also feels special to know that my partner has made it himself and that no-one else will have a playhouse like this!”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “With kids spending more time at home than ever thanks to the lockdown, many parents have been begged for garden playhouses.
“However, as Amy points out, these can cost a pretty penny to buy online.
“If you’re handy with tools and are up for a challenge, make like Amy and Morgan and build your own for less than a third of the price!
“You’ll have a fun family project on your hands, will save hundreds if not thousands of pounds, and best of all, your child will end up with a totally unique and bespoke playhouse just for them!"
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