I'd like to build a playhouse for my daughter for her birthday. She'll be two in mid August.
I'd like to build it to a smaller budget and our garden is only small so a palace would dwarf the house!
I've seen a few free plans online but nothing that takes my fancy yet!
Has anyone any top tips, advice or links?
Have you asked her what she would like?! As she is the client I would pay very great attention to what she has to say! :-p
If I were building a playhouse it would have to have the sensible stuff like a table and chairs, but also an escape hatch with slide and swing :p
As Tegwin says 'ask the client' - although a 2 that can be a problem 
I know what I'd build for my 2 year old but I know what HE
enjoys doing, your daughter may well be completely different!
Jake likes a bit of danger so it would be a playhouse with a swinging door and windows/hatches on the side but with a mezzanine deck with various
ladders, steps, climbing holds to get up to it and various slides, poles, ropes etc to get down.......lol I should do it really 
little girls love princesses and pink castles! might be a start lol
i don't know, best place to start is with her, not us blokes 
A few years ago I build one for my son, just out of 1"x1" frame and covered it in cheap tongue and groove, painted in cheap outdoor paint. The base was a bit stronger, but he's out grown it, and it's now with it's second owner. The t+g distorted a bit, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
Thanks chaps!
God you lot would be rubbish in a surprise party! What sort of surprise party would you like daughter?
She is too young to ask really and as I said, it's a surprise! 
I'll take a trip down to the timber yard this morning and see what they hold!
Thanks all
Just buy a new washing machine and save her the box, she'll play in it for hours and when she's fed up of it you recycle it
How about a castle ? or a Log cabin type design ? or house that looks like its covered in sweets ?
2 year olds have no terms of reference to know what a 'castle'/ 'Princess Palace' or anything else is really...they just want to
explore the world so I would say include lots of things to do and explore not just build something that looks like anything you recognise as a
'playhouse'
Buy a shed and fill it with soft toys like they have in garden centers and a ball pool that kind of thing
paint it bright colours and when She getts to old you have a shed to use your self
[Edited on 16/6/12 by jacko]
I'm gonna build something along the lines of this for Josef, Pants...
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280743546907?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Hignett
I'm gonna build something along the lines of this for Josef, Pants...
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280743546907?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla
You could try this American site (although some of the links don't work, many do)
Absolutely Free Plans
quote:
Originally posted by McLannahan
I'd like this sort of thing I think Pants?
http://www.shedstore.co.uk/garden-playhouses/walton-wooden-playhouses/snug/walton-snug-playhouse-4-by-4
Local timber place ( across the road local)sadly has a poor selection of cladding. Went to BQ this afternoon and they have better, slightly cheaper too!
I'm thinking of something similar to what RichMars suggested earlier? Basic frame and then T&G cladding.
One you listed looks great but I think a bit too complex for me and Gwendy! You going to start that soon?
I built a playhouse for my son. It cost about £200 in materials but that was 5 years ago and he's now upgraded to a tree house. His sister has
inherited the play house. Its a simple pent roof thing with perspex windows, t&g boards. Sterling board floor and roof, topped with felt. She
spends hours in there selling stuff over the stable-door, having picnics in it and hiding from her brother.
The next plan for the playhouse will be to put it on stilts with a ladder and slide.