Over the next few weeks they’ll be plenty of playhouse updates, as I’ve taken up the Waltons Playhouse Challenge, to decorate a playhouse for just £50.

You may have noticed from my media feeds that I have been going a little playhouse crazy and now you know why.  (Not that I ever need any more of an excuse to while away many an hour on Pinterest.)  This happens to be the second playhouse I’ve painted in the last few months, as we recently bought and assembled one for Nye’s pre school.   Thankfully this time, I have the pleasure of keeping the playhouse though.

After already painting a cute cottage playhouse for Pre School, I wanted to do something totally different for our garden.  So, in the end we decided to go for a beach hut theme.  I have already had so much fun, thinking up thrifty ideas and you can see an amalgamation of all my plans and inspiration on my board below.

Making a start

I learnt from my previous playhouse painting experience that once the paint is dry it develops a slightly plastic quality which means once you’ve started painting you can’t easily paint over the top.  So personally I start with the painting, especially any specific design work I want to include.

To go with my beach hut theme, I decided to paint an anchor onto the front of the playhouse.  To do this I simply found a simple anchor clip art, then enlarged it to fit on one side of A4.  I then held this in place and used a biro to trace round the outline, leaving a clear mark on the surface of the wood.  Once completed, I could then fill in the outlined shape with my paint.

Once the anchor section was done, I continued to paint the other panels in cream.  I’ve used a lot of garden paint this year but discovered when researching colours that, B&Q, Homebase and Wickes now do their own brand of garden paint which is cheaper than the normal brands.  We already had a little blue paint left, but I bought the cream from Wickes for £15.99.  I’ve now painted the whole house, and only have touch ups to do, and 2.5litres has been the perfect amount to do two coats all over.

You can now see the progress I have made so far, with the blue and white colours coming together and the anchor taking shape.  Another thing I learnt from the last playhouse is that there is sticky back plastic on the windows so there’s no need to worry about neat edges as they will clean up perfectly when it’s all finished.

And finally here’s a quick breakdown of what I’ve spent so far.  My next challenge is to find as much sand as possible to create a beach for the front and start making the finishing touches that will bring it all together, including a palette sofa, curtains, DIY beach mobile and a fishing net hack.

Disclosure: Post in collaboration with Waltons, all thoughts, words and opinions my own.