• Home
  • Project Gallery
  • About me
    • Disclosure
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog

Her Tool Belt

DIY furniture plans, crafts, and home improvement tutorials to empower you!

  • Free Woodworking Plans
    • Bathroom Furniture
    • Bedroom Furniture
    • Entry
    • Family Room Furniture
    • Garage
    • Kitchen furniture
    • Laundry Room
    • Mudroom Furniture
    • Organization
    • Outdoor Furniture
  • Home Decor
    • Upcycle
  • Crafts
    • Holiday
  • Home Improvement
    • Cleaning
    • Fix IT
    • Paint
    • Tile
  • Tool Reviews
  • Tool Time Videos

Basement Playhouse Build – Tiny House Toy Room Reveal

February 22, 2019 by Amy 50 Comments

It took me about 6 weeks to chip away at this project, but I’m happy to say that the basement playhouse build (which is really a toy room shaped like a tiny house), is pretty much done! Yay! My kids are super excited and have been having fun inspecting everything as the project came together. My house may not be in style, but at least my playhouse is 🙂 I tried to make the playhouse in the modern farmhouse style…I love to drool over those houses on Instagram.

Remembering where I started…here’s the BEFORE.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a tiny house...come take a tour.

Sideview

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a tiny house...come take a tour.

And the AFTER

What do you think?

With me, for scale.

You can check out the tutorials for the whole playhouse build:

  • Part 1 – Basement Playhouse Build – Framing
  • Part 2 – Basement Playhouse Build – Shiplap & Sheetrock
  • Part 3 – Basement Playhouse Build – Trimming all the things
  • Part 4 – Basement Playhouse Build – Cedar Doors & Accents
  • Basement Playhouse Reveal!
  • House Frame Doll Bed
  • House Frame Doll Bunk Bed


This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. 

The layout of the playhouse has 5 areas to play, customized to how my kids currently play. The upstairs loft area has a nursery, my kids love to put the stuffed animals and dollies to sleep. Opposite of the nursery is a coloring area. Downstairs is a kitchen area, they love to have Tea Parties and a living room for general play. Under the stairs is a little reading nook and hangout…most likely going to be the tablet lounge.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a tiny house...come take a tour.

Here is the left side of the playhouse. The door to the left leads upstairs (and I still need to add the trim around the door). My basement ceilings are quite short, only 7 1/2′ high.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a tiny house...come take a tour.

The siding for the playhouse is 6″ MDF shiplap, super easy to use, I highly recommend it. I was able to simply notch the shiplap ends to make it look like it wraps around to the front.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a tiny house...come take a tour.

I faked black tin awnings with a little 1/8″ plywood and 1×2’s. The awning corbels are simply 2×2’s.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

The window box planters are made from cedar fence pickets.  The little green bushes are from Hobby Lobby.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

This is the first ‘room’ finished in the basement. Hopefully the kids can play play play while I chip away at the rest of the dark scary basement. 🙂

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I used a lot of natural cedar (cedar fence pickets) for the wood, and luckily I found a stain that was a similar color for the parts made from pine. The stain on the pine is golden pecan, it’s a really light stain but looks very similar to the natural cedar. I had a handful of left over cedar shakes that I finally used up from my outside clubhouse years ago. They are perfect for my timber portico.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

 

I found these cute little boxwood spiral topiaries at IKEA, they fit perfect in front of the house.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

All of the light fixtures were different colors/finishes, so a quick coat of oil rubbed bronze and we’re good to go. I actually really liked the red goose-neck light, but I wasn’t sure it would go.

The light fixtures were all a pretty good deal.

  • The wall mount lanterns are 2/$30 at Home Depot
  • The goose-neck light over the garage is $16 at Amazon, but there was a $5 off coupon so $11
  • The chandelier is $40 at IKEA.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I tried to make the light switch look like a door bell, this was a miss project, but oh well.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

 

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I made the front and garage doors open like cabinet doors. My thought was that the door frame can stop the doors from overextending backwards.  Because you know kids are sooo careful.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Both the garage and front doors are made from cedar pickets. They were very easy to make. Although I made a huge mistake that you can read about here.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I thought it would be fun to do a focal wall…mostly because I ran out of shiplap. I decided to do a cedar herringbone wall. When I first put the cedar up there were 0 gaps…however I guess my cedar was a little wet and after being inside for a few days, it dried and shrunk, uggg. Oh well.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

The railings are a simple X pattern made from 2×2’s.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

For the nursery room, I found a little rug that matched the colors in the poster of my kids. The metal bucket was an impulse buy from IKEA, I thought they could put their extra stuffed animals and clothes in it.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I made these cute little house frame doll beds from 1×2’s and scrap plywood. Under the bed fits a Trofast bin to store doll stuff. The beds fit 18″ dolls…or bears if your kids are like mine.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

I made a bunkbed and single house frame doll bed.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

The arts and crafts room turned out really fun (pictures are pre-railing). I have used metal wall control pegboards in a number of places in my garage. BUT they just came out with PINK, so that was PERFECT for the playhouse! I like the wall control products because they are very sturdy, plus you can use their accessories and standard pegboard accessories.

The Create was cut from scrap mdf and painted in oil rubbed bronze. The coloring book holder is a super simple build made from scrap 1×2’s and lath or cut offs from 2×4’s.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

 

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

The nice thing about this system is that my kids have been using it for about 3 weeks and it looks just as good now as when I put it up. They can see where things go…and amazingly they’ve been putting stuff back. Well mostly the 6 year old, but the 2 year old has been doing pretty good.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Here’s a look at the 1st level’s ceiling. I painted the floor joists (2×4’s) white and the ceiling is blue pine tongue and groove siding. When the kids get too tall to play in a cramped playhouse, I can easily take out the 2nd floor because it’s attached with joist hangers.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

To get upstairs there is a simple 2×4 ladder.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Behind the ladder, I made a storage unit out of scrap plywood that uses those IKEA Trofast bins. The storage unit will hold 2 bins on each row, and the bins can be pulled out from either side. This is a great little system to hold a lot of their toys, trains, animals, tea party stuff, kitchen supplies and food, etc. The little chair in the corner is from IKEA too…another impulse buy!

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

We have a plastic kitchen set…I’d like to do a built in kitchen…we’ll see.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

You can access the ‘garage’ from the kitchen, or thru the garage doors.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

We’ve collected our soft pillows and gathered them under the stairs.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Even though I know they’ll probably be playing their tablets in the lounge area, I put up some scrap wood bookshelves with a not so subtle Read sign.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Opposite of the read are some simple cedar magnetic frames with poster pictures of the kids that I printed from Costco.

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Well that’s about it. Thanks so much for stopping by. You can check out the tutorials for the whole playhouse build:

  • Part 1 – Basement Playhouse Build – Framing
  • Part 2 – Basement Playhouse Build – Shiplap & Sheetrock
  • Part 3 – Basement Playhouse Build – Trimming all the things
  • Part 4 – Basement Playhouse Build – Cedar Doors & Accents
  • House Frame Doll Beds

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

If you’re interested in the Create, Read, Play and Welcome word art they can be downloaded below.

  • Create
  • Read
  • Play
  • Welcome

This Mom built a basement playhouse for her kids. It's really a toy room shaped like a modern farmhouse tiny house...come take a tour.

Related

Filed Under: Kid's Furniture, Projects Tagged With: basement playhouse, DIY, kids

Attention: Any do-it-yourself project involves risk of some sort. Your tools, materials, and skills will vary, as will the conditions at your work site. Hertoolbelt LLC will not assume any responsibility or liability for damages or losses sustained or incurred in the course of your project or in the use of the item you create. Always follow the manufacturer's operating instructions in the use of tools, check and follow your local building codes, and observe all commonly accepted safety precautions.

Comments

  1. Janet says

    February 22, 2019 at 9:41 am

    WOW!!! Just WOW!!! What an incredibly talented Mom you are!!!

    My Mom would have thrown a quilt over a folding card table and called it good! Lol

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:39 pm

      Hey that works too! Thanks it was a really fun project.

      Reply
  2. Vicki Kubiak says

    February 24, 2019 at 1:41 pm

    Amy, this is so cool! All the finishes are so perfect. It was great to see you at Workbenchcon.

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:38 pm

      Thanks so much Vicki. It was great to see you too, such a fun conference.

      Reply
  3. Michelle J. says

    February 25, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    This is fantastic. Such a beautiful space for the kids!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:38 pm

      Thank you, they are loving it!

      Reply
  4. Janice says

    February 25, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    Absolutely A-A-Amazing!!! And even more unbelieavable in person. Nice Work Ame!!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks!!!

      Reply
  5. Kristi says

    February 25, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    This is unbelievable!!! I can’t get enough

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks so much!

      Reply
  6. Lindi says

    February 26, 2019 at 9:32 am

    It’s possible that this is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen! Your kids are SO lucky!! Just amazing!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:31 pm

      Thank you Lindi! It was a really fun project…and hopefully they’ll use it for many years.

      Reply
  7. Larissa ~ Prodigal Pieces says

    February 26, 2019 at 10:07 am

    Amy, I have an addiction to all things tiny is this is phenomenal. All the details are perfect and you will even be the grandma of all time one day. Haha!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:31 pm

      Thanks so much Larissa!

      Reply
  8. Carla from Kansas says

    February 26, 2019 at 10:11 am

    This is really amazing. You have mad skills. How long did it take to build?

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:30 pm

      Thank you. It took me about 6 weeks, working on it here and there.

      Reply
  9. Bliss says

    February 26, 2019 at 11:12 am

    I never have time any more to read blogs, or even do my own posts, but as soon as I saw your playhouse come across my IG feed I did a screen shot, sent it out in text to people, and headed directly over to read the posts from start to finish. It is fantastic, I will be dreaming about this, I’m totally inspired. I want to hear what your kids said and see some pics of them enjoying it. Again, TOTALLY love it!!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:29 pm

      Thanks so much! They are really loving it, and were there to do all the inspections along the way. 🙂 They made sure to have me add all the things during the build. Hoping for many hours of blissful, fight free playing!

      Reply
  10. Pamela says

    February 26, 2019 at 3:06 pm

    Wow! Wow! WOW! That is amazing. Lucky little ones and very creative and talented mom!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:26 pm

      Thank you, it was definitely a fun project!

      Reply
  11. Jeff McClure says

    February 26, 2019 at 3:25 pm

    This is amazing, great job!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 26, 2019 at 5:25 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply
  12. Christy says

    February 26, 2019 at 5:26 pm

    This is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen! So much attention to detail! All the kids will want to play at your house ha ha! XO

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 27, 2019 at 8:44 am

      Thank you! There have been a few more kids here lately 😉

      Reply
  13. Jessica says

    February 26, 2019 at 11:53 pm

    speechless

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 27, 2019 at 8:43 am

      🙂 Thank you!

      Reply
  14. Summer says

    February 27, 2019 at 6:39 am

    Incredible! This is amazing!!! Can I ask how much this cost?? I didn’t read the step by step, if it was in there, as I won’t be building one! But holy socks Batman!!!! This is BEYOND FABULOUS!!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 27, 2019 at 8:43 am

      Hi Summer,
      Thank you! I haven’t added all of the Home Depot receipts up yet, but it is around $1,200.

      Reply
  15. Sharon Beckmon says

    February 27, 2019 at 1:07 pm

    BEAUTIFUL!!!!
    BTW, how do you keep the children from hitting these edges of the window overhangs?
    My kids would have poked their eyes out on the sharp edges because they run and play…splat. lol

    Reply
    • Amy says

      March 1, 2019 at 8:03 pm

      Thank you! The youngest is short enough to be below the overhangings, the older ones are tall enough it’s not a problem. However my husband hit the upper one once…then he learned his lesson, whoops.

      Reply
  16. Stacy Risenmay says

    February 27, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Shut the front door! This is beyond amazing!!!!

    Reply
  17. bushra says

    February 27, 2019 at 7:22 pm

    this is super classy… just loved each n everythng..hats off

    Reply
    • Amy says

      March 1, 2019 at 8:01 pm

      Thanks so much!

      Reply
  18. Stacey Jensen says

    March 1, 2019 at 4:06 pm

    So awesome!!! You did an amazing job, and I bet you kiddos have a ton of fun in their little house! Also, I LOVE all your Usborne Books you have in your book shelves. These truly are the BEST books for children!

    By the way, I am an Usborne Independent Consultant and my boys very much enjoy our books ?

    Reply
    • Amy says

      March 1, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      Thank you! Yes the Usborne books are great, one of my friend’s is a consultant and I have bought quite a few 🙂

      Reply
  19. Sandra Rowe says

    March 7, 2019 at 10:35 am

    I love that you thought ahead for how to make it still usable when your kids are taller!

    Reply
  20. Hillary says

    March 18, 2019 at 12:08 pm

    Your playhouse is AMAZING!!! I just printed out pictures for my husband and his helper for our house we’re building so we can have a similar style on the exterior of our play space under the stairs. Thank you for your awesome tutorials and the step-by-step of your playhouse build. It looks like you were planning on having a Part 3 & Part 4. Are you still going to? Crossing my fingers in case I’m the one that needs to build the doors and accent pieces!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      March 18, 2019 at 9:19 pm

      Hi Hillary,
      Yes I’m still working on 3 and 4. Hopefully I’ll get those posted soon. I’m excited to see what you do with the playhouse!

      Reply
  21. Natasha says

    March 29, 2019 at 7:08 am

    This is so incredible! You did such an amazing job. I was wondering if you’re going to be posting plans for the bunk bed doll house? My little girl wants one for Easter, and I’m wondering if I should try and figure out the measurements on my own or not 🙂

    Reply
    • Amy says

      March 29, 2019 at 7:27 am

      Yes, I’ll be posting it really soon.

      Reply
    • Amy says

      March 29, 2019 at 12:42 pm

      Here’s the plans https://www.hertoolbelt.com/house-frame-doll-bunk-bed-plans/
      Happy Building

      Reply
      • Natasha says

        March 29, 2019 at 1:09 pm

        Thank you so much! My 3 year old will love it so much!

        Reply
  22. Gayla says

    May 11, 2019 at 9:48 am

    Love!!!! I need a basement. Do you have plans for the picture holders? I cannot tell you how inspiring this is to my creativity. Thank you.

    Reply
  23. Susie says

    September 25, 2019 at 10:14 am

    Incredible!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  24. Barbara Morris says

    January 28, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    Woman I am in LOVE with you! Wow what an awesome mom and talent you are! With all the sniping on social media it was pleasant to have your project pop up. I WISH I had thought to do this for my grand daughters when they lived with us!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      February 7, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      Thank you Barbara! Your grand-daughters would have loved it, I’m sure!

      Reply
  25. Ashley says

    February 8, 2020 at 6:11 am

    This is such an amazing project. Very inspirational! I plan to design something like this for my kids as well!! Are you still planning to post about the cedar door construction? I would be very interested in that information!

    Reply
  26. Nicola says

    May 13, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    Hello,

    Did you ever post the final two steps of construction?
    I am very interested in replicating this!!

    Reply
  27. Stephanie says

    July 15, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    I can’t get over how AMAZING this is! You’re very talented! Kinda puts the “dream house” under our stairs to shame 😂 Well done!

    Reply
  28. Brandi says

    December 14, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    This is amazing! My kids would love this, but they’re all wayyy too old. My 5 year old is tall for his age too, but this is a great playhouse, your kids are living it up!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search Her Tool Belt

Follow Me!

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Top Posts & Pages

Custom Drill Storage and Charge Station - Easy
Cordless Drill Storage - Charging Station
Wood Bunny Easter Basket
Pallet Planter Box For Cascading Flowers
$5 Blanket Ladder
Wood DIY LOVE Marquee Letters
Kid's Step Stool
Convertible Picnic Table and Bench

Check out more projects

Copyright

Thank you for wanting to share my work! No need for my permission to pin my work or to feature 1 or 2 pictures with full watermarks intact that link back to the original project. Please do NOT copy tutorials.

Disclosure & Privacy Policy

Disclaimer

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT