Recommendation points
Every child dreams of a beautiful and large playhouse, whether it be a playground on a tree or a stylized layout in the backyard. Now let’s talk about a game house in the style of the “Wild West”, which you can assemble on your own on your site, moreover, together with the children, which will definitely become a significant event in their lives.
We present to you a small children’s house, stylized as light buildings, which became widespread during the period of the development of the Wild West. It can be a post station or a tavern, a tavern or a sheriff’s house – it all depends on the wishes of the child and the style of play.
The construction is very simple and uncomplicated, however, it may take time to make everything beautiful and atmospheric. With joint work with children and a full set of materials, it is quite possible that it will take three months to create such a masterpiece, so summer holidays will be very eventful for children..
Materials:
- moisture resistant plywood 19–20 mm for the floor and 12 mm for the roof;
- timber 100×50 for the frame;
- board 20×150 for wall cladding;
- timber 50×50 mm for lathing;
- timber 100×100 mm for two canopy racks;
- picket fence and upholstery of windows and doors, as well as a board for signage.
For the roof:
- roofing material;
- ceramic tiles;
- roofing nails.
Other materials:
- concrete blocks for a columnar foundation;
- ground anchors, bolts, nuts and other hardware;
- plexiglass for glazing;
- decorations and decor elements.
Putting together the base
First you need to choose a suitable place to install the house. It can be any flat area measuring 3×3 meters at any point on the site. It is advisable to remove the fertile soil layer and replace it with gravel bedding.
The base of the house is a flat frame made of 100×50 timber exposed to the edge. Longitudinal joists are fixed inside the frame with a distance of 300 mm for rigidity. Thick 20mm plywood will act as a sub-floor.
The entire structure of the house is light enough, so for stability, all four corners of the base should be staked out with the help of reinforcing pins, which are driven into the ground by at least 1.5 m or beams deepened to the same depth. Naturally, wood should be pre-protected with antiseptic agents..
A sheet of plywood is screwed to the frame with ordinary wood screws, for example 6×35 or longer. Plywood is best pre-drilled through with a 4–6 mm drill.
As reference points for the base, columns made of cinder block are used. They must be deepened approximately 30–40 cm into the ground, and the upper plane must be leveled and raised approximately 10–15 cm above the ground. Naturally, it is useful to adjust the level after installing the assembled frame with stuffed plywood. It is advisable to lay pieces of roofing material between the posts and the frame.
Wall frame
The wall frame is best assembled separately on a flat surface, such as a garage floor or a flat sheet of plywood. The prefabricated frames are installed on the base and fixed with bolts and steel corners. Gradually set the walls to a level and combine with each other spacers will help, for which beams 50×50 are suitable.
Wall cladding
The good news is that the pine board to be sheathed in the house is extremely cheap. However, there is also a bad one – if you simply dock them one to the other, you get a rather primitive and unsightly appearance for the entire building.
It is important that the house looks atmospheric and in the spirit of the wild west, and at that time they used more and more unedged boards or logs. A plane and time will help solve this problem. For each board, you must first round off the edges that will face the street so that in the cut you get a profile similar to the letter D. It is unnecessary to achieve the ideal shape or the same thickness.
Planks for wall cladding are cut slightly larger than the width of the frame – by 4–5 cm. They are stacked alternately flush with the frame and with an overlap, so that it looks like in the picture, something like bandaging logs.
Roof
After the walls, all that remains is to build a roof. Everything is simple here. Rafters are installed from a bar of 150×50 mm upright. Next, the crate is filled with a 50×50 bar across the rafters. A sheet of thin plywood is laid on top of the crate.
All that remains is to spread the roofing material and lay the tiles. Around the entire perimeter, the roof of the playhouse is trimmed with a board, which, for beauty purposes, should also be cut at the edges and rounded. You can use one of the ways to age wood, this will only enhance the effect.
Decorating
An important element of the house is the sign. To do this, it is best to use a wide board of hardwood for a more interesting look. The surface, if desired, is processed in any way, for example, it is smoothed or, on the contrary, it is made with relief brushing. All that remains is to come up with a name with your children and bring it out with paint or burning.
Doors and windows are upholstered with a board with unevenly cut edges to make it look more interesting. A double-leaf door, which we are accustomed to seeing in westerns, and decorative elements such as a bell are attached to the chute. A few horseshoes, antlers or a roll of coarse rope will complete the picture. It is better to close the windows with plexiglass in order to protect your children from possible injuries and cuts, after all, a play area is created.
On this, the creation of a playground in the style of the “Wild West” can be considered complete. Now kids can spend as much time as possible on the street, acting out scenes from the life of the conquerors of the West.
This playhouse looks amazing! I’m just curious, what kind of elements or features does it have that make it resemble the Wild West? Are there cowboy-themed decorations or perhaps imitation buildings like saloons and sheriff’s offices? I’d love to hear more about the design and how it captures the essence of the Wild West for children to enjoy!