Home Depot’s “How to Make a Box Playhouse”! Remember that time that your toddler stepped over the plethora of well thought out toys you’ve provided for his educational stimulation and played with that empty furniture box for days and days like nothing else existed? Take it to the next level and make this cool playhouse with instructions from Home Depot.
Or be like me and throw a couple of pillows inside an empty box and call it a day. 🙂
Home Depot Box Playhouse
Time Required: Under 2 hours
Difficulty: Beginner
Tools:
- Box cutter
- Ruler
- Carpenter Square
Materials:
- 2 Moving boxes
- Masking Tabe
- Duct Tabe
- Marker
- Rope
A box playhouse is a great way to use up large boxes and create special memories with your kids as they help put together their play space. This is an easily adaptable project to create a playhouse of almost any size, and the project itself can be easily put together with common household items.
1. Create the Playhouse Base
- Open all the flaps of two moving boxes and stand them on end side-by-side. Make sure the short sides of the boxes are together.
- Tape the two boxes together along the front and back seams for stability while working.
- Using a utility knife, carefully cut away the two sides of the boxes in the interior of the play space to create one large room.
Tip: Use Large or Extra Large moving boxes for this project to make sure your child has ample play space inside her or his playhouse.
- Use a ruler or T-square and mark off a triangular piece from each corner of the side flap to create a gable for the roof.
- Use the utility knife to cut away the triangles from each side of the roof flap. Repeat on the other side. Save the triangles to use later.
Fun math fact to share with the kids: The two triangles are right triangles. The name of the shape of the side roof is a parallelogram.
- Use the utility knife to score a small square in the side of the playhouse. Cut through the left, top and right of the square, but leave the bottom intact.
- Bend the window forward.
- Use two of the triangle pieces you saved to create supports for the window. Line up the right angles of the triangles, with one side against the box and the window ledge resting on the other. Secure them with tape.
- Repeat on the opposite side of the playhouse to create a second window.
- On one of the long sides of the house, use a ruler to measure about two inches down from the top edge of the roofline. Mark a line across the panel that stops about two inches in from each side.
- Use the utility knife to cut through the top line. Then, slice through the tape holding the doors together.
- Bend each of the doors outward. If you like, you can create a doorknob by using the knife to create a small hole and pushing a piece of boat rope through it. Knot each end of the rope to keep it from slipping out.
A box playhouse makes a great space to play in, and this activity will give kids something fun and interesting to do. Encourage them to think of new ways to customize their playhouse. They can add additional rooms, change the doors and windows or find other ways to make it special. Your family may building this project so much that it becomes a tradition.
Photos and Content Courtesy of Home Depot. Feeling adventurous? See the deluxe version: Home Depot.
