Barbara Butler Artist-Builder Inc.

View Original

Re-staining the playhouse

11 years ago, Barbara made a beautiful Garden Playhouse for her niece, Melissa, and her adorable daughter, Lindsea, then only 2 years old.


Lindsea and her parents lived north of Seattle in a cute little town where it rained a lot! Over the years, the playhouse got a lot of use with play dates, birthday parties and just fun alone time in the back yard making cakes & mud pies, reading stories and playing princess.


Slowly the colors faded but no one really noticed. It was still their much-loved playhouse.

Then one day this summer, Barbara got a call – “send me some stains. Lindsea and I want to do a mother-daughter project this summer. We’ve decided to re-stain her playhouse!”

We gathered up the stain colors and shipped them to Melissa. Along with the stains, we sent clear tung-oil to apply as the final coat, plus brushes, sponges, plastic gloves, gojo wipes and detailed maintenance instructions.

It didn’t take long! 1st sunny weekend day Lindsea (now just turned 13 years old) and her mom hit the backyard to re-do their playhouse.

First the walls in Castle Purple,
then the trims and shutters and carvings.

Followed by the roof and, voilà, the playhouse was beautiful again!

Lindsea, Jack (her Russell Terrior) and Melissa love the results.

And, they had a blast re-doing the playhouse, even changing some of the colors along the way.

Job well done!