Children love huts, and they’re incredibly ingenious when it comes to building them of all kinds, whether it’s the temporary huts they create in the house with plaids hung from chairs and held together with clothes pegs, huts made from driftwood and pareos at the beach, or Koh Lanta-style huts in the garden! And if you really want to make them happy, set up a children’s playhouse in your garden! It’s an investment you’ll be glad you made on a regular basis!
1. A place just for them
Their log cabin is their landmark, a place where adults can’t go (firstly because it’s too small for their size) and secondly because it’s forbidden! The children will be able to arrange it as they like and do what they like in it. If you opt for a wooden hut, it will be watertight (door that closes and plastic around the windows), and with a floor for the majority. Children will be able to put a table and chairs inside, as well as cushions, fleece blankets and a small rug – in short, everything they need to make a cosy nest in which they’ll love playing alone or with their friends!
So, when choosing your children’s playhouse, ask yourself how you’d like your children to use it, because the bigger and better finished it is, the longer they’ll enjoy and occupy it. Even the smallest children will feel safe in it and adopt it as their own little home. All that’s left to do is add a dinette and they’ll be cooking dinner! You can find unique rooms for garden online that will make your children (and you) happy!
2. A place where they can develop their imagination
“Come and join me in my little hut!” The cabin is the place where all adventure stories begin… where children live out their imaginations to the full. The cabin is the adventurers’ hideaway from where they can observe what’s going on around them, the next time it’s a restaurant offering a menu to the guests, or their house of the future in which they build a TV out of cardboard… The cabin is a magical place that they can transform as they wish, whether they want to be superheroes or cooks! It’s a safe bet that they’ll love going in disguise!
3. Outside and away from screens
Buying a garden house means that children can spend time outdoors and still have a place of their own. And while it’s hard to get them to spend less time on screens, the garden house and other outdoor games like swing sets will make them want to play outside! And here’s another idea: add some planters to their garden house. A link to the earth that we tend to forget in our urbanised world!
4. Pretty garden decor
A wooden garden shed painted and customised to your taste (and that of your children) will spice up your garden! Involve your little ones in the customisation of their little house by getting them to put their hands to the dough! Choose the theme of the garden house together and then decide on the colour: bohemian in beige and white, girly in pink, adventurous in khaki or untreated wood, Nordic in red, original in multicoloured… You can also choose to match the dominant colour of the flowers in your garden, for an elegant harmony.
Work with the children to make the area around their garden shed as pleasant inside as it is outside, with a small wooden terrace, garden furniture, planters or a small vegetable patch nearby, for example.
Clever tip: opt for solar-powered string lights to illuminate the garden house at nightfall. It’s magical!
And don’t forget to clean it regularly to prevent nasty beasts from scaring the children.
Finally, a wooden garden house needs to be protected from the vagaries of the weather with suitable paint or varnish, and it will need to be repainted every 3 to 5 years, depending on its condition. It’ll last for years, until the day comes when your overgrown children don’t want to go there any more, and then you’ll feel that a page has been turned!