Table of Contents
- 1Introduction - Materials list
- 2Â The Plans - Cutting detail 1
- 3The Plans - Cutting detail 2
- 4Cutting Ideas from Full SheetsÂ
- 5Making the Floor
- 6Making the Walls and Roof
- 7Standing and Fixing the Walls
- 8Attaching the Roof
- 9Making the Door and Windows
- 10Dismantling and adding the panes
- 11Re-assembling the playhouse
Making the Walls and Roof
Step 4. Cut the plywood pieces
You can now use the floor as a work platform.
Measure, mark and cut all the plywood pieces. Refer to the “cutting detail plans”(Plan 2) and the “Cutting 
ideas from full sheets” (Page 4) page for dimensions and cutting detail.
Step 5. Assemble the front and rear walls
Lay the pieces that make up the front and rear walls together.
Cut 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ (45mm x 45mm) battens to go around the perimeter of the front and rear walls and other intermediate pieces, as show in the drawings below.
Glue the battens in place and hold with the occasional nail until the glue dries. Then turn the walls over and screw the plywood to the battens from the other side.
Step 6. Cut a notch in the apex
Cut a notch in the apex of both the front and rear walls. Use an off-cut of batten for a pattern (see third picture down on the right-hand-side).
Note that the roof apex is not 90°, so make the cut square with one rake (see drawing below) and be sure that the front wall notch is consistent with the back wall notch.
Note that the roof apex is not 90°, so make the cut square with one rake (see drawing below) and be sure that the front wall notch is consistent with the back wall notch.
Step 7. Make up the roof pieces
Glue and screw a an 8ft (2400mm) length of 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ (90mm x 45mm) wood along one edge of both lower roof panels (see picture to the right, fifth down).
Then glue and screw a an 8ft (2400mm) length of 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ (45mm x 45mm) wood along one edge of one upper roof panel (see sixth picture down on the right-hand-side). Only one upper roof panel needs doing.
Then glue and screw a an 8ft (2400mm) length of 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ (45mm x 45mm) wood along one edge of one upper roof panel (see sixth picture down on the right-hand-side). Only one upper roof panel needs doing.
Hello there,
First of all thanks for posting the plans for this project on the web for all to use. The friends kids love it when they come round for the garden parties etc.
It is quite a lot of work and took me a whole week to complete, after all the parts were delivered. I was working approx 8 hours a day for 7 days. It is a good idea to make sure all the tools you require are sharp and in good condition so that you don’t have to stop in the middle of a cut etc.
The one point I would like to highlight is that the 90mm cut in the end panels for the lower roof sections doesn’t take into account the 18mm of board that forms the lower roof section.
To clarify. If you measure up 130mm along the vertical edge of the end panel and join this to a point 930mm to the right of the vertical edge, it will be the correct distance from the parallel line drawn from the lower left corner. Those calculations will work out correct. The parallel lines will end up at approx 108mm apart.
What is incorrect is the number shown on the drawing stating that the parallel lines will be 90mm apart. When constructing the playhouse you will be using a 90mm piece of lumber screwed to a 18mm piece of plywood which means the parallel lines should be approx 108mm apart.
I have got some pictures attached here and will be completing a blog about it at http://www.bunglesmate.co.uk/blog/2014/10/04/saturday-27th-september-2014-playhouse/
Hi, I built the plywood playhouse from these plans: https://www.buildeazy.com/plywood-playhouse/ Just finished a couple days ago.
I don’t recommend this project for someone with no prior carpentry experience as there are a number of cuts that require angled mitre cuts and some of the plywood cuts are really long. The instructions were fairly easy to follow with only a couple of dimensional hiccups. Foremost, the side walls, using standard 4×8 plywood, do not quite reach the lower roof. I didn’t have to trim that edge to fit the slope, which was kind of a relief. However, there is about a 1″ gap. Everything else worked pretty well and I love the design. Here are some other changes and comments:
– I used 5/8 plywood on the roof/ceiling to save some money and because 3/4 everywhere seemed a bit overkill. You could run a truck into this thing and the truck would break first.
– I didn’t have a workshop space with a tall enough ceiling to finish initial construction inside, so I had to finish installing the roof on-site. This was no problem except for the painting. I definitely recommend painting this thing in panels (per the plans) instead of assembled like I did.
– I skipped the plexi windows because they seemed like the one afterthought in the design, plus I thought it would be better to maintain air flow and keep it cooler inside. We’ll see how that works out in the winter. I may change my mind.
– I used one of the scrap pieces of plywood to make a little desk in the back corner.
– I used a router to round most of the plywood edges. They seem less splinter prone this way and seemed to take paint better.
Here are a few pictures.
Thanks for the plans and your website. My 3-year-old son loves it and it’s big enough to keep him happy for years!
Ben Malouf