This post contains affiliate links. This means I may make a small commission on purchases made through those links at no added cost to you. All commissions go toward funding this blog and YouTube channel – thank you for your support! (For more info please see my disclosure page.)

From worn playhouse to fairy garden cottage, join me as I transform this little house and space on a budget!

We’ve all seen the Pinterest-worthy playhouses and backyard makeovers that seem like they must have cost hundreds. What if we can still achieve something lovely and charming on a dollar-store budget? While not everything I used came from the dollar store, much of it actually did! I’ll show you how I transformed this little house step-by-step and provide you with the resources and creative inspiration to do it also. I’ll even share some free fairy cottage printables with you – you’ll be able to download them below.

Tired Old Playhouse

We bought this playhouse off Facebook Marketplace a number of years ago. It was in moderate shape but missing the door, the little flower pot holders under the windows, the interior phone, and so on. My children played with it here and there but most of the time it was just a sad little house sitting on a dirt (sometimes mud) patch. It endured through rain, snow, and heat, but was beginning to look very sad indeed.

The Playhouse Makeover

Playhouse Makeover Step 1: Paint

Paint, paint, and paint some more! Actually the first thing we did was give it a good wash and light sanding.

For the exterior we chose a light, pretty pink called “Pink Quartz” by Behr (S160-2). (Note: All the paints were an exterior base paint tinted to our chosen colors.)

The roof and trim all got painted pure white.

And finally, we painted the interior a minty green called “Urban Nature” (S380-3).

Playhouse Makeover Part 2: The Foundation

As I said before, the playhouse used to rest on a patch of dirt and dust (fun fact: the area was like that because it was our first ever raised garden bed years and years ago!). To keep the grime out of the playhouse and make it all so much more enjoyable (and lessen the mud that got tracked into our real home!), I laid a foundation of pavers. They were basic 12″x12″ pavers from Home Depot – about $2 apiece. I needed 16 total. I didn’t put any sand or anything underneath, I just leveled it with clay, er, soil (but seriously I could make pottery out of this stuff! Ick!) My son actually did most of the hard work leveling the ground, which was super helpful (that’s my boy!).

As a side note, in case you are wondering who in our family uses this playhouse, our two youngest really enjoy it the most (although their older siblings and friends all squeeze in there too!).

Playhouse Makeover Part 3: Details

This door is just the cutest little thing and my husband gets all the credit here! I don’t have any details on how he made it, but I’m sure I could ask if you really want to know. But let’s just take a minute here to admire this adoooorable door (see what I did there? Ha!).

Another one of my favorite little details is this piece of wood trim I added to the gable. You can find unfinished carved pieces like this at home depot and other stores for a few dollars. I painted it pink, then used outdoor wood glue and small clamps to secure it, letting it dry completely overnight.

Playhouse Makeover Part 4: Landscaping and Fairy Garden

This part was huge. My children love fairy gardens, so we decided to put a big fairy garden right next to the playhouse – really as part of it. Up until now they’ve only had fairy gardens in little pots or such. They wanted to include all their little houses and accessories (I did not buy all those just for this project – they already had much of it). One child in particular wanted to have a “main street” going down the middle. We made that out of shower tiles from Home Depot.

I did purchase a few little extra fairy garden accessories for their new space. There are so many cute options out there! This one especially is adorable – I love how it feels “built in” to the space!

Honestly the most expensive part of the project was purchasing all the plants. You can go as little or big on this as you want. It will certainly save money to start your own plants from seed (which I didn’t do). Choosing perennials can help save money in the long run and will give a more established look.

When choosing plants I wanted the garden to have a little bit of polish and a lot of wildness. So while the cottage has window boxes and formal landscaping, the fairy garden has creeping ground cover, trailing plants hanging out of pots, and wild, carefree foliage. A few plants I included for the cottage part were:

• Endless Summer Hydrangea
• Mezoo Trailing Red
• Impatiens
• Variety of other annuals

Plants I included in the ‘carefree’ fairy garden:

• Wooly Creeping Thyme
• Catmint
• Stonecrop (Sedum)
• Creeping Jenny
• Tickseed
• Butterfly Bush
• Golden Thyme
• Corsican Mint

My little picket fence pieces were from Home Depot. They’re real wood (I didn’t really want plastic) and are pretty easy to install, unless you have solid clay soil like us and then you have to pre-dig little slits into which to slip said fences. But hey, it was worth it. They were a bit more than I would have liked to have spent at about $7 apiece (I needed 10), but I know dollar stores in the Spring will often have those little picket fences. I unfortunately could not find any – probably too late and already all gone – but if you can find some that will save quite a bit in cost.

Stepping stones were another element I knew I wanted for this playhouse! Simple 6″x6″ pavers from Home Depot made a great path. I picked ones that didn’t have perfectly smooth edges – I wanted them to have character. I dug out a little under each stone so they would rest in the ground and not shift around.

Playhouse Makeover Part 5: Accessories and Decor on a Budget

The dollar store really came to the rescue on this part! Below are a number of different items I added that made a huge impact – for only a few dollars!

Window Boxes from Wood Crates and Wire Baskets

Simply painted green (same as the interior), lined with leftover coconut liner, planted with a few flowers, and screwed to the side of the playhouse under the window! Unfortunately the store only had one crate when I was there and I’ve never been able to find another! Some day when I find one I’ll add another window box to the opposite side.

The front window “boxes” are just dollar store wire baskets that I fastened under each window and planted up with coconut liner and flowers.

Solar Lights

These staked solar lights were also from the dollar store and they work great!

Fairy Pictures

Bringing the fairy garden into the cottage was something I really wanted to achieve, so I made these sweet little fairy pictures and hung them in dollar store frames inside the cottage. I had the cutest little cotton bee ribbon so I used that to hang them.

I removed the glass from the frames to make it safe for a child’s space. I then used outdoor Mod Podge to seal the frames. I printed out my pictures on 110lb white cardstock and used the Mod Podge on them as well.

If you’d like to use these pictures as well, I’m sharing them as free printables! They will fit a square frame (mine were 4″x4″). Just click the download button below for the PDF. Please be nice and save them for personal use only.

Floating Shelves and “China”

Dollar store again! The floating shelves were from the dollar store (literally $1.25 apiece) and I simply mounted them inside the playhouse.

The little tea set also came from the dollar store and I painted it white, then sealed it with a triple thick glaze spray for a true china appearance. If you have littles who will put these things in their mouths, I wouldn’t advise painting these types of items. My children are a little older and know not to.

For the blue and white china plates I got a pack of plastic dollar store plates, sprayed them white, then hand painted a design on them with acrylic paint. These also got sealed with the triple thick glaze spray.

The little serving tray was – you guessed it – a mini wooden tray from the dollar store. I used the outdoor Mod Podge to attach a pretty paper napkin to the main tray part (just peel off the backing of the napkin before doing this). I painted the rest of the tray with watered-down brown paint for a stain effect (do this step first if you choose to do it).

Curtains

The curtains were made from a thrifted sheet. I just loved that sweet pattern! They are light enough fabric that if they get wet they dry very quickly. I cut pieces of the sheet to size, hemmed the sides, and created a little rod pocket at the top of each one. They are hung using thin tension rods.

Wastebasket Planters

These planters began as plastic dollar store wastebaskets. I drilled several drain holes in the bottom of each, then sprayed several coats of stone effect spray paint on them. Planted with some trailing flowers, they look quite nice scattered about the cottage garden.

(You can find this awesome drill here!)

Fairy Cottage Sign

This little sign is made out of a dollar store blank wooden plaque. I screwed a piece of scrap wood from my husband’s scrap box onto the back as a stake, “stained” the whole thing with watered-down brown paint, then attached a paper sign to the plaque with the outdoor Mod Podge.

Honestly I should have sealed it with a better sealer because the ink has started to run from being dowsed with water. I think sealed with a stronger waterproof sealer, though, and it would be just fine. You can download my free fairy cottage sign printable just below. Again, for personal use only please.

Water Features

This adorable little frog fountain was from the clearance rack at a local nursery. We got it for $5. I attached a solar fountain pump and used a plastic planter with no drain holes as the basin. (I used this handy adaptor to attach the pump to the frog.) My parents let us take river rock from their backyard to place around the edge.

We added a second little water feature in a buried pot over in the fairy garden with this solar pump as a bubbler.

Fairy Magic

To complete the whimsical cottage vibe, we added solar powered fairy lights (in addition to the staked solar lights), which we wound around the plants, through the cottage, and through the fairy garden. The effect is quite magical!

Well, that about covers it I think! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did! It truly is one of my favorite projects I’ve ever done.

I hope it’s given you inspiration and confidence that you can do a project like this too, even if you’re on a budget. Many of the materials used were from the dollar store or were quite low in cost. Some of the more costly things could be achieved in less expensive ways with some extra planning, as I mentioned throughout.

Blessings,
Melissa