We are HUGE fans of Clare Crespo, author of The Secret Life of Food and Hey There, Cupcake!, and the woman behind The Yummyfun Kooking Series. When we heard that there was a tour of her daughter's playhouse on Cookie's blog, we risked a virtual stubbed toe and rushed right over for a peek. We were not disappointed.
Look! Ruby's Playhouse
If you're not familiar with Crespo's oeuvre, she's all about having fun in the kitchen. With signature dishes like mutant roast chicken (with four drumsticks, of course) and spaghetti and eyeballs, her aesthetic takes a left turn at cute and heads (still cutely) toward Peewee's Playhouse.
Similarly, her daughter Ruby's playhouse has all the fun elements you'd expect in a kid-oriented space -- beanbag chair, play kitchen -- but with some nifty unexpected touches, like the patchwork linoleum floor and the fringed steps.
We love the fact that this two-story playhouse is made largely of recycled materials. But what we love most is the fact that three-year-old Ruby is very much involved in the ongoing process of decorating her space. Says her dad, James Chinlund, a production designer who built the entire playhouse himself:
"Ruby and I love to go to flea markets on the weekends looking for junk and the house is a great opportunity for us to go there together. She can look for things for her house, and I look for things for our house. I hope the decorating will never end. It is one of my favorite things to do. The main idea is that she will feel free to write on the walls, spill paint everywhere and not worry about it -- nothing is too precious."
Precious? Maybe not. Fabulous? Definitely.
Read the interview and see the full tour here.
Comments (14)
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Wow. Her 'playhouse' is about twice the size of my apartment.
view Kat81's profile
Yeah... I think that is a bit weird to give your kid their own house that a small family could live in. I'm all for a cool playroom... (and it is cool!), but kind of creeps me out in this economy. Maybe a bit over the top.
view jenzoe's profile
seriously. please don't post such glamorous playhouses when we can't even afford our own house. just depressing.
view peanutbutter's profile
If you're handy enough to build it all yourself, it's not a horrible decadent splurge. Especially if you're using recycled materials, which if you look at the place, seems to be the truth.
My dad and a friend made us a log cabin, which probably took about as much manual labor as making this place. I thought it was the most awesome thing ever.
view Kaete's profile
Way too much. Playhouses are totally fun and I admit that I would have probably loved something like that as a child but I just could not rationalize the scale of that play space as a parent, recycled material or not. We are simply trying to make room for our baby in our joint guest room/nursery and struggling to do that in our tiny house.
view upstategirl's profile
too much for a kid...yeah yeah yeah...where can i find that Jonah rug?!!??
view AndreaU's profile
What a fantastic way to encourage your child's imagination and make them a part of the creative process. If you have the means, why not?
For those of us who don't, we can still take something away from this post.
Thanks for sharing.
view racheloncegentry's profile
what a lucky kid. great place. i'm jealous! ;-)
view orrismb's profile
Thats HUGE, that said i totes have plans to build a backyard studio/kid/guest space and i'd planned to build it out of salvage. Fun project.
view DahliaCactus's profile
sweeet, and everyone who said too big and the like...stop hating. this place is more than likely costs less than some of your sofas. it's his kid and i don't care what the economy says i wanna give my kids the moon and the stars. i'm building my kids a two storey playhouse, i looked for plans all summer now i'll just make my own. thanks for the insripation.
view thedirtyshow's profile
FUN......I love it!
view styley's profile
Maybe it is large because her parents are planning to stash her out there when she turns into a surly teenager.
view Sydney's profile
i'm disappointed in all the hating here. Most playhouses I've seen are made from cheap plastic and are SO small that they'll only last the kid through the first grade. This play house will last Ruby until she leaves the house. It'll give her her own space when she's a rebellious teenager and she'll learn to take care of it far before any of us learned how to clean up after ourselves. I think it's an excellent investment both in terms of money and because the father and daughter obviously share quality time in building and taking care of this...much more so than those stupid 4x4 plastic things.
view fischbowl's profile
Oh MY GOODNESS HOW GREAT! These children will never forget this glorious playhouse that their loving and adoring Parents made for them-- I'll never ever forget the one my Father built for us in our little back yard. It was small but built just like a real little house with all the love and care he put into adding on to our *real* house.
view Margiefriend's profile