Playhouse Plan

Our Top Outdoor Plans:
1. Gazebo Plan 2. Arbor Plan 3. Pergola Plan

Build a Dream Playhouse!
Playhouse plan has everything you want for a backyard play center: a slide, a swing, a private clubhouse and even a small deck.

We'll take you step-by-step through building the platform, hanging floor joists, and framing the walls—plus give you detailed instructions for installing the roof and siding.


Platform sections can be built in garage - then moved to yard!	Common rafters are easy to build with our step-by-step plans.	Sturdy swing set turns playhouse into a kids' play center!	Slide and sandbox adds hours of backyard fun for children.

Playhouse Plan: WHAT YOU GET
12 pages of step-by-step instructions

Full-color photos and exploded views

Detailed tool setup illustrations

Complete plan materials list
All for only $9.95

Download Plan to Your Computer
This playhouse plan is a downloadable PDF file that you will save to your computer after you complete your order. Add this item to your shopping cart (above).

The last time my neighbor Doug invited me over, I thought he might need me for some heavy lifting, or want to show me where my dog had attacked another one of his pop-up lawn sprinklers. Instead he handed me a catalog full of kids’ play structure kits and said he wanted to design his own. While Doug felt he could easily assemble one of the kits, he wasn’t confident he could plan and build the design he really wanted -- a structure with an enclosed playhouse above ground. I offered to provide some guidance, and the more we talked the more ideas started to flow. It wasn’t long before we had a plan sketched out and were ready to start buying the materials. A month of evenings and weekends later, Doug finished up the structure shown above. It features an enclosed playhouse perched atop the platform, and a sandbox beneath it. After scrambling up the ladder, children can “escape” down the plastic slide.

To simplify construction, we designed the project so Doug could build portions of it in his garage as he had time, then assemble those sections on site. Using pressure-treated lumber, he assembled the platform end frames first. He began by gang-cutting dadoes and notches in the four corner posts to accept the rim joists and bottom rails. The longer front posts also get dadoed and notched for the railings now, even though you don’t install the railings until later (leaving them off makes it easier to hoist the playhouse walls into place). When you cut the railing notches, be sure to orient the posts so the rim joist dadoes are to the outside. Once you’ve cut the notches, dry fit each frame together, check it for square, then drill the counterbores and pilot holes for the lag screws. Slip a washer onto the screws and drive them home. Using lap joints between the posts and the rim joists and bottom rails helps prevent the end frames from racking. Plywood gussets on the stretchers between the end frames add to the platform’s rigidity.