From Play House to "She Shed" - a Summer Transformation



A few years after we had our two boys (teens now), I talked my husband Mike into building a play house for them in an effort to keep them busy and to get them to play outside with other little friends.

We had limited yard space as our property has a slope going in two directions and so my husband Mike came up with a small but tall design to accommodate an area beside our own home. 
Being a carpenter by trade Mike proceeded to build a miniature house which echoed our own house in style and construction.  It had a loft with a set of stairs to access the loft and a reclaimed vintage solid wood door which came from a demo he was working on at the time.  

Well I thought this "house" would never be finished he put so much time and effort into the construction. The boys did have fun in the house, but to be truthful they did not use it as much as we hoped they would. Fast forward a number of years and the play house became a storage spot for camping firewood, spiders and all kinds of other odds and ends. 

This sad state came to an end after I went to an estate sale and fell in love with these two matching early 1970's silver and crystal chandeliers which I kept going back to and could not leave behind. They were very dusty, but were a bargain and after much fussy cleaning, they turned out to be stunners and are filled with beautiful real crystals! After thinking of what I could do with these, inspiration struck and the idea of the "She Shed" transformation began. 

These stunning lights started a process which took a few months and lots of labor, but it was all worth it in the end.

A few small tables also came from the same sale, two of which which I refinished. 

The remainder of the items I picked up at garage sales and thrift stores and a few things like a vintage chenille bed spread for the new loft bed we built I had been holding on to for a few years.  

This vintage convex mirror was one item I picked up at my local Salvation Army thrift store and I love it.  Very shabby chic I thought!

The only "new" things that went into this renovation were wood, paint and refinishing materials. Everything else was re purposed or up cycled. The drapes are a good example of up cycling - old ones which I cut and re sewed to fit the windows in the shed.

A few of the beginning photos were taken during the demo process and you can see the interior of the play house was clad in unpainted plywood. The floor was similarly finished in unpainted plywood. You can see the stairs on the right side in the second picture which led up to the loft above. This loft above was built like a small room which unfortunately resulted in a low ceiling on the main floor (ok for small kids) and was quite dark as it blocked the light from the small window in the loft area. The first picture shows it after most of the material had been removed - just the rafters remain.

I decided to get some power installed so that we could operate the lights and also put in a base board heater for the chillier months. 
Thank heavens I have a talented husband to help me with the construction part of the renovation. I did the painting inside and out (changed the outside trim color from forest green to white) and all the decor and redesign. 
I had Mike move the loft to the other side of the building and create a day bed/reading area. We came up with a detachable ladder to access it (limited space means getting creative).  

Ideally I would have liked the bed to be on the main floor, but again limited space resulted in the loft bed. 
Here is what it looks like now.  You can see the two mounts where the ladder can be moved to the right for storage while you are using the main floor.

Oversized white feather pillows and feather duvet under the chenille bed spread makes for a very cozy and soft nest!

These mid century solid hard wood chairs I picked up at the Salvation army in a bit of a sad state. The gorgeous grain was virtually hidden by a dark brown stain which was in vogue at the time they were made. They had been very poorly recovered with fabric which was roughly stapled onto the backs with no effort to hide the unfinished ends of the fabric or the multitude of staples. The fittings had been replaced with very 
large silver bolts which did not suit the chairs at tall and looked very out of place.
I ended up replacing all the fittings as well as completely stripping the mahogany and re staining a lighter shade to complement the grain. I also replaced the foam in the back and the seats (thicker) as the existing foam was super old, disintegrating and flat as a pancake. I bought some beautiful striped fabric which I discovered takes a long time to work with in order to get it matching top and bottom as well as between both chairs. Lesson learned there, but I think they turned out pretty well.

I later picked up two vintage shabby chic chairs with tall wicker backs which I had not planned on getting, but they were road side freebies that had an amazing raised gold velvet material on the seats I could not resist. This makes it a little crowded in the shed but allows for more company too!
Here are the chairs which I decided to leave as is:

Enjoy these other photos of my completed she shed. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog!

Original vintage door trim - love!

Tea and Wine station!