When we bought our new place we became the owners of a children’s wendy house. As you may have noticed there aren’t any kiddiwinks in our household and we were in need of somewhere to store the lawnmower rather than an a la carte kitchen. (Do they still make them? They totally should). Rather than fork out for a new shed we decided to give the wendy house a makeover giving it more of a cabinesque type of feel.

The playhouse was structurally sound other than the front ‘veranda’ bit which had a few weak struts. Once James had supported them with an extra piece of wood, I brushed down and scrubbed down the exterior with soap and water and then sanded down the whole area. With prep complete I was ready to paint.

You may remember last year I kicked myself for not going darker with the fencing in my old courtyard and so this year I decided I’d go all out with a rich shade of blueish-grey choosing Cuprinol’s Garden Shades Urban Slate Wood Paint.

I read a lot of reviews on the product and noticed people commented you must apply a second coat on the same day as the first otherwise the water repellant feature of the paint kicks in, therefore resisting the second layer of paint. With this in mind the makeover took me about a week as each evening I chose an area to paint, applied one coat with a large brush and then waited two hours to apply again. Thank goodness it’s light till 10pm in early summer.

I know, I know, the curtains are a bit too much. They’re just remnants from our living room strung up on the old wire. My sister says it reminds her of a horror film so I do plan to replace them at some point with some window film. It’s just the shed is such a mess inside I needed something to temporarily hide the chaos.

Outside I piled up a couple of crates, hauled over some of the stumps from the wood store and added an old stool. The cute stag on the door is one I picked up many moons ago from a Cambridge craft market.

In time I plan to plant around the right hand side of the shed. I’d love to add some wafts of verbena but it’s too shady down these parts so I’ll have to find an alternative. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Have you painted your shed, decking or garden furniture this year? What shade have you gone for?

{STEAL THE STYLE}

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