Build your own playhouse – all you need are a few pallets

You need: pocket rule, Heavy-duty pallet

Before you start building your own playhouse, you need to think about a few basic things: where will you put the playhouse later? How big do you want it to be? And how many and which pallets do you have available at your disposal to build it? Based on these answers, it’s best to make a rough plan of how the playhouse should look later and where you want to use the pallets and how.

In any case, however, the area for the base and the base pallet itself should be very stable. That’s why we recommend using a heavy-duty pallet. It forms the base of the project. After you determine how big of a base pallet you want, it's best to go ahead and place it right where you intend the playhouse to stay.

You need: Cordless combi drill, Suitable bit set, g-clamps, pocket rule, pencil, Wood screws

Now, start working on the rear and side walls of the playhouse.

Choose a large palette that works well as a rear wall. Ideally, it should be as long as the base pallet. Otherwise, you’ll have to saw it to the right length. Position it and just leave it freestanding alongside the base pallet for now.

Next, you need a pallet that can be used as a side wall and in which you can saw out the hole for the side entrance later. It’s not a problem if this pallet is missing a few boards. Place it in the desired position on one of the sides of the heavy-duty pallet. Then, choose another pallet for the opposite side.

If you want to build our playhouse model that includes a counter, you can choose a slightly narrower pallet (ideally, as wide as the base pallet) to later serve as the counter at the front of the playhouse (see image).

When everything is in place and all the measurements line up, you can start screwing the side panels to the rear wall. Which screws you use and how many you need depends, of course, on the type of pallets you have. Make sure that everything is stable and that none of the wood screws are protruding anywhere. It’s often advisable to drive the screws into the pallets at an angle.

Now, screw all the pallets firmly to the base pallet.

You need: Bosch tigersågar, Reciprocating Saw Blades for Wood, pencil, pocket rule, Pallets

You will definitely have a few pallets that aren’t the right size. You can simply cut them to fit your specifications. A reciprocating saw is most suitable for this.

Before you begin sawing, you’ll need to measure and mark the pallets in accordance with the size you want the individual parts to be.

You need: Cordless combi drill, Suitable bit set, Jigsaws, HCS jigsaw blade for curved cuts, U 1 AO, g-clamps, pencil, pocket rule, Pallets, Roof battens, Wood screws

You can now extend the height of the individual walls (the rear wall, for instance) by using pieces that have been sawn to length. One way to do this is to stack pieces of pallets on top of each other and fix them in place. Make sure everything is stable when screwing these parts into place as well. It’s always better to use a couple extra screws.

Depending on how high you want to build the playhouse, you can also add roof battens that jut upwards. Additional boards and pieces of pallets can be attached to these later to create the roof structure (see step 5). You’ll probably need to use a jigsaw to cut the roof battens to the desired length.

You need: Cordless combi drill, Suitable bit set, Jigsaws, HCS jigsaw blade for curved cuts, U 1 AO, Bosch tigersågar, Reciprocating Saw Blades for Wood, pencil, pocket rule, g-clamps, Pallets, Wooden boards, Squared timbers, Wood screws

You can now build a counter using various boards and wooden slats – as in our example. It’s best to use a jigsaw to saw the boards to length. You may need a few extra, smaller squared timbers here so that you have enough surface to screw the boards in place.

You can now use the two roof battens from step 4 to mount another pallet above the counter (see image). This creates another small window for the playhouse.

You need: Cordless combi drill, Suitable bit set, Jigsaws, HCS jigsaw blade for curved cuts, U 1 AO, Bosch tigersågar, Reciprocating Saw Blades for Wood, g-clamps, pencil, pocket rule, Pallets, Squared timbers, Roof battens, Wood screws, Willow branches

The raised rear pallet and the front pallet above the counter can also be used for connecting a roof structure, either with another pallet or with a construction of struts made of several slats (image 1).
You definitely want to make sure that this is stable as well. Small, squared timbers can help with this – as well as in other parts of the playhouse. Use a jigsaw to saw them to length and screw them together at the appropriate points so that they connect the different structural elements and give the whole structure extra stability.

You can now lay willow branches across the top of this roof structure to form a covering (image 2). A few more roof battens on top will hold the willow branches in place.

You need: Cordless combi drill, Suitable bit set, Multi-sander, 80 to 120-grain sanding sheet, Jigsaws, HCS jigsaw blade for curved cuts, U 1 AO, Bosch tigersågar, paintbrush, Wood screws, Wood paint

The playhouse now needs an entrance. You can simply cut this into one of the side pallets. Once again, it’s best to use the reciprocating saw here (image 1).

By the way, you can screw the boards that you‘ve sawn off into other spots to stabilise and embellish them.

Be sure to sand all of the surfaces and edges thoroughly when you’re done (picture 2). It’s important that there aren’t any sharp corners or edges that children could injure themselves on, especially in a playhouse.

You and your kids can now decorate the new playhouse with cool colours. If the playhouse is to stay mainly outside, it’s a good idea to oil or glaze the wood.

Then the fun can begin – maybe even with other great projects, such as building a sandbox with benches and basketball hoop or even a whole football goal made of wood for your little all-stars. We’ll show you how.