The Little House Mama Built

So when I was little, my mother built me a house out of cardboard boxes.  I remember loving to play in my playhouse and my mom had a great time making it. My mom is so artistic and crafty, her projects would have ruled Pinterest if they had that back in the 80's. hehe.

Me at age 3 playing the cardboard house my mother built for me.

Fast forward, thirty years later, when I got pregnant, My mom told me she was going to start collecting boxes for me. I asked her why? and she told me, "To make your baby a house, of course."

I really didn't think much of it at the time because, well, she only briefly mentioned it and my son, James was only three months old at that time and making a cardboard house for a baby that couldn't even crawl yet was not on the top of my list.

The following summer in 2016, James was a little over a year old and my mom started lugging over large boxes to my house.  We had just bought a new house and worked for months to set up our house and to clear out moving boxes from the hallway and here my mom comes in with MORE boxes!  haha!

Well, needless to say, my mother's boxes were here to stay and there was only one thing left to do... so we got to work!  Of course, the project that started with my mom's determination, soon became mine.  What motivated me was actually the fact that I didn't want to stare at these ugly large boxes sitting in my house so making something that was pleasing to the eye was my goal.

We placed the boxes to see which configuration would look best.  You can see some left over decorations from my son's 1st birthday party on the wall. 

James already starting playing in his house long before it was even close to being finished.  You can see the roof is only held up by a binder clip.  Nothing has been glued down at this point.

Evening hours is when I get to work on this project.  Here, cuts are being made into the cardboard, which in my opinion was the scariest step of this process.  If I made a wrong cut, I can't undo it! eeek!

Here's what it looks like with the windows cut out.  The doors of the house are just the flaps of the cardboard boxes.

I tore paper to make it look like a stone facade.  The window that flaps open are held up by strings that I took off of a shopping bag.  They are such nice string, almost rope like, that I couldn't bear to throw them away. I'm so glad I got to repurpose them!

These are the dimensions I initially gave to my mother.  She cut carpet to fit the house.  This is something my childhood play house did NOT have. This house is definitely an upgrade.  Hehe.

The "wood siding" are made from 3" strips of construction paper.  I just cut a whole bunch and glued them on one by one.

Here you can see James walking through his house and the carpet installed.

I used Pop Tart boxes to make sconces. I basically folded down the tops of the boxes to make it angled together, hot glued them and cut out windows for the "glass".

I spray painted the boxes black and inserted tracing paper into the windows and taped those in place. I wanted the tissue paper to not be so tightly attached to the boxes in case of little fingers poking it.  The ideas was that if it was glued down tightly on all four sides, you could easily poke a hole through it, but because I only loosely taped it, every time James has poked it, the paper would just bend in a bit and I would just pop it back out - no tears!  I also left the back of the sconces open so I had access to inside of the sconces for this very reason. I hope that made sense.

Here the sconces are attached to either side of the double doors.

Here I added a window planter and a house number.  Some would say this is complete, but I'm really not finished yet...



I have so much more I would like to do with this house, but for now, it's an acceptable presence in our hallway.  We shall see what the future holds for this little house that mama built! :)


***2018 Spring Update - Not much has changed. I made a few more flowers, added motion-sensor lights, reinforced the planter box since kids have broken it a few times), changed the flap of the window and made it into an awning - it was being run into since it jut out too much into the hallway.

Here's an updated photo of the little house.

***2018 Winter Update - I added a table!!! I have been wanting to add a table for so long and I finally made it happen. The table is easily removable and interchangeable with the planter or anything else I may think up to add later on.  The table is made from cardboard boxes (of course) and covered it with a wood patterned contact paper. A small portion of the table extends inside the house so that there's a "counter" for James to use as a checkout counter or just an extra table INSIDE the house.  That's it. I love that it's removable, stable (as long as no one sits on it), and adorable.