How to Build a Cool Playhouse

Decide on whether the playhouse will be built for indoor or outdoor play. An indoor house will have the advantages of being a source of entertainment whether the weather it is sunny, raining, cold or sunny outside. An outdoor house will get kids off the couch and outdoors so they can stretch their limbs and stretch their imaginations at the same time.

Create an indoor playhouse that inspires and builds a positive self-image for girls. Create a "red carpet" playhouse entrance to her closet. Use plywood to construct a facsimile of a house front and entrance with a pitched roof. It only needs to extend out three or four feet from the wall, and can lead to her actual closet door. Use mirrors instead of glass on the playhouse exterior for the little miss to admire herself. Install a roll of red carpet leading from her closet through the playhouse and onto her bedroom floor.

Give the boys and girls a good reason to go outside and play. Build an outdoor playhouse like a fort that's all about adventure and fun. If the boy is into pirates, paint the playhouse to look like a pirate ship. Make the entrance door to the playhouse drop down, so that it mimics the pirate ship action of having to "walk the plank." Use fishnets to cover the windows. Create a post for the boy to climb to the roof to watch out for land, just as if he were out at sea.

Go wild and crazy with an outdoor playhouse. Instead of a typical A-frame or pitched roof -- make the roof slanted or give it two levels. Angle windows instead of simply centering them. Instead of making the house pristine or cutesy -- give it a cool, urban flair with gray or beige earth tone colors and paint windowsills and baseboards purple or chartreuse. Build wooden desk stations inside for children to bring their toy computers or even an actual wireless laptop. Make a creativity station or an upper level artist loft. Create a simple wooden easel out of plywood so the child can paint pictures and express her "inner Picasso" and artistic talents.

Transform the lower level of a bunk bed into a high-tech playhouse office. Take out the lower level bed to make the transformation. Create walls between the lower and back end posts of the bunk bed by using pre-cut plywood to half the height instead of fully enclosing the playhouse so adults can monitor playtime activities. Add a small wooden desk for making crafts and coloring. Install shelves on the back wall to hold books, a child's digital camera and educational toys such as a microscope. Use corkboard on the back wall for the child to display artwork and photographs in the playhouse office.