A Child's Playhouse Brings the Circus to Town
The moment his first grandchild was born, New Zealand landscape photographer Declan O’Neill decided to embark on a project that would provide fond family memories for years to come — he would build a child’s playhouse with a magical twist.
Inspired by a chair that had been played with by the children in his family for generations, and supported by his wife, Gill, he began to brainstorm. “I wanted to give my granddaughter something that wasn’t made of plastic and may fall apart after a few years,” Declan says. He saw a photograph on Houzz of a playhouse in the form of a traditional caravan, and he “immediately fell in love with the idea of building one for her,” he says.
Having grown up in Ireland, he hoped the project would speak to his heritage, so working out how to create the roll top of a traditional caravan was a good starting point. He had no carpentry experience when he began, just a clear vision and a strong cause, but he soon discovered what a powerful source of knowledge the Internet could be.
“I had no idea how tricky it would be to create [5-foot-diameter] hoops from elm planks,” Declan says. “The Internet proved a lifesaver, as a simple Web search uncovered an assortment of men with sawdust-covered beards who knew exactly how to fashion hoops and share their knowledge.”
Another important element of his plan was that the caravan should last several generations, and Declan admits he was slightly obsessive about ensuring there was little chance of decay.
“The roof is made from redwood. The high tannin content ensures that it withstands the ravages of time, weather and insects,” he says. The rest of the caravan is built from a mixture of totara, macrocarpa, redwood, elm and pine. All the timber is from local, sustainable forests.
He adds: “I was lucky to find a mill that stocked carefully chosen, seasoned local timbers that could also dress the wood to my specifications. You feel a sense of responsibility to make something special out of totara planks that have been seasoned for a quarter of a century.”
The exterior of the wagon is tongue and groove redwood. The roof is caulked and secured with silicon bronze nails.
“I discovered a New Zealand company that manufactured beautiful silicon bronze nails with rose heads, which I used to secure the roof and walls,” Declan says. “Unfortunately, the nails are relatively soft, so hammering them into elm proved to be more demanding than I had imagined! The roof had to be painted with a total of eight coats of paint and varnish before being nailed, as I wanted the nailheads to glint in the sunlight and not be hidden by paint.”
The circus wagon theme of the caravan comes from a discovery by wife Gill. Scouring the charity shops for items to decorate the interiors with, she came home one day with a clown puppet and inadvertently influenced her husband to take a new twist in the design.
“I suddenly realized we could have a lot of fun theming the caravan as a circus wagon,” Declan says. “I decided to paint the front door with a circus theme to tie it all together. Having spent so long on the carpentry, it was incredibly satisfying to decorate the outside and make it look beautiful.”
Indeed, these small discoveries create the magic found here. The teddy bear handles, for instance, were discovered on the bottom shelf of a hardware store and add to the playfulness of the exterior, along with the bell to ring.
Here is a closer look at the Dutch door painted by Declan to represent the circus theme.
Gill was also responsible for the soft furnishings, including the curtains and the mattress. The interior walls are lined with red hessian fabric to create a warm atmosphere.
The hoops were cut with a band saw from 1¾-inch-thick elm and glued into place before being cut to the right size.
The bed was made with slats, and it splits in two so that it can easily be removed when the area is needed for playtime. The wall is hand painted with a sunny scene that the kids can enjoy, surrounding a cubbyhole that leads to …
… a “secret room” under the bed. The walls are covered in a printed vinyl decorated with farm and marine animals. “It could be a Noah’s Ark or a zoo or an unusual circus!” Declan says.
A tea set for entertaining is one of Gill’s charity shop finds.
Declan built the undercarriage from totara wood that had aged for 25 years. Casters ensure that the wagon can be moved easily.
A thermal barrier was added to keep the caravan cool in summer and warm in winter. It’s laid over the hessian and under the redwood roof slats.
Covered in earthy green and primrose-yellow paint, a stool fit for a clown (and adorned with the name Coco) was added to the porch to allow guests to “watch the world go by.”
Now that the caravan is finished, Declan has been swamped by requests from people wanting him to build more, and so the photographer from Nelson, New Zealand, has started up his own carpentry firm, Heritage Wagons.
“I think people are increasingly looking for something that has been made by a real person rather than a computer-controlled manufacturing process. They like the idea of something built to last generations,” he says. “They appreciate the personal aspect of it — the fact that it has been built by hand and made with love.”
More:
10 Ways to Transform Your Backyard Into a Kid’s Adventure Zone
Your turn: Please tell us about your children’s playhouse project and share your pictures in the Comments!
