Give Little Design Mavens a Tiny House of Their Own
If the million-dollar babies of the last century can be trusted, the hours spent in their playhouses were among the best of their poor-little-rich-kid years. A decade before her forced marriage at age 18 to the Duke of Marlborough, Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877–1964) spent blissful afternoons making sauerkraut with her German governess in a little cottage imported from Switzerland. Likewise, financier E.F. Hutton and heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s daughter, Nedenia (1923–2017)—later known as the actress Dina Merrill—baked cookies inside Deen Wee, a thatched-roof structure on her parent’s Long Island estate during the halcyon days before their divorce. And Consuelo Vanderbilt’s much younger cousin Gloria (born 1924) made headlines in the 1930s as the “Poor Little Rich Girl,” caught in a custody battle between her mother and aunt. The resulting trauma began to heal after the aunt, the appointed legal guardian, bestowed on Gloria a cozy hideaway that she could decorate as she chose. In her 1985 memoir Once Upon a Time, Gloria recalled a childhood epiphany: “A whole other life could have gone on there, and no one living in the main house would ever know it.” The retreat, which young Gloria ultimately did up in “Egyptian” style, was “a big step towards reaching grown-up territory.”
These gilt-edged memories may help assuage the sticker shock of parents fueling the current boom in over-the-top playhouses. One reason for the renaissance of the old-fashioned playhouse is its proven allure as an alternative to digital entertainment. Options today go far beyond the dark, splintery cabins of yore. A quick web search reveals dozens of fantasy-fueled variations, from Rapunzel castles to fully rigged pirate ships—all available no matter where you live. Glass windows and LED lighting brighten these walk-in toys, while carpets, upholstery, and air-conditioning smooth out the Davy Crockett edge. The interior can be as spare as an igloo or as fussy as a tea room. Among the most popular elements are book nooks, play kitchens, sleeping lofts, dress-up rooms, craft tables, and theater stages.
What price for this lifetime of happy childhood memories? Assuming money is no object, check out La Petite Maison, a Denver-based outfit that has trademarked the phrase “The Most Luxurious Playhouses in the World.” Prices for the bespoke confections begin at $9,000 and run to around $75,000. Scaled-down replicas of the family home are a specialty of the Maison, with gardens and garages outside and running water, fireplaces, and chandeliers inside.
If your taste runs more to gamer fantasy, Monster City Studios might be more your style. Playhouses are just a side job for this Fresno, California enterprise, which sells immersive environments to zoos, trade shows, and theme parks. If you fancy a three-story tree house propped on a steel-reinforced tree with a dragon-shaped locomotive racing around it, this is the place for you. Prices are comparable to La Petite Maison.
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Predesigned playhouses can be just as elaborate, but less expensive than custom. Lilliput Play Homes, outside Pittsburgh, has a custom business but offers an astonishing array of playhouses, children’s beds and child-scaled furnishings on their website. Among its top-sellers are the pink and white Cotton Candy Manor ($9,999) and the Family Vacation Play Bed, which resembles a 1960s camper ($4,900).
A Canadian outfit, Charmed Playhouses, was recently showcased on four epsidoes of TLC reality show Playhouse Masters. “Mondays aren’t so bad when you build castles and paint rainbows for a living!” says the enthusiastic founder, Tyson Leavitt. The low exchange rate of the Canadian dollar may have helped business as much as the TV exposure. Leavitt does home replicas, but also offers a line of winsome predesigns. Prices range from the S4,200 Craftsman Shed (about $3,400 in U.S. currency) to the $36,000 Woodland Playhouse ($28,900). Stephen Curry bought a customized, horse-themed Charmed Playhouse for his daughter, Riley.
Each of these manufacturers engineers its products to be shipped worldwide. Be warned that the list prices are just the baseline. Jungle gyms and play yards are common add-ons, as are garages, doghouses, and, for the completist, entire villages.
For parents, the payoff is bearing witness to the magic of childhood. Charmed Playhouse’s Instagram account quotes a little girl who, after eying the fireplace and cushy armchair inside her new hideout, cheerily remarks, “I’m going to miss you, Mommy."
