DIY Toy Barn

Though we don't live on a farm, our kids LOVE farm animals. Visiting relatives on a dairy farm to see the cows, chickens, and other animals is always such a highlight for them! So, this past Christmas when we were brainstorming what to create for our boys' gift, a barn seemed like the perfect idea!

Our boys, ages 3 and 1, are pretty rough on their toys. My husband wanted to build a barn that was heavy, strong, and durable...and that's what he did! We didn't want anything fancy or complicated -especially since construction on this project didn't start until 3 weeks before Christmas!

Our cost on this project was quite low since we didn't have to purchase any lumber. We had lots of scraps left over from a recent deck renovation so we simply used what we had. Because of this, dimensions were based off of the pieces of wood we had to work with. The barn is built with 1/2 inch plywood and deck boards. It is 45.5 inches tall (to the peak), 3 feet wide, and 16 inches deep. My husband built the roof separately and then fastened it to the walls and base. He added a plywood backing last and then sanded everything down really well. The barn is painted with a Beauti-tone designer series furniture paint from Home Hardware that we had left over from some other projects (It is also the same paint we used on the exterior of the Barbie House we built in a previous post). This paint goes on really thick and doesn't scratch/dent very easily. I definitely recommend it!

Thus, the only cost for this project was the purchase of the animal figures. If you're shopping for animal figures, the Schleich brand is definitely the best quality...but it is expensive. We ended up buying two Schleich sets (Longhorn cows and hay bale, and small farm accessories) that I found on sale. The rest of the figures are from Terra by Battat. I also shopped all year for these and bought the sets on sale. I highly recommend Terra's Country World bin. It comes with a lot of farm animals and fencing. The animals are not as realistic as some of the other sets that Terra sells but the kids don't notice. If you have time to browse, you can find great deals on animal figures at second hand stores or on online swap & buys. We loved the idea of creating this barn because it will grow with the boys and we can easily add to our collection of animal figures in the years to come. Since it's rough and durable, we hope to move it outside onto our back deck during the summer months for more hours of imaginative play!

Our kids seem to thrive the most with imaginative, pretend play. There are so many great concepts you can introduce to young kids just by acting out real-life scenarios with toys. My husband looked up all kinds of interesting facts about different breeds of cows, etc. and shares these with the kids while they're playing. Before building this barn, our kids had a small collection of wild animal figures from the dollarstore. These animals are not high quality but have provided hours of play. My daughter and I built a zoo for them out of Mega Blocks this afternoon to go beside the "farm". We created a sign for the zoo and used playmobile figures in a school bus to "go on a class trip to the zoo". Throw in some monopoly money to "pay" our entrance fee and we were good to go! This also provided the perfect setting to teach her interesting facts about animals. It's fun to bring crafts and teaching into playtime!

Hopefully this has inspired you to create something fun! It doesn't have to be perfect or complex...you kids just like it when you're involved in their play!