Last summer we built this gorgeous wooden play house for the girls to play in the garden and they have loved having their own little space for secret meetings and reading books! I have been planning since then to find some time to paint it to protect it from the relentless British weather and also to make it even more appealing with some decorations, but it was taking a while to actually come to fruition.
I was recently introduced to a new iPhone app called Outspiration and it has helped me finally give the play house a fabulous new makeover!
The Outspiration app works in an interactive way to allow you to create and plan your own projects for renovating, building, fixing and painting all outdoor DIY projects.
You simply snap a photo of the project you wish to work on, in this case our plain, wooden play house/ shed. Then it gives clear options for clicking and selecting areas to be worked on, as shown in these screenshots of the app in progress.
It allows you to then browse through all of the available paint types (for metal, wood or masonry) and try out each of the available shades to see which one would look the best! 
I chose Seagrass for the main house (close to my most favourite duck-egg blue colour!) from the Cuprinol wood paint range, and Pale Jasmine from the same range for painting the trim and the little fence at the front.
We tried lots of different colours on the selected sections and eventually chose Seagrass for the main house (close to my most favourite duck-egg blue colour!) from the Cuprinol wood paint range, and Pale Jasmine from the same range for painting the trim and the little fence at the front.
Once you’ve chosen your paint colours/ types you can click to immediately see where to buy it and if there are any discounts available at nearby stores at the time, which is a really handy feature.
There are then options for checking the weather to see which days coming up will be the best for working outside and which to avoid because of predicted rain! Thankfully we had dry weather in store for our painting days.
After the house had its facelift, we added mini hanging baskets, flowers, door numbers (the older girls chose a 4 and a 5 because of their current ages!) and some fabric bunting. They are thrilled with how it has turned out!
The finished result is gorgeous and should make the play house a lot more weatherproof and long lasting for future play.
Now that this Outspiration project is finished we can save it and start a new one, from anything as simple as painting flowerpots to building a sandpit. There are technical tutorials, mini video clips and Outspiring ideas all contained within the app itself to give plenty more ideas for future projects we could sink our teeth into! 
Click on over to the App store to download Outspiration for yourself and try it out today! To celebrate the launch, AkzoNobel is giving away an amazing barbecue to one lucky winner when you download it, simply enter your details into the “win” section on the app itself. (Competition open for 2 weeks.) Good luck!
[This is a sponsored post on behalf of Outspiration app. All opinions are my own.]
Wow thanks for sharing this! My son was recently bought a wooden playhouse for his birthday off his grandparents, this post has gave me the ideas and incentive to jazz it up! Will be downloading the app x
Looks great, would love to know more about the actual building the playhouse bit. Was it a kit?
Thanks
I’ve just added a link to the original review now! It was from argos
Great post Anna! I wish my parents had built a secret little house in the garden for me and my sisters to read in and whisper secrets to each other. This post made me nostalgic for my childhood 🙂
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