The Dude House

I have 2 small-ish matching bookcases, and I was going to get rid of one of them, but decided instead to convert it into a playspace for Noble. I thought it would be perfect in the bookcase, because it would already match my furniture and hopefully blend a bit better into the adult-looking first-glance at the house :))

The idea came from loving to handmake things for a doll house, so we made Noble a dude house for his guys (a motley crew of various G.I.Joes, Batmans, Buzz Lightyear, Joker, Diego, Elmo, Ernie, Katara -- from The Last Airbender --, and more :)). We have lots of ideas for it (LOTS of supplies in the craft room), but it looks kinda barren right now.

The first picture is of the un-renovated bookcase (now holding books and musical instruments), and the second picture is of his dude house, still in it's beginning stages. It has 3 levels (a painted box wood glued in as the "house" part of the area, and then the bottom level is the shelf of the bookcase and is where we will put more "outdoor" type stuff), and some bumpy packing insulation wood glued to the top side for his guys to climb all over and stand alone in/on. It currently has a homemade bed on the uppermost level (made from a sheet scrap glued onto a small box, and then I made a small blanket and pillow out of football print flannel scraps that were going to be diapers for him, but he mastered using the potty that week instead).

We have some grand plans with lots of ideas on the horizon :)) Some are to take some little skateboard clippings from magazines and put "pictures" up in the dude house, paint it better and put down some carpet or wood flooring, make a playground with wood playground equipment (and tin foil over a cardboard slide), an obstacle course for his guys to train on, a kitchen (they must be starving!!), a tea party set/ dining room set, and more... I am seeing what his interests are and wanting to create miniature versions for his guys :) I also want to give him plenty of room to use his imagination and create his own props, too, with blocks and sticks and other such outdoor supplies :))
Across the room is the beginning stages of a farm for his animals, too. I will post pics and such on that after we get some grass in! So far, it's only dark rich soil (brown fabric waiting to be painted when I can get a different yellow acrylic paint so it comes out a yummy green).

Hope this inspires you!