The Little House That Could

This playhouse was transformed into a grown-up she shed, perfectly decorated for Christmas.

- VICTORIA VAN VLEAR

THE KIDS GROWING UP and moving out of the house makes room for reimagining their previous play spaces. This was true for homeowner Martha Knake, who had a custom children’s playhouse sitting in her yard for 15 years. “My dad built this shed as a playhouse for our daughters in 1999 and delivered it on a trailer to our home right after we brought our second daughter home from the hospital that spring,” she says. “We went on to have our third daughter six years later, so it was used as a playhouse for almost 15 years.” But now that the kids have outgrown it, Martha decided to move into the space herself and make it her she shed.