Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

I love this cute, quaint house however, I bought it for use in a child care center and it didn't last a week. It didn't hold up to the amount of child traffic we have. I don't recommend it for commercial use. I would like to add the company quickly provided replacement parts at no cost!

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

So here's what you need to be prepared for...if you're lucky, the box will arrive intact and all your parts and hardware will still be in their original cases. In that case, you can actually follow the instructions pretty easily and put the whole thing together in a day or less. But what will most likely happen is that the box will have suffered some wear and tear in shipping, and the hardware will have busted out of the packaging, and some hardware pieces may even be missing. So you can either spend another day gathering and organizing all the tiny little screws only to find out that some are missing, or you can just go to the KidKraft website and order a new hardware kit, free within 90 days of purchase. Then, when your hardware replacement kit arrives, you can commence assembling the playhouse. It's an annoying extra step but not an impossible one, especially if you're prepared for it. The actual assembly isn't too hard, and the actual playhouse is great, lots of activities for the kids, they love it, and it looks beautiful. We're very pleased with the purchase but probably would have been really annoyed had we not been prepared for a tough assembly.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

Well organized parts and instructions. I would recommend they zoom in on some of the instructions. Takes about 4 hours to put together. Helps to use a power screw driver to drive the hex head bolts, dial down the torque to a minimum. Our grandson was very excited as we put it together. We assembled it in a covered porch, I would recommend a clear coat of polyurethane if it was living outdoors. No complaints!

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

We bought this playhouse for our 3 year olds birthday. It came in a small box full of pieces with a thousand screws/nails. I read the reviews that putting together was a pain but my husband is an engineer and it has never been an issue in the past. This, however, was different. Obviously, Onestep was trying to save in shipping because nothing was put together, it came in a small box and had to be put together one screw at a time. Took my husband about 4-5 hours and he is an expert with 4 kids and being an engineer!! The average joe may just go ballistic. Well, he did go ballistic. Once put together, it is cute. The ages say from 3-8, but I have a two older kids (6 and 8) and they do not fit in it. I would say more like 2-5 is the perfect age for this house.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

Hour after hour of creative play. Best playhouse I've ever seen in 30 years.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

We ordered this in time for our son's 5th birthday but upon opening the box today we found two damaged pieces and the bolt package - which had previously been opened and then taped shut - open and spilled the bolts all over the box. We were missing over 40 bolts and the entire box contents looked like they had all been thrown into the box and shipped. My guess is that someone returned this item and that no one quality checked it and they just shipped it right back out to us. I hope to write a better review once KidKraft overnights the parts to us and we build the house but for now we're upset that we won't be able to give our son the only present he asked for on his birthday tomorrow. How could someone have such little pride in their job as to send someone a package in this condition?

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

We returned the playhouse. The parts were thrown in the box and the screws were loose and falling out of the box. So not worth the price!

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

Good little playhouse. My kids recieved this as a birthday present from grandparents. Materials are a little on the cheap side. We had read the reviews and did what one suggested and sealed the wood before placing it outside...hope that helps it last a little longer.

Ours came WITHOUT instructions on how to assemble it. This site (one step ahead) didn't have the instructions. Found the "kid craft" name on the side of the box the house came in and went to their site and found them...a minor set back.

Overall a nice little playhouse.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

We use the playhouse in the toddler yard. We had to take the door off to protect little fingers. Suggest safety feature on door. Otherwise we like it albeit we would have chosen stainless still tubs not plastic.
Ann the director

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

My 3 year old daughter loves this playhouse so that is the most important factor. It is very nice to look at and so far has withstood the weather well.
We did have some issues with the condition it arrived in. All of the hardware that is supposed to arrive all arranged in it's cardboard package was in one big mess of a pile because the packaging had been damaged. After sorting all the parts, a most tedious job, I found that they were all accounted for. Thankfully! The water tray arrived cracked in half. But the company was very easy to contact and sent out a replacement and the replacement tray was wrapped in more packaging materials than the whole house was! So that arrived safely!
The house was easy to assemble, as long as you pay attention to using the correct hardware. I don't want to give a time on assembly as we had our 3 year old do as much as she could and dragged it out over a few days.
I would say that as far as the recommend ages of 2-8 that is inaccurate. I can see at the most a 5 year old in this house. Not to say an 8 year old wouldn't love it but the size just doesn't support older kids.
Overall, it is a fun playhouse, the cost is high but what doesn't cost a lot of money anymore. It's good wholesome imaginative play.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

Bought for our grandkids to play in their back yard. Seems like the playhouse should have had a floor in it. If on the ground, grass will grow up in it. So we plan to put it on a platform that would create the floor but it definitely needs to have tie downs added to make it safe and usuable in the midwest due to the amount of wind we have. The kids love it.

Comments about KidKraft Backyard Palace Wood Outdoor Playhouse:

We got this playhouse for our two kids (girl 3 / boy 2). It is a fantastic size for the two of them. The house and a sand box we have are perfect for the summer and their two neighbor friends.

For the price, this is fine. The wood is not the best quality and other houses I've seen that are more expensive are made with much better wood. We bought some Thompson's Water Seal in the spray cans and a sponge and to spray it down (post construction) and get it sealed from rain and other harsh weather. I HIGHLY recommend you do that to make the house last longer. If you don't, I don't see it lasting very long.

The construction was tough. With two toddlers and a little trial and error, it took us all weekend...both days...maybe 10 hours total. All the pieces were there with none to spare.

The house has already proven to be a lot of fun. The kids love the sand/water boxes and also with windows and doors. My son loves the seating area. So, all the work was totally worth it.

I definitely recommend it, just be prepared to do a little work to get it "play ready".