Style and Design
A super little wooden playhouse with an open design in the style of a cafe or shop to encourage constructive and educational play for younger children. Features include checkout counter, display shelves for wares and a "daily special" blackboard.
Materials/Construction
The playhouse is constructed in sustainably sourced fir wood.
Dimensions
The Cafe Shop measures 112 x 93 cm at the base (excluding the counter and shelving). The height at the roof ridge is 137 cm (4'6'').
Finish/Treatment
The wood is machined to a smooth untreated finish. For outdoor use it will be necessary to apply a final preservative decorative finish at the time of assembly.
Options
The Cafe Shop can be purchased with or without a matching wooden floor. Depending on the seller you may also find a choice of decorative finishes available at the time of purchase.
Delivery/Assembly
The playhouse panels are pre-formed prior to delivery for easy diy assembly. You can see a preview of the assembly instructions here (opens in a new tab). Availability
See the details of sellers and prices given above.
Our Verdict
With the Big Game Hunters' Cafe Shop what you see is largely what you get. It's a nice open structured playhouse in a distinctive style which should provide hours of entertainment for young children in social and constructive play. The design allows for many play scenarios to be envisaged both indoors and outdoors.
The quality of the construction looks good, though obviously it's not a "wind and watertight" outdoor playhouse in the traditional sense. The large, open windows do however mean that, if kept outside, the interior of the playhouse should dry out quite quickly following a shower and be ready for play once more. The standard of finish to the timber looks nice and smooth although you should take care to check the components over for any possible small splinters or blemishes which might have escaped the manufacturing process. We wouldn't expect you to come across any serious issues but with wood being a natural material it's possible there might be one or two little rough edges which require removal with sandpaper or possibly a craft knife.
The wood doesn't receive any treatment prior to delivery so if you're to be keeping your Cafe Shop outside, you'll need to take care to apply a suitable preservative/decorative treatment throughout to keep the playhouse in good condition. We'd recommend doing this even if the playhouse is to be used indoors to help protect the timber from the inevitable knocks and rough and tumble of children at play. You might find a suitable finish available to buy at the time of purchase - or you could have a look at our feature on Decorating and Protecting your new Wooden Playhouse. Either way, it's usually a good idea to apply the finish before you put the playhouse together. That allows you to properly reach all the areas needing treatment, including those that might be trick to get at after assembly.
And on that subject, assembly should be a pretty straightforward operation. The playhouse panels come largely pre-formed and just need screwed together. Big Game Hunters' provide a preview of the assembly instructions which you can see here to give you a clear idea of the tools required and what's involved.
The Cafe Shop is available to buy with or without a fitted wooden floor. Normally we'd advise buying a wooden floor at the drop of a hat, but for this type of open structure, if it's to be kept outside we're not sure it's the best idea in a situation where the playhouse is open to the rain. If you purchase the floor option, do make sure you thoroughly treat it with a suitable timber preservative to reduce the risk of damage from moisture - and if you find that water does collect in a particular area following rain, consider drilling a drainage hole or two (followed by the application of more preservative to the holes) to help alleviate the problem. When dry, we think that overall the floor is an asset to the playhouse.
There are one or two other playhouses around in a similar style at the moment - the TP Cubby House and the Outsunny are good examples. The styles of these models vary, so in the end your choice might come down to personal preference. We do however think that, at the time of review, the Cafe Shop was the pick of the four in terms of value for money - although you can sometimes pick up a Chad Valley playhouse on special offer. There's quite a lot of customer feedback around for the Cafe Shop - and it's mainly very positive, particularly relating to the ease of assembly and overall appeal. If you're looking for this type of playhouse we don't really think you can go far wrong with the Big Game Hunters' Cafe Shop. Four and a half stars from us! 
