Style and Design
TP have extended their range of customisable wooden playhouse to include the Lavender Cottage Builder. Select the basic playhouse and choose your own accessories from the wide range available using TP's innovative online 360 degree design tool - making sure you get exactly the playhouse you want, no more, no less.
Materials/Construction
Lavender Cottage is constructed in FSC certified wood throughout. The playhouse construction is tongue and groove. The front window and door are glazed in perspex while the added accessories are completed in a range of materials.
Dimensions
The playhouse measures 3'3'' wide by 4'6'' deep (98.5 x 137 cm). Height at the roof ridge is 141 cm.
Finish/Treatment
The playhouse is delivered untreated and unfinished, allowing it to be suitably decorated to your preference. A preservative finish will require to be applied and maintained on a regular basis.
Options
A selection of optional accessories are available for Lavender Cottage: a shuttered window, mud kitchen table, table and bench, picket fence, post box and doorbell - the choice is yours.
Delivery/Assembly
The playhouse is delivered by tracked courier in pre-formed panels along with full instructions and all necessary fittings..
Availability
See the details of sellers and prices given above.
Our Verdict
TP's Lavender Cottage Builder extends the trend first seen with their Treehouse Builder whereby a basic playhouse set up can be customised to your own preference from a wide range of available accessories. In the case of Lavender Cottage, the playhouse element is based on TP's Meadow Cottage which we first reviewed in 2019.
The Cottage is a relatively compact wooden playhouse, suitable for smaller children, with an attractive appearance, peaked roof and pretty verandah to the front. It's constructed largely in interlocking cladding which should give you reasonable resistance to the elements if the playhouse is to be kept outdoors. The potential exception to this is the roof which isn't finished in any way beyond the interlocking timbers. While the tongue and groove will provide a certain degree of waterproofing, if you find any problems with water ingress and you have some basic DIY skills, we think it would be worth considering adding a felt finish to the roof. If you want to check out the possibilities you can find a selection of felt roof coverings available for delivery or collection at B&Q or Wickes. Having said this about the roof, we're pleased to see that the playhouse features a tongue and groove wooden floor. Playhouses towards the lower end of the price scale often feature solid sheet OSB floors which, while they will do the job passably, are more susceptible to damage by moisture and lack the strength of a real wood floor. Some of the customer feedback for the very similar Meadow Cottage however suggests that even the wooden floor may be a little lightweight and you may have to consider adding some additional bracing or support if you find this tending to be the case with your Lavender Cottage.
Note that the timbers of the cottage are untreated prior to delivery, meaning that you will have to apply your own DIY preservative/decorative finish. Ideally this should be done just before you put the playhouse together. That way you can be sure you reach all those parts (such as the underside of the floor) that would be difficult to get to once the building is up. A useful tip is to turn the pre-assembled wooden panels upside down while applying the finish to make sure it penetrates all the way into the tongue and groove joints. It's a bit of a fiddle, but spending the time at that stage can save problems developing later.
The playhouse wood is planed smooth to reduce the risk of splinters and the perspex used in the window glazing should be virtually unbreakable. Wood is a natural material though, and we'd suggest you check the building over thoroughly for any stray splinters or rough edges after delivery and be prepared to remove these with sandpaper and/or a craft knife. With a wooden building of this type it's relatively common for the odd rough edge to escape the manufacturing process or to develop later. We don't see this as an issue, just something that goes with the territory. We notice that the cottage doesn't feature a door catch of any kind and while we appreciate that this can sometimes be a safety issue, if you find there's an issue with the door remaining closed, especially during inclement weather, it's probably worth thinking about fitting a child friendly magnetic catch. Again, you can find a selection of these at B&Q, Wickes or Toolstation.
Lavender Cottage comes with a good range of available accessories and we like the 360° playhouse builder on the TP website which not only looks fun to use, but will also give you a good idea of how the cottage plus accessories will look from all angles. Taking everything into account, we think Lavender Cottage would be a decent buy for a younger child although it must be said that the price begins to mount up fairly substantially as the accessories are added. The whole process is however simple and straightforward and will give you a playhouse with as many, or as few additional features as you wish. If you're just looking for the basic playhouse, we'd suggest that you check out the current pricing for Meadow Cottage, just in case you can save a few pounds elsewhere on this very similar model.
Looking at everything, we've awarded Lavender Cottage four stars to take account of the wide range of accessories and the ease of customisation. We'd rate the basic playhouse at three and a half stars. At the time of review the model is relatively new to the market and customer feedback is hard to find. We'll post links to customer reviews as they become available and will keep our own ratings updated to take account of these. 
