Bauhaus Meets the Playhouse
In Homeowners' Backyards

Homeowners who have gone to great lengths to design a modern home with a minimalist look don't want their kids' toys to ruin the aesthetic. Enter the mod playhouse. Designers, manufacturers and retailers who've recently introduced sleek furniture for kids are now moving out to the yard.

At Velocity Art and Design, a furniture retailer in Seattle, the new Modern Playshed for the Eames-in-training crowd went on sale last month. The 88" x 44" birch plywood unit has Dutch doors and can be customized with a deck, chalkboards, whiteboards and colorful plastic panels.

"Modernism stresses simplicity, plain surfaces and space," says architect Ryan Grey Smith, who collaborated with the company to design the Playshed. Mr. Smith says he conceived it with his daughter Della, almost 2 years old, in mind. "So it becomes a blank canvas that doesn't dictate certain types of play, unlike, say, a castle."

But like all prefab structures, there's assembly required. This one takes at least two hours, according to the company, and requires the help of an illustrated assembly manual, plus a carpenter's bag worth of tools -- including a caulk gun. And at $2,995, it costs more than many of the retailer's grown-up furnishings. "Parents kept telling us they wanted toys that wouldn't detract from their modern homes," says Lara Coffman Tusher, co-owner of Velocity.

Design Within Reach's kids' line, DWRjax, which launched last October, sells the austere Nume Cardboard Activity House ($110). Manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Nume, a design firm for children, it's one of the line's top sellers, according to company spokesperson Jordan Benjamin. DWR is looking into adding another playhouse to the line. To design-savvy parents unsettled by their offsprings' brightly colored plastic toys, the spartan look may be welcome, even though the cardboard means it's for indoor use only.

Some experts are also enthusiastic about the minimalist approach. "A boring white box is a fabulous toy, since it encourages children to create their own space," says Roberta Golinkoff, a University of Delaware professor of psychology specializing in child development.

Los Angeles architect and artist Gregg Fleishman's M-5.5 is a fort made of birch plywood panels that can be configured in many ways. Some of his play spaces, which range from $1,500 to $18,000, are on display at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles until May 12. Mr. Fleishman says the wood, though treated, won't stand up to weathering as well as metal or plastic, and cautions against leaving it outside for too long without re-treating it.

Lilliput, a manufacturer of luxury playhouses based in Finleyville, Pa., sells 12 styles of playhouses, including Tudors and Victorians. But some 5% of customers request custom versions of their own full-size residences, some of them very modern, according to company spokeswoman Patty Toner.

Whether the house in question is a Neutra or a Frank Gehry, "we'll build it," she says. Price? From $13,000 to $35,000.

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