If you are sick of looking at your Little Tikes or Step2 playhouse for your toddler, maybe it’s time to give it away to a friend.

Our goal for all the things we keep in our yard is to have outdoor toys we actually use, and our Step2 plastic playhouse was NOT getting the love it deserved from our family.

We got the Avenlur Casa Modern Playhouse for our deck and in this review you can learn about our experience, to see if it’s good for your family. Find out if it’s worth the money and if choosing an Avenlur play product is all it’s hyped up to be.

Key takeaways from this review

  • We chose the Avenlur Casa Modern Playhouse because it is a playhouse we “actually” want to look at! (It has a great aesthetic design we’re glad to have on our deck)
  • Find out which ages it is best for and how our toddlers use it at ages 1 and 3.
  • See what we think is important about the quality, how to set it up (it took a few hours) and if we think it’s durable.
  • I’ll talk about the feel of this playhouse, and what it includes (surprise: real stainless steel kitchenware for toddlers!).
  • Lastly, I’m going to help you determine if it’s right for your family’s needs, like if it aligns with how your kids play or the space you’d have for it, and where to get it.

Watch my YouTube preview on what the Casa Playhouse really looks like on our deck:

Why we got the Avenlur Casa Modern Playhouse

We had a run-of-the-mill Step2 plastic playhouse that I actually had scored for free from a local mom group, and it originally lived on our deck, but we put it in the yard. It wasn’t very inviting: our older toddler used it a handful of times, but it didn’t have the space for an adult to sit inside, and lacked room to imagine.

When we were browsing the Avenlur website, we had to consider what we really had space for. We took some measurements on our deck, and found that we could fit the Casa Modern Playhouse if we shifted our seating and table set. In fact, I said I wouldn’t mind at all if this adorable and timeless toddler playhouse was the main focal point of our deck furniture overall.

I liked that it was made of wood, not plastic. Aside from the fact that our world does NOT need more plastic (and I like to prioritize wooden products, like if you’ve seen our Wood and Hearts desk-tower for toddlers), the wood look makes it look “real.” It blends in with our wooden deck, our woodsy neighborhood and the style of our house.

You can see Dan’s TikTok with a little tour of it here.

Who is it best for?

We have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old. I think the Casa Playhouse is a nice fit for both of them, and on top of that, it’s a nice size for both of them. Plus, having a sacred space where everyone can engage in pretend play is one of our favorite ways to try and raise screen-free kids.

Our Step2 plastic playhouse wasn’t really a space where they could both mill around and do an activity like play “pretend cafe” or even sit and have a snack together.

The Casa Playhouse immediately (the morning after Dan built it from all the pieces!) became an inviting space on our deck, where our older child went to go have a snack, cook in the little kitchen (with the stainless steel utensils and pot-pan set INCLUDED!!!) and even sat down on an ottoman that we placed inside, to draw in a coloring book.

So that being said, this playhouse is great for families with multiple children, and it’s also a nice spot for our kids to have friends over and play together in it. If they want to sit and have a snack, play “house” or play “cafe” and make pretend food, they can do all those things with ample space to not bump into each other.

Size

At about 3.76 ft (L) × 3.61 ft (W) and 4.85 ft. in height, even adults can hunch down and fit in this house! Maybe that refers to short adults like me, but still: kids won’t outgrow this play house as fast as the shorter plastic ones that feel cramped and snug as kids grow taller.

Quality and set up

We chose this playhouse because it’s made of wood. That’s a) a plus for me, sustainability-wise, as well as aesthetics-wise, and b) it should last a lot longer than our plastic outdoor toys, which tend to look faded after some time and just look dingy or flimsy.

There’s a true difference between wooden play houses and plastic ones. It’s a difference you can feel, and your kids can feel it, too. The door swings more nicely (it has real hinges) and has a good weight to it, the surfaces are sturdy and the entire house is strong. It feels like deck furniture. If you were to have it inside your house, like in a big basement or sun room, it would feel homey.

The entire play house arrived flat-packed in boxes that came on UPS. It came fast! Dan built it in two and a half hours while I took the kids out so that they would be surprised when we came back.

Avenlur quotes on the site page for this product that it is “easy assembly;” I would re-quote that to be easy assembly if you’re very handy and if you’re already in tune with your set of tools at home. (And Dan has become unbelievably handy since moving to the suburbs from the city)

Dan does quote it as being “pretty easy,” but he’s already handy. He needed his drill, and that was it. The play house comes with a complete instructional manual and would be a good project for two handy people to make it go faster during assembly. He recommends an electric screw driver, too.

Durability

Because this is an indoor-outdoor play house, it can be used outdoors. Ours is already outside right on our deck near our deck doors.

The wood comes with a weather-resistant finish, which makes the wood so that it can resist damage from regular rain. Avenlur does note, though, that the play house is not made to withstand super ‘inclement’ weather (I take this to mean snow, freezing temperatures for months on end, and blizzards) so keep that in mind!

Nevertheless, we likely are not going to disassemble ours, and we plan to use it in the winter as long as it’s not super cold outside. We’ll hope that it lasts until our last child has outgrown it!

Look and feel of this wooden play house

Overall, the look and feel of it is my real take-home from the Avenlur Casa Playhouse. Everything about it is what I’d dream of having played in as a kid, instead of those plastic play houses from the 90s that everyone had in their backyards.

As far as becoming part of our deck furniture setup, it has been a welcomed addition. It looks clean, minimal and cute, and we know that it’s functional from the inside out, for the kids.

We’ve aimed to create ‘fun toddler bedrooms’ as the kids keep growing, so our deck space needs to grow with them, too.

The biggest surprise for me is that it comes with the stainless steel cooking set for kids, included! What a cute inclusion. The ladle, strainer and spoon are ways to make pretend food in the pot and pan, on the little fold-out kitchen surface with “burners” in the corner of the playhouse.

Everything feels like elevated quality for a children’s backyard product or play product.

And lastly, it is sturdy. Avenlur as a brand has a credible safety testing process, and exceptional engineering on all their products for toddler and kid use.

Worth the money?

As we inched closer to deciding that this was the Avenlur product we wanted for our kids, I started looking into the comparisons with other play houses as well.

I found that the plastic play houses actually retail at $150-200, and if you compare the money you’d put into those, versus what you’d really get from them (groaning about the look and feel of them after only a few months), paying for a wooden playhouse that satisfies both kids and parents is more worth it.

I also looked at comparisons like the wooden playhouses from Backyard Discovery, KidKraft, Wayfair and Macy’s, and do you know what? I like the design of the Avenlur Playhouse the best. It’s the most open, welcoming and breezy. It’s pleasant for kids and it’s not an eyesore in our deck or in our yard. It’s not kitschy, and instead, it’s classy. Anyway, we’re glad we chose it.

How to get the Casa Modern Playhouse

While Avenlur products are typically available on Amazon, Walmart and Wayfair, the best way to get one is from Avenlur directly. Here’s my tip: they do have sales, and you’ll want to snag one like we did, because the Casa Modern Playhouse was actually marked down from its original price when we were first finding it.

Benefits of getting any Avenlur product at the Avenlur website

  • Free shipping on FedEx or UPS (in only 2-5 days, estimated)
  • 30-day returns
  • 5-year warranty (does not include regular wear from outdoor weather)
  • You can refer a friend and give 10%, while getting $25 off in credits for your next Avenlur website purchase!