Most people can only dream of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their dream home, but some are paying the same amounts, if not more, on intricate, fully-furnished playhouses for their kids.

Charmed Playhouses, a family business based in Letherbridge, Canada, claims to build the world’s most fantastic, luxurious and quality playhouses, and looking at some of their creation, we’re inclined to agree. But before you start dreaming about your very own backyard fantasy playhouse, you should know that some of these can cost an arm and a leg. Even though prices start at a respectable $3,500 for a basic playhouse, if you’re looking for something special, the bill can easily go into the tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Photo: Charming Playhouses

“We’re currently working on one playhouse that will cost upwards of $400,000,” owner Tyson Leavitt told INSIDER back in 2019. “Many of them range from $100,000 to $300,000.”

Leavitt, who worked in landscaping for nine years before founding Charmed Playhouses, decided go ahead with his “stupid idea” to build luxury over-the-top treehouses and playhouses for children after noticing that many of his clients’ backyards were enormous, but featured little to no amenities for children. Some had a rickety swing set, but not much else, so he decided he could do much better. And he was right.

After building a playhouse for his three children, a client asked Leavitt if he could build a Rapunzel-inspired one for his kids. Even though he had never built stylized playhouses before, he decided to do it, and it turned out so good he ended up entering it in a home-and-garden show.

“A lot of times clients come to us. They just tell us what they like. We take their ideas, we combine them and they morph into something beautiful by the time we’re done,” Tyson told the Calgary Herald in 2017. “Our entry-level one starts at $3,500 and we’ve done playsets up to $200,000. It really depends on what your budget is and your vision is.”

Every Charmed Playhouses project starts out with a Skype session between the company’s sketch artist and the client. The initial sketch takes about an hour and it is then turned into a three-dimensional, computer-generated model that can be seen from all angles. From there, the design is refined to perfection, according to the client’s budget.

Speaking about his more expensive creations, Tyson Leavitt admitted that they are “nicer than most houses … legitimately,” in terms of both looks and amenities. They can have running water, working electricity, hardwood floors, chandeliers, and custom furniture, among many others features. If the client can afford it, Charming Playhouses can probably build it.

From replicas of cartoon-inspired princess towers and castles to hobbit houses and miniature modern mansions, Charming Playhouses is open to any and all ideas. “We believe that every child deserves a place to play and let their imagination run wild. From slaying dragons to hosting lavish tea parties, every child needs a space to have some fun,” the company’s philosophy reads.

We’ve featured some truly awesome playhouses in the past, but Tyson Leavitt’s creations are definitely a cut above anything we’ve seen before, in both design and price.

 

For more outlandish things people spend big money on, check out these insane dog mansions we wrote about a few years back.