Cardboard Box Halloween Playhouse: Hallmark Home & Family Feature

by Lynn Lilly, Aug 30 2023

I am so excited to share that I made my 5th appearance on Hallmark Home & Family today! I was so thankful to get to film 4 segments at their LA studio last year but this year brought a different plan. No traveling for this girl. When the show announced they would be returning for their new season in September I got a surprise email from a Home & Family producer asking me to do a virtual segments from my studio in Atlanta! Heck yes, was my answer and we started planning how to bring the fun in a big way from Atlanta to LA to hundreds of thousands that watch the show!

Because Halloween looks different this year I still wanted to create a special experience for my daughter and give parents some ideas they can easily re-create at home! I have definitely been doing a little extra online shopping and those boxes have been piling up in the garage! I thought why not recycle them into something fun for Halloween! From boxes to spooktacular, my Halloween Haunted Playhouse was born and my daughter loved it!

Cardboard Box Halloween Haunted Playhouse, Lynn Lilly on Hallmark Home & Family

This segment was definitely challenging but the team at Home & Family was amazing! The producers (shout out to Holly), the props team, production and of course the fabulous host Debbie Matenopoulos made creating and filming this segment a breeze! A BIG SHOUT out to my team at Craft Box Girls for helping paint, glue shingles, practice, set up cameras, run through shots, break down and re-do this set multiple times and film it flawlessly!

Out of the 400+ television segments I have filmed over the last few years this was definitely the biggest project I have tackled and I couldn't have been happier to get to do it on one of my favorite shows!

Cardboard Box Halloween Haunted Playhouse, Lynn Lilly on Hallmark Home & Family

I created the playhouse house in my Atlanta studio and sent photos, materials, and a video of building the house to the Home & Family props team in LA so they could re-create the final playhouse and step outs for Debbie to do during the segment. This made it easy for Debbie to make the house along side me!

Check out Debbie creating the playhouse from the Home & Family Studio in LA

Hallmark Home & Family

Me making the playhouse in my studio in Atlanta

Lily got a sneak peek of the house a few days before the segment aired!

Check out how I built the frame of the house from boxes . This is clearly sped up! I started with 2 large boxes and 1 medium box. The large boxes are the body of the house and the medium box was to make the roof.

I used masking tape to hold the house together, yard stake to keep the room in place. White masking tape is the best option for tape so you can easily paint over it. After the house was put together I re-enforced it with industrial hot glue. The last step is to cut out the door! I choose to do a dutch door for a little more playtime fun!

The entire house was painted with Crayola Acrylic paint! You know I am Crayola girl and I love how the great coverage and that it dried super quick!

After you paint the house it might bow a little bit. If you have extra yard sticks handy use those re-enforce the inside seams of the house or add some extra industrial glue.

The spooky magic is definitely in the details!

Cardboard Box Halloween Haunted Playhouse

Spooky Spiders Made with Crayola Model Magic

A window with a friendly ghost made from construction paper was the perfect addition to fill in the side walls of the house

The dutch door and window made it even more fun for Lily to play pretend trick or treat!

I am so thankful for this amazing experience! Even though I have been grounded this year it has been amazing to see the power of being able to continue to share creativity virtually!

Next stop for this playhouse is home base for our Halloween egg hunt in the front yard for Lily!

xoxo- LL