kids

These Australian-made cubby houses are as exquisite as many actual homes.

Gone are the days of setting up pillow forts in the living room. Now, the big deal in children’s toys and entertainment is the custom designed “cubby house,” and even Zoe Foster Blake is a fan.

We’ve all grown up with makeshift-kitchenette sets and plastic castles, but the current cubby trend is taking those to the next level.

Made thematically as ice cream shops and beach houses, some of these more elaborate creations by Castle and Cubbies include verandas, awnings, sandpits, and gardens, and accordingly, they don’t come cheap. The average prices range from $850 to $2650, and each cubby is created by a team who specialise in just that.

Castle and Cubbies CEO Kellie Macpherson told Domain that the popularity of her work has grown exponentially since the start of her business three years ago. Her eBay shop, which sold simple cubbies has escalated into a full-blown trend, with high demand from parents who enjoy the cubbies’ handmade appeal.

“We initially thought we might only make one cubby a month for a bit of play cash, [but] we were soon making one a week in the quiet times and this ramped up as soon as warmer weather hit,” Macpherson said.

A couple of grand might sound like a pretty steep fee to pay for a children’s fort, but you can justify it with the knowledge that it’ll keep the kids away from the TVs and iPads by encouraging them to spend time outdoors.

And when the kids grow out of it, you can always turn it into a mini bar.