A wendy house, which is also known as Cubby Houses, or play houses, is a small toy house, usually of a strong fabric, or plastic made for children to play in.

The name actually originates from the character of Wendy in the play Peter Pan, by J M Barrie, who kept house for Peter and the Lost Boys.

Wendy houses are traditionally an outdoor feature and are bought by parents to be used by their children in the garden for play during the warmer months of the year and then packed away for the cold, wet months.

There are many different meanings for the terms 'Wendy House', which are all derived from it being an outdoor building that is not a permanent fixture and can easily be taken down, or moved.

In South Africa, the same name refers traditionally refers to a pre-fabricated timber shed, which are most often delivered by a small truck and erected in the back yard as either a play area for children, as the traditional meaning states, or for the storage of garden tools.

Wendy House Design

Wendy House designs giveaway what the owner intends to use it for. When bought as toys for children Wendy Houses designs are usually colourful and painted in the style of a fairytale story, or at least in vibrant colours. The shed variety in the same name tend to be plain and colourless.

In Australia, cubby houses were historically built by children (with the help if adults depending on age) from found scrap and other materials found in gardens and waste-ground areas, or dumps.

Being built by children the structures were never meant as permanent fixtures and tended to last for a summer, or just a school holiday then either destroyed by the children or ravaged by weather over the worse month.

Wendy House Kits

More recently these structures aren't found often as the number of children playing outside has decreased and the increase in security and concerns over children's health has led to a fall in materials available. To combat this, however, Wendy House Kits can now be purchased and built by children to the same effect.