I purchased some 2/16 inch thin board from the hardware store, to be cut into circles to create the floors in the tree house. I cut one the same size as the hamper base, (remember its upside down now) and using liquid nails, a drill and some screws and nuts I attached the base to the bottom rim of the hamper. Now it was a little more substational to work with. I then brought out my biggest piece of miniature furniture to determine the distance that each floor should be from the next. Cute scale at its finest~ I then determined the circumfrence of each circle I needed to cut, and then I cut the wood with a jigsaw. I purchased some long strips of wood, about 1" wide by 1/4" to use to frame the opening of the tree house. (picture 2) On the inside of the house, the strip of wood is cut to fit under each circle of wood to help support each floor. I laid the tree house on its side to make it easier to hammer the two strips of wood together sandwiching the plastic of the hamper between them. The nails were a little long so I just banged them flat against the wood seeing how this will all be covered later with paper mache. At this point, the floors have not been attached to the frame of the treehouse. I needed to determine where to cut out a section of each floor to create an opening to make the stairs functional. Going back to my college days in theartre arts set construction, I puchased some illustration board to use as the basis for creating the stairs. I decided to have the staircase follow the shape of the laundry hamper. The end results were 3 grand curving staircases. I used the stairs to dictate where to cut the opening on each floor, then I attached each floor using liquid nails. I ran a bead around the edge of each floor and stuck them in place. I also ran a bead of liquid nails around the outside of the hamper along the woods edge for added strength. With the floors in place and the stairs temporarily in place, I then started cutting out window openings. I used long strips of illustration board cut to about 1/2 inch to be used as the window casings. I simply used the remaining liquid nails around the edge and used masking tape to hold it in place while it dried.

I put one layer of paper mache over the entire frame using newspaper strips, then after that had dried, I put another layer of paper mache using brown grocery bags. The brown paper bags are a much thicker paper and therefore you don't have to put on a third or forth layer. At this point, with everything covered in paper mache, I used a drill and attached the hinges to the treehouse frame and then to the long strip of laundry hamper that you have to cut out to gain access to the inside. If you are going to create your own miniature treehouse, you can decide if you want to have this piece reattached or if you just want to leave your house open at all times. I decided with 4 cats running around, a door that would help keep them from making it their new cat toy was well worth the extra work.