I'm feeling a bit at sea, and thought some of the color gurus on here could help me!

A little background: we had this playhouse built last fall - a local architect offered his services for a benefit and we won a custom design, this is the result. I have stained the lattice with a semi-transparent stain that I'm not happy with, but it took 20 working hours to get this far, and I'm still not done! (still have the interior bottom to do) It's a very cool brown, almost gray. At this point, I feel committed to it. I just can't imagine sanding it off, even if I could, which I probably couldn't. I was hanging off a ladder feeling very unsafe getting the stain on in the first place.

SO. THE QUESTIONS.

1. What color should I do the deck? The safe choice is an opaque stain slightly darker than the lattice, but the same tone. Seems kind of boring, but this is a kind of rustic, natural look to start with so maybe I shouldn't overthink it. Any other ideas?

2. I was thinking to paint the ladder and interior window frame a contrasting color. You can see the ladder frame through the lattice, which is really cool. I was thinking a blue or green, but orange or yellow would really stand out.

3. I'm going to make a canvas cover to hang from eyebolts on the top of the black posts. I was thinking white, but I could do something else too...blue, green, orange...

Side note: I realize it looks treacherous and crazy, and it kind of is. We have loads of rules around how to play in the playhouse, and have filled the area around it with a soft bed of wood chips. Any climbing requires a helmet. But a major part of the appeal to the boys is the relative danger, sorry to say!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Deb

Here's the playhouse:

You can kind of see the ladder frame on the right hand side through the lattice:

Here's the ladder close up:

Interior shot of the ladder frame and window frame. I'll be staining the lattice the outside color, but need to decide on a color for the floor and ceiling and am considering a contrast for the ladder and window frame.