DIY tips & tricks for your tree house

There are tree houses – you know, a bunch of wooden planks your parents cobbled together, punctuated by swear words and extra trips to the hardware store for more nails – and then there are tree houses. These are literal houses in the trees, with electricity, running water and rustic, modern furnishings that would make any interior designer go weak.

Do your children dream of a tree house or do they already have one?

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History of the tree house

Pete Nelson saw the tree house fever grow along with his company, which was born from a night of partying in 1987. “I couldn’t sleep, I was so excited,” he says of the moment when he imagined building full-size houses that float in the air. To finance his idea, he built both normal houses and tree houses. Soon more and more people were coming to him about the latter, so in 1994 he co-wrote the book Treehouses: The Art and Craft of Living Out on a Limb, the first of half a dozen he wrote. In 2006, he opened a place to sleep near Seattle where one could sleep in one of his designs, which he named TreeHouse Point.

A tree house is actually a dreamy and romantic playground for the little ones.

Our tree house plans

Use one of these free tree house plans to build the ultimate playhouse in heaven for your kids. This huge selection of free tree house plans covers everything from simple to fancy.

Detailed diagrams, color photos, videos, step-by-step building instructions and tips will help you build a safe and stable tree house that your children or grandchildren will enjoy for years to come.

Tip: No good tree house trees? No problem! Most of these free tree house plans include an option for a freestanding tree house that will stand on posts. Round wood is best suited for this. You can also find some free playhouse plans and free swing plans that better suit your needs.

When you’re ready to move from tree houses to your next woodworking project, you can find more free woodworking plans for toy boxes, bunk beds, deer stands, dog houses, picnic tables, bird houses, gazebos, porch swings, and bookcases.

You can find free tree house plans online that meet the highest demands.

Deluxe tree house plan

If you are looking to build an amazing tree house then this free tree house plan is for you. Don’t worry if you don’t have the right trees for a treehouse. This freestanding tree house can be built anywhere.

Outside this tree house is a pulley system for treasure and a ladder. Inside there are bunk beds and plenty of space for adventures.

This free tree house plan contains a material and shopping list, color photos, diagrams and detailed step-by-step building instructions.

Do you want to build the perfect playground for your children yourself?

Free tree house plan from The Handmade Home

Lots of color photos, diagrams, and written instructions will help you build that tree house any child would love. There is a main cutting list and materials list for this free tree house plan, as well as separate blog posts on building the deck, walls, railing and shutters, as well as the roof.

Made With Happy built this high-quality, ground-level tree house for 300 euros, in which the children can play all summer. There is a breakdown of how to build the base and frame, floor, roof, walls and window.

You can let your creativity run free when decorating a tree house.

This isn’t a step-by-step plan for building a tree house, but rather a handful of tips that you can use if you are looking to build your own tree house. It doesn’t matter whether you use your own designs or those from this list. Some of the tips include weight and stability. You have to keep these in mind when building the tree house. To understand that there has to be space around the trunk. In order for the tree to move and grow over time, you have to keep the ground level and stable, and a lot more.

The children can really let off steam here!