Treehouse Homes

Treehouses are no longer just for child’s play. While they still do serve as playhouses for lucky kids, they’ve taken on new functions as private home offices or studios, as elevated guest quarters, and as hotel accommodations, as well. Some are real houses that just happen to be located in trees.

Modern treehouses are also typically quite eco-friendly. They have traditionally been built using salvaged materials, and now designers and builders have taken it further with energy-efficient features, such as composting toilets, or utilizing solar panels and fuel-cell power.

In the slides that follow are treehouses located all over the world. They’re also all over the map in terms of style: Some are proper houses on high, but this collection also showcases the variety of uses for buildings in trees. One structure is intended as an office, one is a restaurant, one very big example is partly a church, and one house actually is for kids but will no doubt inspire envy in adults. Click ahead to see them all. 

By Colleen KanePosted 21 September 2011

Location: The Olympic Peninsula, Washington

This small-scale charmer built in 2005 by Treehouse Workshop has a kitchenette, a bath, a sitting room with fireplace, balconies, and it sleeps four. It has a window seat accessible by ladder, and the house itself is accessible by ramp, which was built using salvaged Madrona logs.

Location: Lake Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

This Japanese lantern-style tree home was designed by Toronto architect Lukasz Kos in 2003 with a budget of $50,000 Canadian (about US$50,399). Only one steel cable is attached to each tree to ensure minimal impact. The 410-square-foot “balloon frame” structure rests upon two Douglas fir beams suspended from those steel cables.

Location: Crossville, Tennessee

This 10-story treehouse towers nearly 100 feet tall and has an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of space—it may be the largest treehouse in the world. That space includes the only penthouse for miles around, a basketball court, a church (including a choir loft), and a VIP balcony. Builder Horace Burgess told USA Today that his inspiration came from God: "I was praying one day, and the Lord said, 'If you build me a treehouse, I'll see you never run out of material."' Those materials have included recycled wood from sheds and bars, and judging by the size of this place he did not run out.

Location: Yelm, Washington

This 400-square-foot treehouse, another project created by Treehouse Workshop, is located on a horse farm overlooking a pond. It has a curved staircase leading up to an Art Nouveau-style door, and inside is room to sleep two. The home was built with repurposed fir lumber.

Location: Germany

The Djuren is one of many extraordinary treepods designed by the German modern architecture firm Baumraum, many of which are trapezoidal, orb-shaped, or resemble vintage camp trailers. This treehouse serves as a retreat for adults or a playhouse for the family’s young children, and there’s room on the terrace for a table and some chairs.

Location: Athens, Greece

Some kids have all the luck, like the children of the client who asked luxury treehouse builders Blue Forest to build them a James Bond-style hideaway. The resulting super-secure tree fort features a state-of-the-art biometric security system, including fingerprint locks and a CCTV system. Why would children need a CCTV system? To monitor the five-color night-vision cameras covering the entrance to the treehouse, of course. Once that becomes tiresome, the Luckiest Kids in the World can heat up some hot dogs in the kitchenette and play some video games on the plasma TV.

Location: Northern California 

This getaway cabin perched among redwoods, another creation from Treehouse Workshop, has a wraparound deck to take in the grove of surrounding trees. It’s located on property that once belonged to Robert Louis Stevenson, and the reclaimed materials for this home include doors and windows that came from the celebrated Scottish writer’s house.

Location: Alnwick, Northumberland, England

The Treehouse at The Alnwick Garden is one of the world’s largest treehouses, and it’s probably safe to say it’s the world’s largest treehouse restaurant. The restaurant serves a seasonal menu sourced from local fare. This patchwork wooden structure of shingles and planks features a fireplace, decks, rope bridges, and, of course, tree limbs growing through the rooms. It looks like something out of a fairy tale or Harry Potter, which is appropriate given its proximity to Alnwick Castle, which starred as the Hogwarts School in two of the Harry Potter films.

Location: Shropshire Countryside, England

This medieval-style aerial office, another project built by Blue Forest, features arched windows and doors, decks, a cedar-shingle roof, and a rustic hand-split oak shingle and cedar exterior. Inside is a kitchenette with mini-fridge and a lounging area. It’s fully lined with western red cedar, and features low-profile recessed halogen lighting and a beautiful oak floor. A climbing net and slide are outside for the grandkids. And lest we forget, this treehouse also functions as an office, equipped with broadband and phone lines.

Location: Nottinghamshire, England

Three sustainably built treehouses were created in Sherwood Forest by Blue Forest. Each has four double bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a living area and kitchen, and a secondary treehouse “entertainment pod” with a home theater and pool table. On the deck are a hot tub, sauna, and a dining area.