Yes, we can build the treehouse too.
Treehouses in real trees or on posts, playhouses that match your house, hidden forts, pirate ships, stages and mud kitchens. The places kids disappear into for an afternoon.
Kids think about
A trap door. A rope to pull up a bucket. Whether you can sleep in it. Whether it's theirs.
Parents think about
The tree. The height. The neighbors looking into it. Whether it'll look like a shed on stilts.
Treehouses
Three ways to get a treehouse.
In the tree
A mature, healthy tree with a trunk over about 12 inches in diameter can carry a treehouse with proper hardware. We start with an arborist's look at the tree, then design with treehouse attachment bolts that let the tree grow and move without tearing the structure apart. Along the Front Range that usually means a cottonwood, a big silver maple, an old elm or a stand of ponderosa. Ash trees are off the list right now because of emerald ash borer.
Around the tree
Most Front Range yards have young trees or trees in the wrong place. A post-supported treehouse puts the platform on four or six posts with the tree coming up through or beside the deck. The tree gives the shade and the feeling; the posts carry the load. It's the most common thing we build, and honestly the most flexible.
Without a tree
An elevated fort on posts, roofed and railed, planted around with fast-growing shrubs and a vine on a cable. In five years nobody remembers there wasn't a tree. This is also the answer for a yard where you want the treehouse near the house for sightlines.
Height and what's under it
Deck heights of 5 to 8 feet feel enormous to a kid and are still a reasonable fall height to design for. We treat the area below a treehouse like the area below a play tower: a use zone with impact-attenuating surfacing, no hard edges, and a ladder or stair that's honest about who can use it. Rail heights, baluster spacing and gate latches follow residential code because it's good practice, not because it's required.
Looking like it belongs
We side and roof treehouses in materials that relate to the house: the same trim color, a standing-seam roof if the house has one, or cedar left natural so it reads as a garden building. Windows that open. A real door. It can be quirky without looking like a toy.
Imagination possibilities
Beyond the treehouse
Places to pretend.
Imagination play is the quiet part of a KidScape and the part kids use most. These are small structures with big returns.
Playhouses
A real little house, 6 by 8 or 8 by 10, with a door, windows, a porch and a floor. Sided to match yours. Inside: a bench, a shelf, a chalkboard. Later it's a potting shed, a reading room, a teen's escape. Standalone or tucked under a play deck.
Hidden forts
Low, half-enclosed, built into a corner behind planting so it feels secret from the house but is visible from the parent seat if you know where to look. Willow tunnels, log walls and a canvas roof are our go-to ingredients.
Play ships and themed builds
A ship's deck with a wheel and a crow's nest, a fire station with a pole, a castle with a wall walk. Themes done with good proportions and real materials, so it doesn't feel like a mall play area.
Outdoor stages
A low deck with a back wall and a curtain rod. Puppet shows, dance recitals, the neighborhood talent show. Faces the patio so the audience has seats. Doubles as a place to put the band at a party.
Mud kitchens
A counter with a sink (a real drain, a hand pump or a hose bib), a "stove," hooks for pots, and permission to make a mess. Next to the sand area, near the rinse station. Preschoolers will cook you dinner daily.
Chalk walls and music walls
A chalkboard fence panel or a wall of drums, chimes and pipes. Vertical play takes almost no footprint and gives the fence something to do.
Treehouses on the Front Range.
Trees
Our big native and heritage trees are cottonwoods, which grow fast and shed limbs. We're honest about which trees can carry a structure and which should just provide shade for one on posts.
Wind and snow
Roofs are pitched and framed for snow load and fastened for uplift. Railings are through-bolted. A treehouse should feel solid in a March windstorm.
HOAs
Many covenants cap accessory structure height around 8 to 12 feet and limit what's visible over the fence. We design to the rules and help with the approval packet.
Sun
A treehouse deck without a roof is a frying pan by 11am. Every one we build gets a roof, a sail or a canopy.
Questions parents ask
Treehouse and playhouse FAQ
Will the treehouse hurt the tree?
Done right, no. We use purpose-made treehouse attachment bolts (a single large bolt per attachment point rather than many small fasteners), avoid girdling the trunk with cables or straps, and leave room for growth. Done wrong, yes. That's why the arborist visit comes first.
Do we need a permit?
Most Front Range jurisdictions exempt small accessory structures under a certain floor area (often 120 or 200 square feet) from building permits, but height, setbacks and electrical can change that. HOA approval is more often the gate. We check both for your address before design.
Can they sleep in it?
A roofed, railed treehouse with a solid floor makes a great summer sleepover spot. We can add a screened window, a light on a switch and an outlet. We'd stop short of calling it a bedroom; it's a fort with a good roof.
How do you keep it from looking like a shed on stilts?
Proportion and materials. A slightly oversized roof overhang, windows with real trim, a deck that wraps one side, posts wrapped in cedar or set among boulders and planting. Color that relates to the house. And placing it where the tree canopy does some of the work.
Every kid has drawn one. Let's build it.
Send us a photo of the tree, or the corner where a tree should be.