Top 10 tree house designs that would make up for my childhood lack of one

Three things missing from my otherwise happy childhood were (1) an Easy-Bake Oven (Mom said if I wanted to bake, I could help her do so in the real oven), (2) a tire swing, and (3) a sweet tree house. Unfortunately, the only tree in our backyard large enough for the latter two items contracted “a tree disease” (my Dad’s wording… probably some sort of infestation or whathaveyou) and had to be cut down. :( :(

Maybe someday, still? Though I suppose if you’re going to build a tree house as an adult, it can’t be some shoddy ramshackle thing, right? It’d have to be awesome & elaborate in order to avoid earning yourself a sad/crazy reputation by everyone in your neighborhood.

Someday— when I have a yard— I may use the following examples as inspiration when I finally fulfill my long-unachieved tree house dream:


1. One of the world’s largest wooden tree houses is at Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, England (and even includes a 120-seat restaurant!):


2. Tree house designs by UK-based company Blue Forest:


3. 4TreeHouse by Lukasz Kos, designed to look like a Japanese lantern:


4. The Biosphere Tree, a 7-level “living dome of giant bamboo and lineage-holder Bodhi trees woven together with sacred and medicinal vines” in O’ahu:


5. The 97-foot tall Horace Burgess treehouse church:


6. Steampunk Treehouse, a large-scale installation in Oakland, CA:


7. Customizable tree houses by German cooperative Baumraum:


8. Tree houses designed by New York-based Romero Studios (via WebUrbanist):


9. Totally sustainable O2 Treehouse made from recycled materials by Dustin Feider:


10. FreeSpirit Spheres, available for overnight rental in Vancouver Island, Canada: