Decorating Your Treehouse

Labels: decorating, design, diy, family activities, tree home, treehouse, treehouse decorations

So you’ve made your treehouse. It’s secured in place, the floors and walls have been completed, your steps or rope ladder have been attached. To all practical intents and purposes your treehouse is complete, now you just have the aesthetics to worry about. You need things to do, things to look at, things to turn your treehouse into a tree home.

Decorations for a treehouse are different decorating a regular house. For a start, your treehouse decorations are probably going to be a lot more open to the elements than furnishings for something more indoorsy. However at the same time you also have a lot more freedom to be creative, with some crazy patterns and colour combinations on the table.

So here are some ideas worth playing around with:

Decide On A Theme
Deciding on your theme beforehand is a great way to pull everything ideas. Treebound pirate ship? Go with lots of unpainted wood, stick up a Jolly Roger or two and find a treasure-chest shaped box to store things in. Secret spy base? Go with a camouflage paint scheme with some netting for the windows. Space station? Paint the ceiling black and add some glow in the dark stars while painting everything else battleship grey. Alternatively just go all out and use as many bright and eye-catching colours as you can, just because you can!

Recycle
Any leftovers you have are fair game for treehouse decorations. Got some old fabric lying around? Smashing, now your treehouse has curtains. Left over carpet samples or trimmings? Now you’ve got an awesome patchwork carpet! Anything out of place or leftover can be repurposed into some cool. Check out pinterest or google “Upcycling” to find some truly fantastic inspirations.

Pay Attention to the Windows
A treehouse can be anywhere between two things. It can be a wide open platform for kids to enjoy the outdoors air when they go out to play in the garden, or it can be a dark and secret den for the to hide in. The biggest factor in this is going to be the size of the windows, the bigger the windows, the more outdoorsy the treehouse will feel. Adding curtains gives you a bit of flexibility on this point as well, but it’s worth remembering that the less they can see out of the treehouse, the harder it is for you to keep an eye on them as well!

Pay Attention to the Signs
Of course, the other fun thing that’s fun to do with treehouses is signpost them. With a few reasonably sized bits of wood and some paints you can have great fun making these signs with your kids. Everything from TOP SECRET: KEEP OUT to NO GROWNUPS ALLOWED to SECRET LAB are all options.

Protect it from the Elements
The odds are your treehouse is made of wood, and so water can soak through wood. This can be bad, especially if you’re storing things in there. Fortunately there are steps you can take to prevent it. If you want the natural look than moss and tree bark are excellent natural water repellents. If you want to look a bit more space age, there are waterproof blankets and specialised paints you can use instead to prevent your interior decorating from being washed away!