Tree Houses within Reach: 30 Lofty Cabins, Playhouses, and Getaways You Can Actually Build

by Derek Diedricksen

Overview

This lively showcase of 30 wildly different and eclectic tree houses will inspire anyone who has ever dreamed of building a tree house of their own.

The tree houses featured in Tree Houses within Reach range from simple platform structures to raised office spaces, tiny houses to playhouses—and prove that a tree house can be creative, useful, and beautiful while still being affordable and accessible to those with modest building skills. Veteran builder and instructor Deek Diedricksen curates the selection of 30 tree houses with his trademark eye for quirkiness, thrift, and reused materials. For those eager to start their own projects, Diedricksen leads the reader through the most important nuts & bolts of tree-house building and offers tips and suggestions throughout. The book includes step-by-step photographs of a basic sample build.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635868302
Publisher:	Storey Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Derek “Deek” Diedricksen is the author of Micro Living and Microshelters. He has hosted, built, and designed for the HGTV series Extreme Small Spaces and Tiny House Builders, as well as for the DIY Network, and has just released a feature-length documentary file, The Box Truck Film: Building a REUSEful Home. His work has been featured in numerous places in print and online, including NPR, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Seattle Times, the Wall Street Journal, Make magazine, Yahoo.com, Apartment Therapy, Treehugger.com, and Design Sponge. Diedricksen has taught hands-on building workshops around the United States since 2010, runs the YouTube design channel "RelaxshacksDOTcom", and professionally builds tiny houses, tree houses, and backyard offices for clients. He lives in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 
Intro: Deek’s background and love for tree houses. What makes a tree house, and why are people so into them? 

SECTION 1: NUTS & BOLTS
Yes, You Can (and No, You Can't)
A chapter on navigating the question of whether or not you can, or should, build a tree house, and some of the simple rules to follow.
Tree House Building Basics
A guide to the main elements of a tree house, including a few different ways to approach securing the base up in the air (the most challenging part). We'd also touch upon other things such as the "weight versus strength" balance one needs to be mindful of, the importance of high-elevation "aerodynamics" (windward faces), safety concerns (esp for kids), what species of trees work best (and which don't), ladders versus stairs (pros and cons), and so on. 
How to Save on Your Upcoming Build 
A chapter, with illustrations or photos to back it, on things you can start harvesting right now (free, cheap, reused) to be implemented in your upcoming project. 
Photo glossary of tree house items/tools
From screws to "Garnier limbs."
 
SECTION 2: THE TREE HOUSES
Showcase Builds
30 or so cool/inventive/fun tree houses. Each will have a short write-up, many color photos, and a little blurb of insight or info from the builder perhaps. Each should have 5-6 photos per feature, highlighting fun little details.
Gallery
A shorter collage-like chapter showing lots of one-off photos of tree houses that aren't otherwise featured.
Sketches: Throughout the book, a scattering of some treehouse concept pen sketches by Deek and others to show the rough design process, the brainstorming.
Prose from the Pros
Guest sidebars/profiles from a few other builders on their knowledge and approach, with a photo smattering of some of their work. 
 
SECTION 3: STEP-BY-STEP PHOTO OF A SAMPLE BUILD
A small, VERY affordable (by comparison) tree house that we photo in a general step-by-step fashion. Photos show the general process, with captions, material selection, approaches, etc—a photographic "build journey" of sorts. This tree house would be simple but modern, fun, and daring. Basic plans included.