Making treehouse dollhouses with branches - questions! - Page 4

[Flor]

Originally Posted by isaberg

Well, I started this thread, and a year later, after seeing all the great things everyone else did, I finally made ours. Counting the pulley and the two scroll saw blades I broke, it cost me under $6, with perhaps six hours of work, including cutting down the buckthorn tree. I'm really happy with it, and Junior has already spent more time playing with it than I took building it, so I count that as a success!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25995446@N00/

It is beautiful. I love your "fun with a bandsaw" too. I'm going to have to try that next.

[Flor]

Originally Posted by isaberg

I cut down a small (nasty evil invasive) tree and turned it into my treehouse the next day. Since it doesn't really matter if the wood dries nicely, I'm assuming that green is OK. I suspect it may warp a little bit as it dries, but the floors aren't terribly level anyway. And the drying will take months.

Dried wood would be a bit more stable, I think, and the screws would be a bit more solid, but the year-or-so wait time on drying might quash any spur-of-the-moment creativity. :-) If you found an old dead branch, you wouldn't have to wait. The bark might well be peeling off/gone, but that's just an aesthetic choice.

Anybody else have an opinion?

My dad had an old plum or apricot tree inthe back yard that was giving yucky fruit so that is what he hacked into for me. We didn't dry it or anything. It's been a year. It hasn't warped or smelled weird or anything.

[Aubergine68]

subbing

I have been wanting to make a treehouse for a while now.

I've got an apple branch cut that has been drying for a couple months in the shed and an old cupboard door that I plan to use for a base.

I do not have a jigsaw, and papiermache is my medium of old, not woodworking.

I think I'll try making the floors out of super stiff cardboard and then papier mache and paint the forms, maybe glue burlap on them?.

I think it could look good-- I think the floors of a real fairy treehouse would be uneven. The question is, would papier mache stand up to my kids play?

[sothisislove]

bump

[Aubergine68]

Ok, mine is finished and I'm happy with it -- will post pictures after dinner!

[Aubergine68]

Well, I ended up making, not a treehouse, but a forest scene. I haven't (yet) put platforms in the tree branches, because I love the flexibility of having the forest setting. It can be a home for animals, a base for a nature table, and a setting for fairy tales -- more open-ended than a regular treehouse playset, imo.

I have been talking to dd10 about building treehouse platforms together out of wood scraps and cloth or twine stiffened with glue. We are planning to make them removable. In the meantime, we're enjoying the play forest setting the way it is.

We made it out of wood from overloaded branches that broke off our apple tree last summer, so I'm calling it our "Giving Tree." Spent a total of $.79 on it, buying screws. Dh reminded me after that we had screws in the shed that would have done. I'll try to be more frugal next time, honey!

Here is the basic scene, branches screwed and glued to a base of wood and burlap. I wrapped the pointy ends of the branches in burlap for safety, and painted white glue on the burlap base to give it strength and protect it from snags:

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...eehouse5-1.jpg

The tree became a home to dinos and giraffes....

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...eehouse1-1.jpg

A green playsilk made a forest canopy and Plan Toys dollhouse dolls work really well in this setting:

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...eehouse3-1.jpg

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...eehouse2-1.jpg

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...treehouse6.jpg

We added some animal models and a basket house for grandma to make a Little Red Riding Hood playset:

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x...treehouse7.jpg

[Bird Girl]

I love the little forest scene!