Ideas for Kids' Tree Houses

• Build an enjoyable escape for kids. Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images

  Kids can disappear for hours in a tree house all their own. Whether extravagant or simple, a tree house offers kids a venue for self-expression and exploration. Let your imagination run wild and exceed your child's expectations by incorporating fun activities and decorations into the design and construction of your child's tree house.

Themes

• Establish a theme for your kid's tree house. Take cues from the world around you and incorporate some of your child's favorite items, characters and movies into the theme. Use the theme to encourage enthusiasm in nature and science. Incorporate an aquarium, bug catchers and microscopes throughout the tree house. Stock a bookshelf with books on local ecology and natural history. Bring in fun activities including board games and small hand-held electronic video games. Decorate the tree house to match a game-room theme by using pool cues as curtain rods and hanging a personalized sign designating the tree house as your child's game room.

Additions

• Think about fun ways to get out of the tree house. Go beyond the traditional ladder and provide an easy and quick way down by adding a slide. Build a wraparound porch complete with a small seating area if room allows. Fashion a dumbwaiter-inspired pulley system. This will allow for easy loading and unloading of sleeping bags and goodies for an overnight camping expedition. Use seasonal or decorative lights around the edges and railings of the tree house for decoration and function.

Other Ideas

• Use Plexiglas on sections of the roof to help provide a portal to examine the stars and other celestial bodies. Stack bookshelves and desks with astronomy books and guides. Provide a telescope for stargazing with friends and family. Place a laptop for educational purposes in the tree house and connect to the Internet through a Wi-Fi connection. Help inspire creativity by using the tree house as an arts and crafts studio. Stock the tree house full of drawing paper, watercolor paints and paintbrushes. Place a small crafts table with crayons, markers and coloring books in the tree house.