My own Dad is of course the best ever and too he built my brother and I a top-notch treehouse in the garden when we were kids. But I wasn’t quite clever enough to ask him to build me a treehouse inside my bedroom…
While doing my morning coffee browse of Reddit.com, I came across a rather enchanting submission that yanked out my inner child, who told me I just had share this with you. While it might all be too twee for some, I have a feeling the level of craftsmanship and devastatingly good show of DIY skills might just blow you away.
The Dad in question, nicknamed Radamshome on Reddit, is an artist in the video game industry, which probably helped a little, but he’s provided quite the detailed tutorial along with his photos in case any other Dads out there are brave enough to attempt this. So here we go…
“My daughter wanted a fairy tree in her room that she could sit inside and read books, climb the branches, and also have a top sitting area. I was kind of un-prepared for the physical realities of this project. I used Disney set-design as my inspiration. Even though it was difficult, I learned a huge amount along the way. It turned out pretty well, and she’s so happy in her new room.”
A 1:12 scale model:
Her room before work began ↑. “Notice how she’s not in the picture. She wasn’t very excited about her room at this point.”
“Materials cost for the entire project, including the room renovations was about $4,250. It took about 350 hours of my time -mostly spent on weekends or at night during the past 18 months.”
↑ Steel skeleton
Expanded metal lathe was applied to the branches. “The happy customer ↑. Not shown: my bandaged hands and arms. (At this stage I was about 175 hours in.)”
He applied concrete for the main structure of the tree and for the texture, he used silicone bark rollers and clay sculpting tools for the smaller details. Paper mache was used on the outer branches.
“Just like painting my war-gaming miniatures, I started with a very dark coat, then gradually applied lighter colors.”
“I’d take the kids on walks and shoot pics of trees with my phone as reference. I have lots of tree pics.”
“The knot hole fairy windows are on their own 12v circuit, dimmable from a switch near the door. At bedtime these make awesome nightlights.”
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Each window light has a small landscape light inside.
For the Fairy Door: “A trip to the local Michael’s craft store yielded some good details pieces for the door. I found the doorknob at Anthropologie.”
Fancy foliage…
“There’s about 5 bird’s nests in the tree. This one’s the biggest.”
There’s also plenty of butterflies and magic fairy balls, and the branches are lit up by standard Christmas bulbs in parallel.
“They’re controlled by a dimmer by the door, and in this picture they’re turned to about 75%, but when turned all the way down, they look just like stars.”
Feeling just the tiniest bit inspired for some weekend DIY?!
