Fabulous nature-inspired Tree House on Kiawah Island

The owners of this stunning modern Tree House on Kiawah Island, South Carolina travel extensively and appreciate the great outdoors. Designed by Anderson Studio, global travels have helped to shape the clients desire for a home that embraces nature. The bridge connecting the sleeping and living structures allows cool ocean breezes to pass from the marsh to the front yard; decks and stairs to pool and terrace visually connect inside and out. Most walls from the street are solid, providing privacy, yet they open to rooms of glass, timber and soaring ceilings with views of Bass and Cinder Creeks and Folly Island.

Photos: Holger Hobenaus

Tropical Tree House Lodge in Costa Rica

On the Southern Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica you’ll find the jewel Tree House Lodge in the Gandoca Manzanillo Refuge. The complex is located on a 10 acre ocean front property in the famous Punta Uva beach, just south of Puerto Viejo in the province of Limon. This beach is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the country.

Total privacy, a natural tranquil atmosphere, and full relaxation are keywords for the time you will spend at the tree house. With your own beach access and 300 meter private beach front, you won’t have to meet anybody else during your stay at this romantic hideaway. They have a one of a kind botanical garden boasting over 50 different palm trees, and the largest Heliconia collection in the area attracting many exotic birds.

The Tree House, built on tall stilts, is a back-to-your-childhood house submerged by forest, with a sloped wooden suspension bridge leading steeply to its front door. Inside it’s split level: upstairs, has a bed and a small en-suite bathroom; downstairs, are two more bedrooms and a kitchen. All of the furniture is hand carved sustainable wood, windows are open but screened against bugs, while scarlet Birds of Paradise flowers provide splashes of color. The shared bathroom is on ground level where there is a fabulous 100-year-old Sangrillo tree which shelters a toilet in one trunk fold, an outdoor shower in another and a mirror is framed with seashells.

Rooms start at $200 per night (without taxes and fees) based on two people staying together, from here.

Treehouse getaway nestled in a sweeping canyon

Part office/studio, part recreational getaway, this unique project designed by Rockefeller Partners Architects is situated at the base of a large pine tree in the backyard of a canyon residence in Los Angeles, California.  The client is an artist and lover of nature so the Banyon Drive Treehouse, perched twelve feet off the ground, will serve as a creative respite from the demands of domestic responsibilities.

Though modest in size, the 170 square foot plan is efficient and allows for a studio space/living area and a toilet room.  Deep-oiled wood siding, mahogany windows, and a Rheinzink roof were chosen for their natural qualities and rich palette.

Photos: Eric Staudenmaier

Magical treehouse within a fairytale garden

This magical treehouse above San Francisco Bay in Burlingame, California is owned and built by Doug and Linda Studebaker and their family. Perched above a quiet urban forested canyon, the treehouse is perched in a stately California Coast Live Oak and surrounded by Redwoods, Fir, Oak and Birch trees. With French doors, stained glass and other tasteful, yet whimsical appointments, this romantic nest will make the perfect holiday retreat. Enjoy candle-light dinners, fully duvets/pillows and passive, eco-friendly heating. There is one small bed on a raised lower level and a large sleeping loft above. Simple, rustic and comfortable, the treehouse is full of heirloom pieces like a patchwork quilt and a rescued vintage chandelier. The wrap-around porch with comfortable chairs features panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay. There is private access to an adjacent indoor bath, shower and kitchenette on the lower level of a family log cabin home. There is also an organic vegetable/herb garden, greenhouse and chicken coop in the backyard. Continental breakfast is served every morning with fruits, breads, coffee/tea and fresh organic hard-boiled eggs.

Get in touch with your “inner child”, to stay at this heavenly retreat, prices start at $175 per night or $1,175 per week, from here.

Vintage windows, some with stained glass and salvaged French doors make the structure feel more like a home.

A down-filled duvet, vintage trunks, quilts and pillows add to the space’s cozy ambiance.

The tree house features cozy quilts, vintage furnishings, warm rugs and whimsical accessories.

The tree’s long limbs wind their way through the interior.

Continental breakfast is served every morning in the main house.

Playful treehouse refuge in Catalonia

Discovered on Mi Casa, this small cabin in the trees is built as a fun cottage for children in Catalonia, Spain. The refuge has been constructed in a small field that uses nature to construct the little wooden house with a small terrace. The trunk of the tree is the central axis of the cabin and passes through vertically. It is accessed by a staircase and a suspension bridge. In the interior, wood remains the main constructive material. There are no dividing partitions which make the area feel open and spacious.

To avoid insect bites, it was essential to place a light mosquito net around the bed. The hut receives plenty of natural light and beautiful mountain views through the sliding door access. The interiors feature a few cushions on the ground to create a cozy corner chill out style. Light furnishings decorate the small space to keep good traffic flow around the cabin. Cushions with washable fabric covers have been selected to avoid stains. A small bathroom maintains privacy with a shower curtain that hides a natural toilet installed on a wooden structure that adapts to the corner.

Whimsical treetop sanctuary on Crystal River

This incredible Crystal River Treehouse in Colorado was designed by architect Steve Novy of Green Line Architects and designer David Rasmussen Design. The owner asked the designers for a whimsical treetop sanctuary where his kids could indulge their artistic fantasies. Together they dreamed up a unique retreat that feels organic and playful, that could be for children and adults.

The treehouse design is free from the practical constraints that most buildings have, the structure does not have very many right angles. It does however borrow key design elements from the main house, such as similar rooflines, as well as some of the siding material. The arrangement of windows on one of the walls is similar to that of one of the windows in the main house. The architects wanted to keep the design of both the main house and the treehouse somewhat similar to seem like they are brothers or cousins.

Most of the materials used in the design of the 230 square foot treehouse are reclaimed and local. The exterior facade is clad with a rough-sawn cedar from a local mill, meaning less processed, greener and a little less polished, perfect for a home in the branches. The structure is not supported by any trees on the property (none were structurally sound enough), so the architects created “tree-like supporting posts” which rest on helical pier foundations which have been carefully designed to mesh with the surrounding trees’ root structures. No one resides in the treehouse year-round, though all the walls are insulated and it does sport a wood stove to keep the space warm and cozy.

This is how the interior of the treehouse looked before Robyn Scott Interiors played up the structure’s exceptional design with art and designer furnishings that adds balance to the space’s organic style.

Photos:  Brent Moss Photography and Kimberly Gavin

Unbelievable tree house in Germany

This unique tree house was designed by German firm Baumraum, a company that specializes in planning and developing tree houses, either built on the ground or on water. This particular one is called the King of the Frogs that stands above a reflecting pond in a small private garden in Münster, Germany. Constructed with four steel columns, the interior of the tree house is attractively designed with a curved glass surface, gable roof and light flooding through the elongated windows. The most eye-catching part of the luxurious home is a large ceiling window, which enables children to peer up in the sky and observe the stars at night. The tree house offers enough storage space for books, games or blankets. A spacious deck area makes the perfect spot for playing. Take a look at Baumraum’s website for more fascinating tree house designs and even tree hotels!

Rustic Fire Island treehouse

Welcome to this stunning residence on Fire Island, New York, a cool 2-level tree house that is situated in a dense grove of pines and hollies with a view of the bay from the second level. The approach to the 1,440 square foot home designed by Bates Masi Architects is by way of a raised wooden walkway that leads us to a walled deck and glass entrance. Two guest bedrooms, bath and guest deck are on the first floor with a steel stair leading to the living, dining, kitchen and master suite on the second floor.

All exterior and interior wall surfaces and cabinets are rough cut cypress; the flooring is bleached oak. The ceilings are exposed fir structural members and doors and windows are aluminum. The cypress vertical louvers on the high windows reduce the intensity of the southern sun. The east and west walls of the house are virtually blank because of the close proximity of the neighbors and a public walkway.

Visit the website of Bates Masi Architects here.

Treehouse perched on a forested hillside

The treehouse by architecture firm Jackson Clements Burrows is sited in the bush fringe of Separation Creek perched on a steep forested hillside above the Great Ocean Road and Bass Strait in Victoria, Australia. It is a site that enjoys a unique combination of bush environment with intimate views of Separation Creek, the beach and the Wye River Peninsula to beyond. The steepness of the site, landscape controls and landslip potential resulted in a limited building envelope to work within. These constraints led the architects to explore a sensitive yet sculptural response that minimized footprint by echoing in form a tree with branches, with rooms branching and cantilevering in all directions of a central trunk to take advantage of views, access and aspect.

The three bedroom residence features 2,368 square feet (220 square meters) of living space. Upper level projections include an entry branch with study, a sunroom to the west, and a living area and deck cantilevering some 6m meters from the core overlooking the ocean and beach below. At a half level lower, the master bedroom wing springs from the stair landing into the bush to the east. A dining room and kitchen make up the upper level core of the building, whilst two further bedrooms, bathroom and laundry complete the lower level accommodation.

The treehouse draws inspiration from the modest local vernacular of 1950′s painted fibro shacks. The cement sheet panels used on the treehouse are painted in 2 tons of green that help merge the building with the vegetation on the hillside in which it sits and reinforce its relationship with the landscape. The vertical timber battens on the building are a naturally stained timber, which will silver over time like the branches and trunks of trees within the bush. Via

Visit the website of architecture firm Jackson Clements Burrows here.

Photos: John Gollings

Tree House in the South African wilderness

The Tree House residence has been designed by Van Der Merwe Miszewski Architects and is located in Higgovale, Cape Town, South Africa.

From the architects: Trees are precious in Africa. They provide shelter for the elders at meeting time, for school children in the midday heat, for all to shield against the unrelenting elements. In a sense the tree has become iconic, almost mythical.

A commission to design a house on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town created an opportunity to test our concerns and searches for contextual responsiveness and connectivity. The site, adjacent to a valley and stream, has a canopy of magnificent spreading umbrella Pines. These trees, majestic and sculptural, provided the primary reference and ultimately the structural concept for the house. Five tree-like structures anchor the roof to the ground and provide shelter for the functions gathered under. These trees are surrounded by an entirely separate lightweight transparent steel and glass enclosure supported on a heavily rusticated stone base.

The design of the house incorporates themes of narrative, of layering and of expressed threshold. The visitor is invited to take part in a journey of discovery, requested to participate in the unlocking of experiences within the house, the unpeeling of layers. We tried to heighten the experience of unveiling and of delicate exposure, to create within the house sensuality and moments of intense intimacy – a folly immersed in, and closely linked with, the majestic beauty of the African landscape – a simultaneous dialogue between inside and outside and outside and inside, neither taking precedent over the other.

Visit Van Der Merwe Miszewski Architects website here.