How to Build a Tree House for Under $50 in One Day

Our Tree House Done in a day!

The boys have been wanting a tree house for a while now (it hasn’t helped that anytime I run across a $30,ooo one, I call them over to see how amazing tree houses can be).  Well, we don’t exactly have $30k in the tree house fund yet, so they plied the grandparents for Home Depot gift cards to get a simpler one started.  Seeing as we do have the perfect grandparents, gift cards appeared under the tree and the details of how to build a tree house under $50 (they each got $25) finally made it to the top of our priority list this week.  I’m not the top rated carpenter in the family, but I can swing a hammer and screw in a nail and wrap my mind around what it takes to safely swing 5 feet in the air so I started looking around the internet for ideas.  What I came across for inspiration were these:

Quite a bit less janky looking than ours but ours is sturdy & secure and off the ground enough to feel high for the kids which were pretty much my only requirements.

Build A Tree House In a Day

We picked up a set of 8 foot 2×4’s for each side and ten 4 foot 1×4’s to plank it with.  Added some 2 1/2 inch screws to secure the planks to the base, eight 4 inch screws to secure the 2×4’s and a 2×2 for the steps for less than the amount of our gift cards.  Yep, under $50.  Though, now that I compare ours to the one in the inspiration photo, I think theirs’ was 2×6’s for both the base and the planks.  2×6’s will be nice and strong but more expensive.  2×4’s will do the job but definitely needed bracing on the longer side.

We miscalculated the monstrosity that our tree was so we added another couple of boards we had at home, but the original plan will work great on a smaller tree.  We live in the woods so our trees are well established!

You’ll need a big kid or another adult to bang up those cross boards (make sure they’re somewhat level) and add some bracing if needed, then screw in the planks on top!  After we took the picture we added a rope to the tree where it leans over one side and tied a basket on it to haul things up.  A super fun addition.

Well, I hope this inspires you to create your own bird watching, art, nature station in the air.  Leave us pictures of yours in the comments below!