By Kaisja Clark
There’s something about a tree house.
Maybe it’s being out of reach of the grown-ups or the feeling of being in a kid-sized only world. Maybe tree houses make it possible for our favorite daydreams to come alive.
Whatever that magical something is, the makers of tree houses by Daniels Wood Land have captured it.
If you’ve got a schoolyard that’s devoid of trees due to a lackadaisical green thumb or you live in an urban area that lacks a giant Elm worthy of building a tree house in, it’s no problem. True to the company slogan, these tree houses are built with their own trees intact. With custom carved woodwork and creative touches like off-kilter window shapes, the kiddy play areas are creative adaptations of two brother’s love of their favorite childhood playtime.
The boys loved tree houses, Saturday morning cartoons and Disneyland. As adults, that love was channeled into the first wooden tree house, that they built on the top of a log. They set their creation up at a state fair, hoping it would generate some interest, or if they were lucky, that it might sell. Not only did the tree house sell, they walked away with handfuls of phone numbers and orders for more tree houses, sparking a brand new business.
Since that time, the company has continued to grow, moving from a small scale tree house building operation into a full service business that doesn’t just stop at the backyard playground. It offers props, facades, art pieces and other structures themed for movie sets or video games. This sort of Disney-inspired unbridled creativity—pirate ships, fairy tale castles and giant T-Rex skulls—is precisely what positioned Daniels Wood Land’s creations in high demand from people in either Hollywood or just the backyard. Kids especially are drawn to structures that invite, nurture and invoke imagination and a sense of creativity.
“We aren’t just a cookie cutter outfit,” said Andy Dauterman, operations manager of Daniels Wood Land. “We have concept development and in-house artists. The end result is that the kids absolutely have a blast.”
The tree houses range from uncluttered wooden house structures to full-on miniature houses, complete with internet access and plumbing. (Just in case you were thinking you needed to get the kids a head start on moving out.) All of this exemplifies that success in the playground industry means cultivating product creativity, which people are willing to pay for.
“All of this has allowed us to be a little more creative, more whimsical with the tree houses,” Dauterman said. “We are a full service theming company. We’ve built props for video games and movies, like the Black Pearl, from the Pirates of the Caribbean. This is a fun element we can bring into our tree house environment and add a cartoonish touch to it.”
The popularity of traditional playground structures, in a way, has pulled the industry back onto itself. The rampant popularity of playground structures has led to a kiddy population tired of the platform and post playgrounds available to them in every school, backyard and park. This sort of structure boredom could easily work to the advantage of manufacturers, who would clearly benefit by ramping up the originality, allure and appeal of their standard play structure offerings.
In our litigation-frenzied culture, designers and manufacturers needn’t feel stifled where safety is concerned, either, since it is possible to work creative structures and safety into the same design. Dauterman said the playgrounds the company creates meet ASTM and CPSC guidelines and are easy to adjust, making them ADA compliant.
The company makes everything from custom ordered residential themed playhouses to commercial mini-cities for kids to play in. They also offer custom carved wooden play structures. One part art, one part toy, these statues carved with chainsaws are little touches that add to the theme of any play house. Brightly colored bears, puppies, pigs and dragons await little any tyke lucky enough to have access to a tree house.
If anyone is asking, we’d like ours to be pirate-shaped, with Tink, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, and conveniently out of reach of the grownups.
You can find out more about Daniels Wood Land at www.danielswoodland.com.
