We’re excited to finish up the how-to on our made with HAPPY Treehouse today sharing how we made the walls and window. This treehouse project was one of the bigger projects we’ve undertaken at the house, but we’re so glad we jumped in and did it. We’ve learned more about our building capabilities and how great it is to create something out of pile of wood. No one task was too much to handle. Just concentrate on one section at a time, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly it goes up. If you missed any of the other post up to this point, we have the finished treehouse, the base + frame, the floor + stairs, and the roof.
Supplies:
- 3 – 4ft. x 8ft paneling
- 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 8ft. lumber
- 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 6ft. lumber
- 1 – 7.5″ fence picket – 6ft
- 1 packet 15″ shims
- 1 shower curtain
- 1 package cup hooks
- 4 hinges
- Eye hook
- Wood Glue
- Mider Saw
- Circular Saw
Walls
One thing to mention about the walls before we get into the How-to, is that we initially headed to home depot in search of a flat wall paneling. The wainscoting paneling was on sale and therefor we went with the wainscoting. SCORE! Although I love the texture of wainscoting, if its more cost effective to go with flat paneling, the treehouse will look just as great with flat walls.
As I mentioned before that we went into this project with an idea of what we wanted to do, but with any project like this, there are things that you realize or discover after the fact. In this tutorial, we are giving your opinion on the best order to do things based on lessons learned. With that in mind, you will quickly see that we put the wall paneling up before the inside wall frame. DOH! Oh well! We recommend adding the wall framing first, and then wall paneling to make it easier on yourself.
The cuts for wall framing:
- Side panels each have 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 47.5″
- Top and bottom of window cutout – 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 18″
- Back panel:
- 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 18″
- 1 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 62″
- 1 – 7.5″ fence picket – 69″ long
For the shelf we made out of the fence picket, you will need to cut the 4″x 4″ corners out. If you have a jigsaw, that tends to be easier, but you certainly can use the circular saw, mider or hand saw if you have that! For the back panel, we placed the two 18 inch bases pieces to the shelf approximately 20″ inches in from each side. Then attached the 62″ piece along the top with the fence picket on top of that. Giving the kids a small ledge shelf to color or set books, etc.
For the side panels, we screwed in the 2 – 2.5″ x 1.5″ x 47.5″ to the floor all the way to the top of the top 2×4 on the frame. We wanted the window as close to the middle of the wall as we could get. Once you have your wall framing in place, you can pencil out your window then cut.
Look how cute MWH Grandpa is! Oh I love him so much!
The cuts for the paneling are:
- Back panel 69″ x 44″
- Side panels 72″ x 44″
- Window cutout – 18″ x 14.5″
- Back paneling – from frame to roof triangle. We added two right triangle pieces from the left over paneling that were 21″ high and 36″ long.
Wall paneling after it was cut, was simple to screw into the frame.
Look at this motley crew after the completion of the treehouse. Apparently, my hair hit a wind tunnel or something, but I love this picture as our marks of completion.
For the window shutters, we simply made them out of shims. We measured out approximately 9″ and cut them using a mider down to size.
We glued two shims lengthwise on each ends of the shutter.
Measure to make sure they fit before adding hinges.
Based on the hinges we bought, we screwed them into the outside of the treehouse and added the eye hook which lets the kids close and lock up the windows.
You now have yourself a fully functioning treehouse! 
Don’t forget to check out the other aspects of the Making the MadewithHAPPY Treehouse!
9 comments
Your supplies lists has a shower curtain, but I don’t see anything about it in the post. How did you attach/hang it? Are you using two for the opening for a dramatic effect, or did you cut one and hem it? Thanks!
Oh good grief. In all the steps, I missed that one. Thanks for the catch. I will update the post shortly with what I did. I used one shower curtain and cut in down the middle and then hung using the hooks on the inside of the front opening.
I love this project! Good job! I’m going to attempt it. 🙂 So, you have wall paneling on the outside walls? Has this held up in rain?
Yes, it has definitely held up in the rain! Good Luck!
Thanks for the directions , I’m going to make one for my youngest
[…] Walls & Window […]
What were the paint colors you used?
Can you tell me how the house has held up without being anchored into the ground? We’re starting this project tomorrow and tend to get strong wind gusts through our yard.
Also, anything looking back that you may have done differently before i get started? We’re pretty excited to build but it has to be strong. We have 5 kids and all their friends. 🙂
Hi there – I apologize that this message got buried. I would say the house has held up pretty great. The house itself weights so much that anchoring it to the ground is definitely not a problem. The only issue we have had was during one severe storm one of the roof panels lifted from the screw. We ended up screwing it down more and haven’t had any trouble since. Hope that helps!