Scavenger Chic

Indoor Treehouse Part 2, Finishing Touches

• By Joan
• March 31, 2022
• 5 Comments

Indoor Treehouse , Finishing Touches

When we last left our indoor treehouse, all the construction was complete, but there was no way to access the treehouse other than a portable stepladder.  

So now we’re going to make a ladder.  It’s a long way up, so hopefully this one will be safe enough for a four year old, so that means handles.

We started with 2, 2×6’s long enough to reach to the floor of the treehouse plus an additonal foot and a half.

Draw a pattern for your handles and transfer that to your wood.

At the ends of your ladder handle drill two, 1 1/2″ holes.

Use a hand held jigsaw to connect the two holes making a handle on the upper part of the ladder.

Sand and smooth as much as you can with the electric sander to get rid of all the wood splinters and round off the edges.  Once you have done all you can with the electric sander  you will have to switch over to hand sanding to get into all the nooks and crannies of the handles.

The left side of this handle is looking pretty smooth, the right side still needs some work.

Lay out your ladder on the ground.  This will give you a good idea of how many rungs you will need and the spacing for those rungs.  The rungs are made from a 2×4.

Paint and stain your ladder before you assemble.  We’re using the same dark blue paint on the side rails as we did on the treehouse and stain on the rungs.

The dark blue side rails, like the treehouse, got a coat of antique wax.  The wax gives a little finish to the flat latex paint.

Lay the sides of the ladder up against your treehouse.  Use a level to determine the angle for the bottom of the rails.  Mark and cut.  

Remember the degree of that angled cut because you will use that same angle to level out the ladder rungs.

You can see how the handles at the top of the ladder would help a little one hold on to the ladder and be able to turn around and descend the ladder properly.

Cut a scrap piece of wood  about 10″ in length with the same angle you used for the bottom of the side rails.

If you place this board between each of the rungs before you screw them in, all of your rungs will be evenly spaced and at the exact same angle.

We could have used kreg jig screws from the bottom of the rungs into the side rails, that was the initial plan, but the screws we had on hand weren’t long enough.  What we did have was 3 1/2″ wood screws so that’s what we used.  

Started with a bead of wood glue on the ends of the rungs. Placed the rungs with the assistance of the angled scrap wood.  Finished off with two wood screws per side per rung.

The ladder rungs were not centered on the 2×6 side rails but were purposely placed even to the back of the rails.  Little hands can not only hold onto the rungs but the side rails as well when ascending or descending the ladder.

Ladder is put in place and screwed to the treehouse.

When it came to decorating, I found this corner shelf turned into a shelf and chalkboard from my past projects.

The clipboards on the wall display artwork from the budding artist.  Easy to switch out as his artwork enters a new phase.  Right now he’s kind of into Abstract Expressionism.

A better picture of the floor in the treehouse. 

We  joke that the flooring in this indoor treehouse is better than any flooring they have in the rest of the house…it really is. The flooring was from a dump pile.  For this project it really didn’t matter if a lot of the pieces were short.  Be a Scavenger!

Large floor pillows make a comfy place to hang out.  

Hope you enjoyed this indoor treehouse project.  Make sure you go back to Part 1 for all the nitty gritty,  the DIY instructions, and best of all…pictures!

Until next time, stay inspired.

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