Want to design a treehouse with me?

I had a Brambly Hedge poster on my pink walls growing up. I used to love staring at it and wonder what they were talking about, what type of tea they were drinking, what a very elegant floral hat the lady in yellow was wearing (she seemed to be an important visitor?) and what it would be like to dive into that cosy bed.

My imagination spent a lot of time inside that poster. (Illustrated below.)

Decades later, inspiration hit me and I asked for the complete collection of books for my 40th birthday. An elegant and grown-up request.

This allowed me to enjoy the stories that accompanied the picture I had known of and wondered about for so long. (And to finally discover that the lady in yellow was actually little Primrose, who had gone off on an unapproved adventure and was seated here, looking through this elderly couple’s family album. I meeean.)

Since then, I’ve noticed (I guess the algorithm is onto me) that Brambly Hedge is everywhere. People still love and read the books and “Brambly Hedge” interior design style is an actual thing.

This all combines extremely well with another passion of mine - tiny worlds.

I have more than one Pinterest board dedicated to dollhouses and miniatures and at one point I imagined making a treehouse dollhouse and then the algorithm read my mind (bit freaky) and showed me Geneva Vanderzeil had actually done it.

So, I took that as my permission slip to make one of my own and bought her utterly delightful course.* Can’t recommend enough.

And it’s taking shape!

But I was wondering if you wanted to help design it with me?

Assuming you said yes, can we chat about what rooms should go where? Do we do a dining room on its own or combine with the kitchen? Also, what season should it be in? (I’m thinking winter because then we can make it Christmas sometimes and add decorations. Thoughts? Autumn could be cute too because the outside could be covered with berries. But I think Christmas is too strong a draw card?)

Mapping out ideas below:

My stepdaughter and I worked on it to get it to this point together. We’re going to make lots of cute little pies and treats together to add to the rooms.

If it helps us decide, this treehouse belongs to two little mice: Betty and Gordon. Gordon plays the baritone and looks after his garden and Betty is a nurse and bakes cakes on the weekends. (Inspired by my grandparents.)

And while this may simply be making the project harder, the goal is to make it as accurate as possible to the world it’s from, as an homage to the author. Her desire was to make everything perfectly accurate and real:

“Creating the books is tremendous fun, but very hard work at the same time. This is because I like to get everything right. Each flower must have the correct number of petals and be growing in the right place, at the right time. Everything the mice make or do must be possible for them, living where they do. After all, Brambly Hedge is real, and I am simply here to record it.” ~ Jill Barklem

Which is why the treehouse is currently undergoing some structural renovations to make sure the windows more accurately reflect the books. Originally I loved the circle windows because they matched the swirl of the tree, but in the books, lo and behold: rectangular windows.

Once construction is done, we can go room by room and start building it out.

I’ve added post-it notes to the book for pieces I know I have to include. The little ‘treehouse stump within the treehouse’ (non-negotiable), the loveheart bed (pictured above), the floral hat hung up on a hook and a few other pieces.

Obviously this will be a side quest I can only partake in 5 minutes here or there with the occasional chaos-creation weekend.

I’d be delighted if you’d join me in building this world?

In fact - just throwing this wild idea out there - maybe you’d like to create something tiny to add to the rooms (like a plate or a cushion) and send it to me? I didn’t come up with this idea, I saw someone else was designing a dollhouse and they turned it into a community project, and I thought that could be fun?

So, what do you think? Shall we?

Yours in miniature cuteness,

K x

Hello, if we haven’t met yet I’m Keeley and I write because words, art and design help the world make sense. Would love to see you ‘round. Hit the subscribe button below to stay and hang.

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