Thursday, July 21, 2016

my cool treehouse: book review


Regular readers will be familiar with the work of friend of Shedworking stylist and author Jane Field-Lewis who in her excellent 'my cool...' series of books has already covered sheds, houseboats, caravans, and campervans. Jane's latest title is 'my cool treehouse' (Pavilion, £14.99 with cracking photography by Tina Hillier and lovely endpapers) and it is arguably the best so far.

Subtitled 'An inspirational guide to stylish treehouses', the book takes a close look at more than 30 treehouses around the world, from incredibly simple ones that you can attach in an eco-friendly way to trees in a matter of minutes to cleverly recycled havens of calm and spectacularly complex modern versions.

"A treehouse creates its own world," says Jane, "its own atmosphere. It's a distillation of some of the values and qualities we cherish most. Resourcefulness, shelter, exploration, safetly, and romance, all entwined with an innate childlike desire for inhabiting something that is out of reach."

There are eight categories - simple, architectural, soulful, handmade, art installations, eclectic, businesses, and modern - and each treehouse is introduced and then analysed in a 'style notes' section. There's also a useful sourcebook at the end. Naturally, it's the businesses chapter the Shedworking staff were most interested to browse - our favourite were the off-grid treehouses created by Peter Canham in the Welsh mountains. Overall, a strong contender for shedlike book of the year.



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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

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