Many beautiful colors on the Hideaway Fort

We love the colors on this Hideaway Fort so much that we had to share the staining process with you. Here's Rudi, our master stainer, mixing the colors and then applying the stain to the modular pieces as they come over from the building bay:

It all starts with the client selecting the colors that they like. Using color pencils, Barbara distributes their colors on a sketch she has drawn of their structure. She may present 2 to 3 different color schemes. The client chooses the one that is perfect!


Once the color palette is set, Rudi mixes the colors, then starts staining:
























































Staining ends with parts on the drying racks and large pieces baking in the sun!

Boy Scouts make garden signs from donated redwood

When Mitch Sr. asked Barbara if she had any redwood scrapes to donate to his son's Boy Scout Troop, the answer was YES!





The troop was working on a community garden service project (for badges) at Stanton Elementary in Castro Valley, making 10 informative signs.

The teacher who runs the garden had a vision to turn a weedy hillside into an outdoor classroom, putting bricks in to honor all those who donated.
We received an excellent thank you note from Mitch Jr:

Hello Ms.Butler: my name is Mitch and I am a Boy Scout in Troop 726. I recently finished my Life Project in my road to Eagle. My project was to build 10 similar signs out of wood for the Stanton Elementary Garden. I could not have done this project without your generous donation of redwood supply for creating my signs. I believe that the Stanton Elementary Community will be very pleased with the signs I have made with your wood. In conclusion, THANK YOU for your wood for my project.Sincerely, Mitch, 14, Scout Troop 726

Re-staining the playhouse

11 years ago, Barbara made a beautiful Garden Playhouse for her niece, Melissa, and her adorable daughter, Lindsea, then only 2 years old.

Lindsea and her parents lived north of Seattle in a cute little town where it rained a lot! Over the years, the playhouse got a lot of use with play dates, birthday parties and just fun alone time in the back yard making cakes & mud pies, reading stories and playing princess.

Slowly the colors faded but no one really noticed. It was still their much-loved playhouse.

Then one day this summer, Barbara got a call - "send me some stains. Lindsea and I want to do a mother-daughter project this summer. We've decided to re-stain her playhouse!"

We gathered up the stain colors and shipped them to Melissa. Along with the stains, we sent clear tung-oil to apply as the final coat, plus brushes, sponges, plastic gloves, gojo wipes and detailed maintenance instructions.

It didn't take long! 1st sunny weekend day Lindsea (now just turned 13 years old) and her mom hit the backyard to re-do their playhouse.

First the walls in Castle Purple,
then the trims and shutters and carvings.


Followed by the roof and, voilà, the playhouse was beautiful again!








Lindsea, Jack (her Russell Terrior) and Melissa love the results.

And, they had a blast re-doing the playhouse, even changing some of the colors along the way.

Job well done!

Well used & well-loved Hideaway Fort passed on to a new family

Our story of our Barbara Butler Hideaway Fort and how we came to own it... from 2003 thru 2011:

It was 2002. My husband and I were strolling thru the S.F. Garden Show, then held at Fort Mason, San Francisco. I had recently seen a reference to Barbara's work in a magazine and suddenly there was a play structure in the middle of the show Marketplace... yes, it was a Barbara Butler Hideaway Fort. We looked, talked with the gang and continued on.

No sooner than 2 months later a large oak tree fell on our little play structure which had been tucked away in the corner of our yard. At the same time, we were moving to a new property in sunny Emerald Hills and decided that we would replace the damaged unit with that same item displayed at the show we had come upon a couple months back.

Jeff came to our house, spent an entire day digging, drilling and installing the Hideaway Fort with the world's best slide ever... even for adults. My son and daughter loved climbing the wall, going down that slide over and over and crawling thru the secret door, not to mention the endless imaginary pieces of mail passed thru the slot marked "MAIL" next to the door.

Time went on and we had Barbara design an additional swing feature and a chin up bar for swinging, hoisting and whatever. We even braved their meticulous techniques and added on a glider ourselves, true to the B.Butler construction and staining methods. Many games, parties and time passed on this thing... and our yard always had the beauty of a well designed and crafted play fort gracing the garden and grounds.

In 2008, we moved again, brought it along, refinished the surface to its original glory (see image, above) and once again the games and climbing started over, this time adjacent to a soaring stand of redwoods in the hills of Woodside, CA.

Now it is May, 2011 and I am sad, yet thrilled at the same time, to be passing our beloved fort along to a new family in Los Altos, CA. There, 3 young boys will have never-ending fun on one of Barbara's creations.

We will miss our Hideaway Fort yet smile as we know it will continue to bring fun and wonder to another yard and family.

Kerri Linden

Atherton Treehouse

Atherton Treehouse: The goal was to design a play structure that incorporated the trees, tucked into this corner of the yard, that wouldn't overwhelm but would be big enough for the many grandchildren that visit every year.

Barbara's "stickout" (above) and Artist's Sketch (below) shows the ultimate design the client's settled on: King Fort up front, bridge to the back, passing by the sapling, up to the Clubhouse perched on a tree deck 9' off the ground, with steps down to a Zip Line ride "take-off" platform.

Swinging Bridge leading up to the Tree Perch...

Great Zip Line Ride:

fun for grandchildren and grandfathers!

Detailing a Robin Hoods Fort

Luscious browns and blues with touches of curry make a tasty color palette for this Robin Hood's Fort with 9' long bridge (soon to have 2 swings attached underneath).

The guys are "detailing". This is the stage in our process where we erect the structure and bolt it together to make sure that every modular piece fits perfectly.

Then we add:

- swing hangers & monkey bars under the bridge,

- rock holds to the back wall

- play accessories and more...

In this picture Jose is adding the side shutters to the Fort and Marco is just coming in from the metal shop where he was welding. We make many of our own metal parts, such as the special metal sleeves that wrap around the "footing" ends of every post that will be sunk into concrete, 2' below grade.

Santa's workshop: contemporary shapes and colors

It's starting to get exciting as more shapes emerge! The towers are long and sleek, looking like a rocket ship about to launch.

Adding the side "fins" (which will flank the entrance to the swinging bridge) starts to define the contemporary look of this play structure.

Once building is complete, the tower moves to the staining bay where Rudi adds the color.

Then the finished tower is moved to the outside dock to bake in the sun. This complicated black & white pattern will require a longer drying time than usual. We do not want to drag any black into white when we wipe-on the final coat of clear tung-oil.

Fortunately for us, this is California, and we are enjoying a particularly lovely stretch of warm, sunny weather. Our condolences to the East Coast, where winter storms are still dumping tons of snow on a daily basis.