Like the annual growth rings on a thick tree trunk, the details of Cam and Lauren Green’s treehouse near Minden, Ont., reveal the couple’s backstory in rich layers. “It’s one of those things that feels funny to say, but a lot of what we’ve done in our lives has led us to this point,” Cam says. “The design harnesses all these aspects of the past 20-odd years.”
Named for the Baltic birch plywood panels that line the walls inside, “The Baltic” is a grown-up evolution of the tree forts that Cam used to build when he was a boy. Both he and Lauren grew up as city kids, him in Mississauga, Ont., and her in Burlington, Ont., but learned to appreciate the outdoors during childhood cottage trips. (Cam’s family owned a getaway on Balsam Lake, while Lauren often stayed with family friends outside of Haliburton.) The pair later went on to attend and then work together at the same summer camp, YMCA Wanakita on Koshlong Lake, striking up a lasting friendship. “Camp was just so profound,” Lauren says. “I realized that I feel very comfortable in natural spaces—they’re simple, with no distractions. And that kind of led us to creating a life around them.”
In 2010, after Cam had spent several years as a cabinetmaker and an independent contractor on Vancouver Island, and Lauren had honed her creative sensibilities across different marketing, art, and design pursuits, the two reconnected and started dating. A year later, they bought a log cabin near Wanakita, where Cam had returned to take a managerial job. It was the rave reviews from their weekend house guests that initially gave the Greens (who married in 2016) the idea to build extra lodgings on their new home’s leafy, three-acre property. “None of our friends lived in a community like this, so we would have people coming up to visit every weekend. There are no bars nearby, so we’d take them cross-country skiing or canoeing at the nearby lakes, and just have campfires all year long,” says Lauren.
A dedicated guest house that they could also rent out seemed like the perfect way to satisfy Cam’s curiosity about life in the sky. “Treehouse construction has always been an interest of mine and something that I’ve wanted to gain more knowledge and experience in,” he says.
In 2014, he even attended a treehouse course at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield, Vt. As he and Lauren started to get serious about designing their own, they especially loved that the building would leave a relatively small footprint. “How do you build in the middle of the forest, but leave the spot looking not much different than when you started?” Cam asks.
The spot they settled on for their 370 sq. ft. cabin (completed in late 2020) is nearly four metres off the ground, right in the forest canopy. A staircase leads to a wraparound deck that adds an additional 210 sq. ft. of outdoor space; three sides are lined in wooden slats while the front has glass. The treehouse itself, clad in Western red cedar, rises slightly higher on one side than the other, creating a pitched black roofline that’s split in two with each half at a different height. The lower of these two extends outwards to shelter a porch shower, and also features cut-outs that accommodate the maples that are holding the treehouse up. On the building’s south side, a 3.66-metre-tall window runs nearly floor-to-ceiling, bringing some of the best views to a cozy reading nook on the ground floor as well as the loft bedroom up top (reached via
a custom-built ship ladder inside).
Closer inspection reveals the sustainable thinking that runs throughout the building, from its earthen floors (which are made from a mix of sand, clay, and straw) to its solar panels and structural supports. After attending the 2019 World Treehouse Conference in Oregon, Cam connected with Charley Greenwood, an American engineer dedicated to treehouses, to learn the best way to install specialized tree attachment bolts. “People ask all the time if we’re killing the trees,” Cam says. “But
so long as you’re drilling into a tree using clean tools, not putting too many holes into it, and making sure there’s no chance of bacteria or fungus getting in, a tree is able to adapt and form new pathways around the wound.”
Cam also stresses the importance of choosing the right type of tree (hardwood deciduous trees are best in this part of the country) and making sure that a tree is at least 30 centimetres in diameter. “There’s data out there on species of trees and their crushing strengths,” says Cam, referring to the maximum load that a tree can safely support. For added reassurance, he and Lauren also engaged a Mississauga arborist, Philip van Wassenaer, who visited with sonographic tools to confirm that their two selected maples were free of internal rot. Architect Lindsay Duthie, a friend of theirs from camp, then moved ahead with construction drawings, building off an early model that Lauren and Cam completed in the 3D design program SketchUp.
Cam and Lauren handled much of the build themselves, calling up family and friends to help out and documenting the process on Instagram. Cam’s carpentry know-how proved especially handy when it came time to fashion pulley systems to hoist heavy materials into the air without the use of a crane. Throughout the build, they remained committed to protecting their surroundings, laying wood chips down to protect the tree roots from too much foot traffic and heavy supplies that might compact the soil.
When it came time to furnish the
interiors, Lauren’s savvy design instincts kicked into gear. “We knew the space was going to feel very Scandinavian because of all the Baltic birch paneling,” says Lauren. “So everything had to flow with that design choice. And what works nicely with Baltic birch? Black—it’s simple, but impactful.” Hence the home’s many dark accents, which include a gas-powered woodstove from Norway.
The Greens had initially planned for the Baltic to be a proof-of-concept for a construction company that would have seen them design and build treehouses for other property owners. But after experiencing high demand from people interested in booking the treehouse, they decided to instead approach it as the beginning of a hospitality business. “There are things like being able to see the stars that we take for granted now living up here, but that are actually really exceptional,” says Cam.
To the Greens, the Baltic offers the ultimate reminder of everything that led them to seek out a life in the woods in the first place—and to want to share it with their kids. “Nature has been instrumental in the development of who I am today,” says Cam. “That curiosity to explore is something that is lacking in
a lot of people’s lives because the access isn’t necessarily there. So being here is just such a neat opportunity for our kids to get out and experience everything around them.”
A guide to treehouse attachment bolts
Teamwork makes the dream work
Think of a treehouse attachment bolt (TAB) like an artificial tree limb. Each of the Baltic’s high-strength steel TABs has two main parts: a rod with threaded ends that is drilled into the tree and tubes secured onto the rod at either end, creating a tight seal of the conical bore holes.
Supporting roles
Beams running under the treehouse platform are either secured to the top of the TABs or attached to them via diagonal struts. To better balance the load, the back of the structure also rests on three steel piles driven into the ground.
Room to grow
Mature trees grow upwards from their tip rather than from their base—meaning TABs (and treehouses) stay at the same height. But Cam and Lauren accounted for the growth in the design—eventually the tree will grow over the TAB, strengthening the connection. And if one of the trees is compromised, they can replace the tree support with a strategically placed post.
Eric Mutrie wrote “On the Sun-Drenched Rocks,” in our June/July ’23 issue.
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