Photography by Maddie Stringfellow
Ian Spakowski, 12, (far left) with his brothers Miles, 9, and Sam, 5
When Ian Spakowski, now 12, was nervous about a family move after his kindergarten year, his parents, Mike and Sarah Spakowski, promised to build him a tree house.
But the family soon discovered that their new Midcentury Kirkwood home didn’t have enough trees to support one, leaving Mike to improvise and design a self-supporting structure that mimics a tree house in its height and style. “There are four posts, a wide-open space, and a tin roof,” says Ian, a sixth-grader at Nipher Middle School. “I like that it’s high up and you can see all the trees and nature.”
The clubhouse is not Ian’s alone—he shares it with younger brothers, Miles, 9, and Sam, 5. And sometimes, when the kids aren’t home, Sarah and Mike host their friends up there as well.
Photography by Maddie Stringfellow
How did you come up with the design?
Mike: I’m a big design nerd. I went to the Eames House in Los Angeles, which is a modern square house, and I thought it would be cool to make a clubhouse [that looked] like that. If you have to look at a clubhouse all day, you might as well make it aesthetically pleasing. I used cedar and corrugated metal for the roof. I also wanted to be able to go in it. It can hold 12 adults.
Sarah: I was worried that the kids wanted something a little more like the movie The Little Rascals, but it’s a marriage of that and what Mike wanted to look at every day.
What’s the best part about having a clubhouse in the backyard?
Miles: I like having Nerf wars in it, and we once had a sleepover with our cousins. We took the Nintendo Switch up there and played games.
Ian: I like to read in it. I got this hammock for my birthday, and you can hang it anywhere, so I hung it on the two posts and slept up there the entire night.
What else do you do in the clubhouse?
Ian: We made a pulley that we use to send stuff up there, like our Nerf guns. We have a basketball hoop in the driveway, so we like to chuck balls and try to make it from the tree house. And we have snowball fights.
Have the kids always played in it?
Sarah: It’s like anything else, it goes in waves. Their friends kind of renew it for them, but it’s interesting that they’re getting older and it’s getting used more. I was afraid we caught the tail end of the years when they’d play in it.
What is it about tree houses that make them so popular with kids and adults?
Mike: I think it’s being outside and the feeling of being away.
Sarah: Our clubhouse is at the very back of our property, so it feels like you’re really far away. It’s just kind of fun. I’m pretty outnumbered in the family of all boys, so call in five years and it might be my she-shed, with insulation and heat.
