Parents Seeking a Getaway: Stay in This New Hampshire Treehouse

When our hosts at Sunapee Stays, a resort lodge above New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee, suggested we spend a night in their Tiffany Hill Tree House, we pictured a rustic cabin for two, perched on a platform in the forest. What we found after traveling up the wooded hillside above the lake was a stylish log home large enough to accommodate a family of four.

And the best part? It was in a tree; the large trunk rises inside the house, visible through interior windows in the rooms surrounding it. The lower floor sits a full story above the ground, approached by a ramped stairway (no ladders for this luxury tree house); the upper floor sits among the branches. We were truly living in the tree.

The interior and furnishings are the height of rustic chic, faced in barnboard and pine with fixtures and décor of repurposed stable fittings. The doors slide on barn-door rollers. The dining table is a thick and highly polished slab of strikingly grained tree on a cedar stump base, just right for a tree house.

© Ethan Abitz

The rest of the furniture is more conventional, with upholstered dining and comfortable lounge chairs and high built-in beds with built-in drawers underneath. Little rustic details — the bedroom ceiling covered in burlap Costa Rican coffee bags — are playful and stylish.

The upstairs bedroom, with a queen-sized bed, is accessed by a two-stage stairway. Outside, overlooking the forest, a wide porch wraps around two sides of the tree house, furnished with chairs, a table and a hanging swing seat.

The highlight of the modern kitchenette, complete with dishes and basic utensils as well as a coffee maker, is the wide marble sink, echoing old-fashioned soapstone sinks. A Turkish shower adds contemporary luxury, as does the heating and air conditioning.

We stayed here in the fall, but our hosts tell us Tiffany Hill Tree House is available all year, so we’re planning a winter getaway to stay in this cozy hideaway and ski at Mount Sunapee, only five minutes away.