Customized Wood Play Structures Create Backyard Fantasies

Barbara Butler's Creations Bring out the Kid in All of Us

By Katherine Bontrager

There are certain things in life that manage to make even the most adult of us feel like a kid again, ushering us into a world where laughing, exploring and playing King of the Mountain are all acceptable forms of amusement. Barbara Butler not only discovered what brings out the best in children and adults alike, she also made it into a thriving business that Hollywood has come to love.

Her secret? Butler can capture a fantasy world and fashion it into life with wood and brightly colored paint. And don't assume a dream can be too complicated or extreme. She has built a jail and pirate ship complete with swinging bridge. And a castle with towers, a 36-foot slide and a mad scientist's chamber, all accented with rock climbing walls and hand-carved gargoyles. Whatever your dream play structure is, Butler can build it in your very own backyard

Butler's foray into castles, ships and tree houses all began rather unassumingly while doing construction work. In 1983 Butler moved to San Francisco and helped found Outer Space Designs, designing and building unique decks, hot tubs and surrounds. "I started doing construction to just pay the bills while working in my free time as a fine arts painter," Butler says. "I saw them as two separate worlds." In 1987 those worlds collided when singer Bobby McFerrin and his wife, Debbie, requested a play structure for their two children in addition to Butler's other work. "Debbie asked for a play structure, but she said most sets were so boring, so she wanted something extraordinary," Butler says.

Faced with this daunting challenge, Butler went around San Francisco and played on all the play sets she could find, noting what really got imaginations and bodies active. She took the best elements of what she found and combined them with her own thoughts on play. What she found in designing her first custom structure was that it offered the best of both her worlds. "It really combined all the things I love: construction, painting, sculpture, play and children," says Butler. "I was really hooked." The new job wasn't all child's play, though. "It was a brutal learning curve because it required different tools and thoughts about child safety," she says. "At first, I even had trouble finding colorful stains."

Want to see more?

• Backyard Remedies: Growing Your Own Medicinal Garden
• An All-Natural Approach: Products for Healthy, Beautiful Skin
• Get Moving! Five Tips for Raising Active Kids
• Talk about it!