At Barefoot Builders we strive to listen to your dreams and your trees and build a space that is fun and sacred and feels especially built for you.

We try to design buildings that fit the aesthetic of the land and trees that you call home, using northwest colors and stains that allow the grain of the wood to come through and tell the story of the tree from which it came. We love framing with timbers and showing off the raw edge of the wood in furniture and finish work.

Our Story

Michael Murphy has been climbing trees and dreaming of Treehouses since his childhood and began building Treehouses professionally while teaching P.E. after several requests from families in the school he was teaching at. Eventually he had a client who had been in touch with Pete Nelson, of "Treehouse Masters." The client sent Pete photos of what Michael had done, which prompted Pete to reach out to Michael.  Building Treehouses sounded pretty good and after a little guidance from Pete and an invitation to the "World Treehouse Conference" (WTC) in 2012, Michael quit teaching to form Barefoot Builders and build Treehouses full time.  Michael has now presented at the WTC a number of times and Barefoot Builders' work has been shown on "Treehouse Masters" of "Animal Planet" and the "Treehouse Guys" of the D.I.Y. network and has appeared in a number of magazines and newspapers around the northwest and online.  Barefoot Builders is a Washington based group of itinerant trades, craftspeople who love working with wood, trees and creating special space for relationships to deepen with each other and the Earth.