The Tree Deck is an open platform tree house kit that’s perfect for people with heavily-wooded backyards who want to camp out but don’t want to sleep on the cold, hard ground.

But when I was growing up in the 1970s, on many afternoons you could find me up a tree at a friend’s property, chilling on a rough platform made of spare boards.

Last fall Dewberry, an architect, constructed a tree fort in his front yard shaped like a ship for his sons Jack, 8, and Sam, 6. Made with $2,500 worth of new materials, the tree-going vessel is ...