- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- home style today articles
- home style today q&a
- traveling today articles
- traveling today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Customized Wood Play Structures Create Backyard Fantasies
Barbara Butler's Creations Bring out the Kid in All of Us By Katherine Bontrager
After her success with the McFerrin play set, Butler was asked by another client to build a playground tailored to their yard and specific needs. Soon, the game was on, and Butler shifted the emphasis of her construction company into designing and manufacturing the dreams of children and adults. Now alongside her husband, brothers and sisters, Butler has designed and constructed close to 300 custom play structures, a number of which are owned by a few names you may recognize. Besides her initial work with Bobby McFerrin, she also did a job for Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates at their summer home in upstate New York, made a lighthouse in Malibu for Lou Adler and was commissioned by Robert Redford to design a global-village play area and a children's theater for the Sundance Institute in Utah.
Butler's prestigious client list also includes Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Jasmine Guy and Walt Disney Productions. A playhouse created by Butler was used in the Robin Williams movie Bicentennial Man. Even Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, have a playhouse for their children, complete with wild animals carved into the woodwork. A carved lion guards the front door in a design worthy of one of the kings of Hollywood.
"Celebrities are really fun," Butler says of her impressive clientele. "They are creative people, also, and it's very much a collaborative thing. I want the whole process to be fun – kids are involved, as are their parents, and they are all designing this together and I'm their guide; actors are very used to that. It's very fun."
What is intriguing is that in a custom-made creation everyone has a voice, even if it is coming from a 3-year-old. Butler says that children often have some of the better ideas of capturing a flight of fancy and making it into a reality. That's not to say Butler doesn't keep in mind the fully-grown kids, however. All her strucures are made to comfortably support children as well as adults. "I always make my structures strong enough," Butler says. "Often, playgrounds are not strong enough for adults to play on. I think that's really a fun new area – having parents out there playing with the kids. That way, everyone is going to those imaginative places."
Designs are made to work in all seasons and for years' worth of time so that they can grow with children. Some of the more popular additions include 100-foot zip lines, water canons and firefighters' poles. An absolute must is the secret escape route out of jails or other buildings.
Butler also makes indoor and outdoor furniture, all designed, built, carved and stained at her studio in San Francisco. Furniture projects include beds, armoires, dining tables, coffee tables, desks, thrones, cradles, blanket chests and love seats.
But her biggest joy remains watching as little ones discover their new wonderland for the first time. "It's great! They are so excited when they get to play on it. As soon as you bring out any play equipment, it's hard to get the job done because they try to play while we set it up. I love getting to go to the first party and watch the kids run in loops."
Butler designs her play structures to encourage loops of movement and running in small spaces, enabling children to access their house from a number of different spots, so there is always a new way to play. Butler's creations encourage physical activity but also exercise the imagination as well. She manages to make the imagined possible, but capturing a fantasy has never been cheap, and the custom-designed structures can range in the tens of thousands. Still, just looking at one of Butler's creations makes even the most stoic and mature ache with a small resonating voice that says, "Let's go play." It's hard to say no when so many dream worlds have magically taken shape.
