Fort building at home is not something we do much of as adults. Whether we don’t have the time or energy or the means to make them, we’re more likely to hunker down on the sofa wrapped in our duvets and loungewear. But when we were kids, it was a whole different story. 

We spent hours perfecting the height, shape, and arrangement of our blanket fort so they would stay up for longer and give our imaginative play more room to grow. Well, now is the time to pass on that blanket den expertise and help your kids build their bedroom forts. We’re going to look at:

• Materials
• Structures
• Fasteners
• Activities

Let’s make the cold wintery days 100% more fun for our kids and learn how to make a blanket fort…

Building a blanket tent or fort is great fun when the weather is poor. It’s especially great for when you’ve come in from the cold and want to snuggle up and get snug. It’s like a cozy little cocoon where you can hide from the world and do what you want to and talk to your family – it’s a safe space. 

Blanket fort materials

To make your fort, you’ll need to gather a few items from around the house. These are a few you might find useful:

• Blankets and Sheets for walls, a roof, and the comfy inside
• Cushions for plugging gaps and for sitting on
• Sofa cushions for the floor or to create a comfy wall to lean against
• Air beds if you want the whole floor to be squishy
• Fairy lights for inside to make it feel magical

 

You won’t need all of these, each fort is individual of course, but some are essential for the base and comfort. So, see what you have free to use.

Blanket fort structure

Your fort needs structure and stability if you want it to stay up longer. A falling fort can be good fun, but the idea is to cozy down for a while, so some structure is necessary. You can get this in a couple of ways:

Use furniture as support systems

If you’ve got some dining chairs, a table, or some drawers free of clutter, you can hang your sheets and blankets on these to give you the height you need.

Hang the sheets from things

This option gives you loads of height but is limited by what you can hang it off. You could use curtain rails, doors, or wall-mounted bookcases. We would avoid using picture frames or ceiling lights though – one good yank and things could get damaged.

Blanket fort fasteners

Now that you have chosen your structure and materials, you have got to have something to keep it all together and in one piece. Here are some clips and fastening tricks for you to choose from:

• Clotheslines – great for hanging sheets over when connected from one structure to the next
• Clothes pegs – good for connecting blankets and sheets
• Curtain clamps or bulldog clips – perfect for clipping things to doors or shelves
• Safety pins – ideal for joining sheets and blankets together
• Duct tape – it won’t stick to everything, but it can be useful if you don’t have any clips
• Rubber bands – good for wrapping and keeping sheets or blankets attached to banisters and curtain poles
• Heavy things – excellent anchors when rested on top of sheets and blankets on your structure (be careful not to pull them off)

By now, you should have all your kit and caboodle that you’re going to use to build your fort. The basic premise is pretty simple – work out your floor space, get your structure in place, throw over the sheets and blankets, and make sure everything holds together. Straightforward, right? Well here are a few tips to think about during construction:

Tip Number 1 – use the lightest sheets and blankets on top.

Tip Number 2 – Consider tying your clothesline around the whole door, right at the hinges, for stability.

Tip Number 3 – Do not stand on the blanket walls that are resting on the floor.

Tip Number 4 – Remove all expensive and sentimental items away from the fort in case of collapse.

The main caution we have is to be careful if your kids are very young. Crawling babies and toddlers are notorious for not understanding when they shouldn’t do something

Blanket fort activities

After you have made it all comfy and cocoony, it is time to start having fun in it.

One of the favorite activities to do there as a family is to read a book. Bonus points if the book is related to their schoolwork and schooling. You can all snug together and take turns reading out loud with a few snacks on hand for the growing youngsters – perfect.

Another thing you could do is include the TV in the fort. That way you can make it like a private cinema screening of your favorite films, or make it into a gaming den with some consoles in there. Keep it multiplayer though, you want everyone involved and spending quality time together. 

A fort picnic is a great idea too. You could make all your usual picnic foods together, such as sandwiches and fairy cakes, then set it all out inside the fort and have a little tea party. 

Whatever you choose to do, we hope we’ve helped you learn how to make a blanket fort. And we hope you make the activities inclusive and fun for the whole family too. This quality time together in the family blanket den will help improve your communication and understanding of each other, and it’ll be super cozy and snug too.