Magical Living Room Fort

Lexi Wharem is a mother and photographer based in Lake Wales, Florida. She can be found on instagram sharing pieces of her life and work as she chases her dreams of being an visual storyteller.

One of my kids favorite things to do is build a big fort in our living room, especially on stormy days! We have tried a few different techniques over the years, so I thought I’d share our simple, quick steps to quickly build your own magical living room fort. Your kids will be so impressed and it will keep them busy for hours, making every activity that much more magical!

What’s great about fort building, is that you can do it with things you already have around your house. These are the things that we have used that have worked great, but if you don’t have something on hand, just get creative because I’m sure you can find other alternatives that work!

Materials we used:

+ twine or rope

+ clothespins (clamps or chip bag clips would also work)

+ hair elastics or rubberbands

+ bed sheets (lightweight and large are best)

+ cozy blankets and pillows

+ twinkle lights and pom poms (optional but encouraged!)

To begin, you’ll need to anchor your twine to two corners of your room. Look for door hinges, locks, or window hinges that you can thread the twine through. Depending on the strength of your twine and the weight of your bed sheet(s), you may need to double up your loop.

Once you’ve created your loop from corner to corner, tie it off with a knot in the middle, keeping it as taut as possible.

Once your twine is up, you can get your helpers to drape the bed sheet over the top, creating a tent over your cozy blankets.

To secure the sides of my fort, I grabbed some kitchen chairs and used hair elastics to tie the bed sheet to the back of the chairs.  You can repeat this on the other side of your fort, to create a comfortable space for your little ones to move around inside, or just leave the other side hanging down.

Use your clothespins to secure the bedsheet to the twine.

Now you’re ready to add some extra flair to your fort! I grabbed some battery-powered twinkle lights and draped them over the top of the twine at one end, securing it with a clothespin, and then back down and around the chairs where I had the elastics.

To set the mood inside the fort, I ran another string of twinkle lights down the center twine and secured it to the other side with clothespins.

Finally, I grabbed my floral pom poms, extra cozy blankets and pillows, and called it finished! So easy, and my kids couldn’t wait to get in there!

Forts are the perfect space to inspire your kids’ creative play! With all this time indoors lately, and less places to get out and adventure, creating a fun ‘new’ space for them to escape and let their minds go to play is vital! Within a few minutes my girls had already taken over the fort, created a ‘CAKE SHOP’ sign, and were ‘open for business’!

It’s also the perfect cozy spot for reading books, watching a movie (mini movie theatre!), enjoying a picnic, or camping out in the living room! Simple daily activities suddenly become magical and special, with just a little wave of the wand from mama!