Fort Building
Fort building is one of those creative play activities that can be done from ages 2 (with lots of help!) up to the teen years.
When my sons were little adventurers, they delighted in creating enchanted forts - whether at school, in our backyard, or right in the heart of our home. I discovered that having supplies neatly tucked away nearby sparked their imaginations, leading to frequent building sprees. Our living room often transformed into a fantastical construction zone, where sofa cushions became sturdy walls, kitchen chairs turned into towering turrets, and every sheet and blanket was draped like the finest silken canopies. Soon, the entire space beneath became a secret hideaway, where they and the neighborhood children would crawl in, bringing along their favorite toys and books, ready to embark on the grandest of adventures.
Our Playclips are small and easy for children to use to build their own magical fort! They will clip and securely hold Playsilks, blankets, and sheets onto tables, chairs and sofas.
Our new Playforts are the newest addition to our fort building collection. We've heard from parents and teachers how much they love how lightweight and easy the Playfort set is to build and take apart - each Playfort set comes in its own canvas bag for easy storage! See how our friend Liz and her little ones put together and decorated their Playfort here.
Secret play forts are magical places where childhood memories are made. Being given the autonomy to help create their own play space is incredibly meaningful for children - and with simple fort building tools like Playsilks and Playclips, it's easy for them to bring their dream play space to life!
I hope you'll share some ideas of how your children build forts in the comments below. We will randomly choose one winner that will receive a Playfort Kit of your choice on 8/19, closed! Melissa Alfred you won!
Everyone who enters will also receive a coupon code for 30% of Playforts on 8/19 through email
We love seeing the many ways our community uses Playsilks to make their own beautiful forts! Indoors and outdoors, big and small, here are a few examples to inspire your next fort building adventure:
Left to right:
The first fort we built together was when she was a newborn and we were snowed in without power and water for a week. My husband built a giant fort with our blankets and couch cushions and used our dogs as space heaters. Our little fighter is now 3 1/2 years old. My daughter and I make forts using our nugget cushions and our giant play silks. We usually have a tea party together with her many stuffies. We have made a treehouse where she played with her light box in the dark. We’ve played castle where my husband pretends to be a dragon and knocks down her walls.
Michelle Lagunas on
We often spend our days constructing volcanos, fairy houses, animal dens, palaces and cozy caves with our large play silks and clips. There are ever more things we can imagine and build. My four year old often wears her silks as elaborate costumes and princess trains or capes, maid Marion headdresses and gowns. Our only limitation is that we need more silks to grow our imaginary worlds!
Katie Hughes on
My 2 and 4 year old love making forts by using our pikler triangle! Sometimes it’s an ice cream shop, sometimes it’s a princess castle! The play opportunities are endless!
Elise on
My twins love building fort outside with sheets, sticks and branches. They haul books and blankets and the dog out for the day.
Paula Perry on
My wife and I love helping our children build forts. The race to make the biggest fort is always fun!
Marshall franklin on
We would use this play fort for in our living room area and watch my daughter grow with it was so many uses. We would start and utilize it as a reading fort and read at least one book per day. As she continues to get older, we would let her explore and use it wherever her imagination takes her.
Cindy Hernandez on
My little ones are always creative with tucking into the highest dresser drawers they can reach and stretching out to new arrangements of chairs, stacked books, and whatever furniture they can manage to scoot over.
Sarah Fletcher on
We do play forts with our nugget couch and some blankets and silks. We’ll also do small forts under the coffee table with a blanket draped underneath. Add some battery powered candles in there for extra coziness :)
Jena on
I love the idea of playforts and what they do for pretend play. We’ve made forts to protect princesses, we’ve built castles for knights who want to fights dragons, we’ve made grocery stores, camp sites, the possibilities have been endless and only expand the more my son grows. So fun!!
Anna on
My children constantly bring all their blankets to our living room and use every piece of furniture they can find to build their fort. I enjoy watching them build them and then play in them.
Tiffany Franklin on
My kids make first daily with the couch cushions and blankets. This would be a nice edition
Mia on
My grandchildren and I use chairs, stools, interlocking play mats, tons of colorful silks and a variety of clips to build our castles, forts and hideouts.
Marcia DeBock on