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:
My kids love building forts with our couch cushions, pillows, and playsilks. The silks work great because they are so light that they stay up so much better than sheets.
Kathryn on
Playforts take many shapes at our house. Tipped over chairs connected to tables and other surfaces by elaborate blanket tunnels , or tipi like structures made of branches.
Jessi W on
My kids use cardboard from old boxes, couch cushion and their silks to build their forts. Even the cat engage in their play and gain its own fort. All around the sala, they have their adventures.
Maria on
My 4 year old uses chairs, couch cushions, and his play silks to create a fort in our living room.
Jennifer on
We use the classic blankets, pillows, and couch cushions (and add our favorite play silks)! We like to use flashlights to make shadow puppets and tell stories.
Abigail Long on
We use our nugget cushions as a fort but our silks are always involved as entry’s or as fire or water around the play space.
Jen Gamboa on
We attach the command hooks meant for holding cords to the wall. When we want to build a quick fort, we clip in curtain hooks and attach the blankets to that. It’s easy to have separate “rooms” and works really well with the lightweight silks.
Deb on
Sofa cushions and blankets are my grands favorites to construct forts. They then add their play silks for color and fun!
AM Waits on
My kids used sheets over tables to build forts. They also draped sheets from the top bunk of the bunk bed over the bottom bunk and used the bottom bunk as a fort.
Sharon Aurora on
Our kids make our forts outside and they use anything they can: tarps, string, ropes, stakes, sheets, sticks, large amounts of grass clippings and dried leaves. they intertwine flowers and Sarah’s silks for beauty. Pillows sewn and stuffed with soft materials are put inside with playdishes, more flowers, blankets for snuggling into and of course our resident skunk puppet.
Audrey on
We make forts out of couch cushions. Definitely a garage for my son’s cars and trucks!!!
Sarah Moser on
Our 3 kids use the pickles triangle, nugget and a huge art easel to make a tunnel into a large open area fort. They line the tunnel with lights to make it extra fun to enter through! Our basement has become a constantly changing “fort-tress”
Catherine a on