Reading Nook turned Tent!

I made this for my boy who's turning four tomorrow! (Sep 1st) He loves building forts and I don't mind rearranging the furniture, but set up and clean up is so time consuming, we'd both rather spend more time playing. This is an indoor tent, but I took it outside for pictures. Aside from the obvious difference of adding doors and a back, the changes I made from the original plans are: using an 8 foot 1x3 so the tent is 4 feet deep instead of 3. Instead of stapling the fabric on the 1x3s at the bottom, I wrapped the fabric around and used velcro so I could remove it for washing. I sewed a tube of fabric and attached it at the top to make removal easier. Time Investment is so long because of the sewing involved for the tent. If you have an Ikea near you, they've got this stuff called glaze paint (more of a stain, I think) in all different colors - it doesn't need a top coat (unless you want it shiny), it's solvent free and, are you ready? $6 for 12.something ounces, MORE than enough for this project. To make it even easier if you're using fabric instead of curtains like me and you've got the room, cut a 8ft 1x3 in half so you've got two 4ft pieces. Most quilting cotton at fabric stores is 44-45 inches wide selvedge to selvedge (the ends that don't fray) and if you follow the plan according to where to drill for the top bolt, you'll need 4-4.25 yards of fabric, depending on whether you are going to use velcro or staple. I would use 4.25 if using velcro, the fabric can go right over the top bar and over the other side if you don't want to sew a tube like I did. If you don't want to sew at all, use iron-on hem tape on the cut edges and iron on velcro. Make sure of placement of the velcro before ironing on. More pictures on my blog =)

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$50 - wood, bolts, stain, material for tent (everything)
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Green Ikea glaze paint
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

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