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:
We are repurposing a pack-and-play to create a fort!
Danielle Vota on
My daughter likes to build forts with blankets and pillows in her bedroom or along the couch. Sometimes it’s a cave for her stuffies and other times it’s a tiny home she decorates with her toys. Lately it’s been setting up a stage for fashion shows! She always makes up different stories and invites everyone inside to share her imagination.
Stephanie Belill on
My girls use couch cushions, tables, chairs, and sheets to make forts all the time.
Erin on
She likes to build a fort over a wading pool and pretends it is a mermaid castle or an under sea cave. She uses a silk in the water and adds sea creatures and mermaid dolls. Bonus at adds shade to her play.
Janet on
My kids use blankets on their pikler triangle to build forts. They have a lot of fun using their imaginations pretending it’s all sorts of things. They also love using it as a cozy play area.
Romy on
My two year old son doesn’t have one yet but I can picture my son like his dad and I building a castle 🏰 and having so much imaginary play from pretending to be a prince 🫅 to just relaxing reading books .
JeannelleDean Fernandez on
We use the sliks and a parachute attached to our climbing dome making up different things it could be. From rocket ships to shaded huts on the beach!
Hope McCarty on
Our 2 daughters, 3 and almost 6, love building forts with our couch cushions, pillows, nugget, you name it, it’s there and then covered with any blankets they can find. Then each of their babies have their own rooms. Sometimes they’ll build a fort that doubles as a “pool” and they put their Barbie’s on wooden rings to “float” around haha. They would love a playfort like this and then maybe we’d get the couch cushions back hahahaa.
Jerri on
Our daughter uses sheets for princess castles in the living room and in the yard! We now have a second little girl but it’s not in budget to snag these! It would be so so loved
Lacy on
My children use a king size sheet and chairs
Stacy on
Natalie (10) and Lucas (5) love to lay silks and blankets over their a frame bed to create a magical fort. It is usually multilevel as the bed is a loft with playspace underneath. They attach silks with magnets to the frame to complete the duplex.
Danielle on
My daughters constantly make forts out of everything we own, haha! They are so creative! They often tie silks together to make long flags/decorations. While it sometimes drives me crazy how much of a mess they can make, I love that they get lost in their own imaginations.
Kiley Bedson on