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 almost 2 year old grandson loves to hide, so fort building is always a huge win for him. He can go in and come out and surprise us, which is always good for so many laughs from all of us. Right now we using chairs and blankets to make our builds.
Angela on
My kids love building forts with giant cushions and all the pillows and blankets in the house! They fill them with their stuffies and cozy up with books. My son also often builds himself a fort when he he needs to escape his little sister and have some alone time. These clips are great and I’ll definitely be ordering some for future forts!
Courtney Bose on
We haven’t done much fort building yet as our girl is still little, but we’re very much looking forward to it! Growing up- my brothers and I made huge fort mazes. Fun story- the night I met my husband (I was 23) he and I transformed our mutual friends’ living room (rearranged all the furniture) into a giant blanket/couch fort that all our friends woke up to! So yea, fort building is definitely a part of our story! ❤️
Bekah on
My book-loving children build fort “houses” for their favorite characters with massive pieces of cardboard (deconstructed from furniture shipments), their playcouch, our real couch and of course our playsilks. Depending on the location, a fort might be the candy house from Hansel and Gretel, a house for the creepy Miss Swamp (and Miss Nelson) or the Magic Tree House. But their rule is that every new character needs a new fort formation!
Laura on
Right now my son uses the big playsilk and the couch cushions to build a fort for him and his little sister. They fill it with all their blankets books and stuffed animals.
Marie Brown on
My sons love to use forts as actual battle forts. Many battles in our home!
Katie P on
My daughter loves making forts with our couch cushions, we’ve also started using her younger brothers play pen which provides great walls and places to use the play pegs to pin our giant rainbow silk on for a roof, we call it the rainbow den!
Lisa on
My kindergarten class uses play silks to drape over tables and chairs. They love them. It’s a chance for them to be creative that some of them don’t get during their days at home.
Kori on
My daughter has always loved her forts. There has always been something truly comforting for her being snuggled up with mom and dad reading books, a place of her own, and soon as her new sister get older a place I’m sure many memories to come and we can’t wait to see them
Julieanna Berreles on
I have 3 girls. My oldest is 13 and my youngest is 3. They all love to build forts together. It give my two oldest something to do with their youngest sister. They would love this kit as it would make building a fort so much easier. I could see my youngest hanging out inside the fort all the time. Many adventures would happen.
Callee on
As a child I would use chairs, couch cushions, and blankets to make forts and now with my son I can’t wait to see what kind of forts he will make. At the moment he just likes sitting with play silks over his head.
Shelby on
I have twin girls and they love to make forts. They set up a fort and get their tea set out and have a tea party with all their “guys”. They love play silks and know they would love to build a fort out of them!
Jen McDonald on