Easy DIY Kids Teepee Tutorial! – Big Enough for Adults Too!

Teepee Play tents are very popular these days. They make a super cute addition to any child’s bedroom or playroom, or even in the corner of the living room to give the kids a cool place to relax and use their imagination.

My family has recently transitioned into a non napping home… Ivy is 3 and done with naps, which has really open up our day for day long adventures, but on those days where we are home all day, I was finding that they needed a little space to themselves to relax in the afternoon. I like to call it our “after lunch awesome hour of quiet time!!”

And to make this the most awesome hour for the kids too, Shawnikins and I built them each a 7 foot tall teepee, for each of their rooms. I then filled each teepee with lots of comfy pillows, a special blanket, some of their favorite things, as well as a basket of books.

This is quiet time in our house… And you can make a teepee too!

MORE DIY KIDS HOME DECOR IDEAS:

• DIY Kids Table Makeover Tutorials
• DIY Kids Growth Chart Tutorial
• DIY Kids Dress up Land Hooks Tutorial

Large Easy TeePee Tutorial – No Sewing Required!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• 5 Seven foot long poles (we bought 8 foot poles and cut them down)
• Rope Twine
• 4-5 different old flat sheets (I collected them all from Thrift stores)
• Heavy Duty Stapler or Upholstery stapler
• Drill & drill bit (to make holes in the poles to thread the rope twine through)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun & Hot glue sticks, or Embroidery Thread and Needle (optional)

METHOD TO MAKE TEEPEE:

Step 1: Decide on how tall you want the teepee to be. Things to consider… the size of the space you have to put a teepee, how tall your ceilings are, how many kids that you expect to go in the teepee at one time, and how big these kids are.

NOTE: I decided to go with 7 foot tall polls, because I wanted to make more work for Shawnikins to cut each of the 8 foot polls down a foot (wink, thanks Shawnikins), I wanted to be able to go in it, and more importantly I wanted my kids to be able to use this teepee as they grow up and Shawnikins is 6’9” so hopefully they will fit for a little while longer…

Step 2: Drill a hole large enough for your rope to pass through about a foot from the top of each poll.

NOTE: My holes are about 1/2 inch wide…

Step 3: Slide your rope through each hole. Lay out your ploes like this and tie a knot in the rope between each poll.

Step 4: Stand your polls up and organize them into place. Tie another piece of rope around the holy parts of your polls to secure them in place.

Step 5: Rip old flat bed sheets into strips the width that you desire. I didn’t feel like dealing with tones of thin strips (to much work for me 2 nights before Christmas morning), so my strips were each about 1 1/2 feet wide.

NOTE: These teepees only took us 2 nights (after the kids went to sleep) to make. And we like our sleep, so you can bet we were still in bed by 3 am… I mean 10 pm sillies.

Step 6: Sit on a chair in front of the space between the first 2 polls and hold your fabric up flat the the poll (starting at the bottom). Use a heavy duty stapler/upholstery stapler to attach that fabric to the polls.

Move to the area between the next 2 polls and repeat.

NOTE: You will have extra fabric hanging on the inside due to the curve of the teepee which you can trim away after you have all the fabric attached.

Step 7: Repeat with additional strips of fabric. Till you start installing your last fabric.

NOTE: Of course I didn’t take photos of myself doing this step because I don’t have a third extra stretchy arm to handle a camera at the same time as handling fabric and a heavy duty stapler. I’ll work on that…

Step 8: With the last layer of fabric, wrap the fabric on the front of the teepee aswell to make the top of the doorway.

Step 9: Go inside the teepee, and trim away excess fabric, or staple the excess fabric around the polls.

NOTE: I opted to trim.

Step 10: OPTIONAL: If you don’t enjoy the saggy teepee look… you can attach each layer of fabric to eachother in anyway you can think up.

NOTE: I couldn’t find my glue gun (quickest, easiest method), so I used embroidery thread and a thick needle to hand stitch the layers together. I used very large stitches and I really like how it turned out!

Step 11: Put your teepee in its new home, fill it with comfy pillows, and get in there before you kids can!!

Step 12: Add twinkle lights to the top for light, and obvious increased cuteness factor!! Bonus you can play in it in the dark!

I hope that my little teepee tutorial has inspired you to make a super fun teepee for your own home. It was much easier and faster to put together then I expected (which doesn’t happen with my ideas all that often).

If you have any questions about your own teepee building project, don’t hesitate to give me a shout in the comments below! I’d love to bounce ideas around with you!

Until next time, enjoy creating special places for your kiddos to use their imagination, and create beautiful things everyday!

XO JCL