Building forts with couch cushions, pillows, chairs, tables and lots and lots of blankets is a classic childhood indoor activity — but can also be fun as an adult. The best part is making it all up as you go along but here are a few basic pointers.
What You Need
furniture and cushions that are already in the room, pillows, blankets, sheets, extra chairs, heavy books and/or clothespinsWhat You Might Want
string of fairy lights, flashlights, snacks, portable TV or viewing access to the TV, laptop, books to readInstructions
1. Start with a large table or a couch — this will be your main structure. 2. Find the sturdiest cushions (usually the ones off your couch) to extend your structure walls. You can also use dining chairs and face them in or out. If you face them in, the seat becomes a little nook inside the fort, if you face them out, you will be able to hang a sheet over the chair and set books on top of the sheet on the seat of the chair to weigh it down and prevent your roof from sagging. 3. When you have your walls built, drape sheets over the whole structure to create a roof. Use clothespins to attach sheets if they are not big enough and use heavy books to anchor down the sides. 4. Line the interior of your fort with blankets and pillows so you have soft places to lie down. 5. Bring in flashlights or even string up fairy lights to help add ambience and provide light to read by. Don't forget to turn them off when not in use! 6. Bring in snacks and enjoy the day in your fort! This seems especially cozy on snow days.Side Note: if you already have a teepee or other tent, it is still fun to set up in your room and create a fort that way as well!
Images; 1 & 2 Hope Studios, 3 Garden Nymph, 4 Giggle Blogs, 5 & 6 via SwissMiss, 7 via Walking Around, 8 via Home Sweet Home
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Love this! I'm a child at heart, and forts were always so cool and magical as a kid. Hooray for fun!
Love this post. When I was a kid, the goal of our forts was to make the pitch black inside so we could play with our glow in the dark silly putty, etc..
Really? A fort is a home hack? These are getting more and more out there, almost as if there's a need for filler posts.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a reversible comforter up next. Turn if over, that's a home hack! ;)
Next up, the right way to play with your lego..
Whenever my nephews come to my apartment they tell me I don't me I have enough toys. (Well, yeah, I guess that's because I don't have kids). The last time I babysat we made a fort - or at least I tried to make one. I thought it was a great idea to keep them entertained, but I guess at ages 2 and 4 they just don't get it yet. What they enjoyed was tearing it apart. All Auntie's hard work destroyed :(
http://www.swankydigs.blogspot.com/
My first date with my now boyfriend was in a fort in my living room.
Oh boy, we had these two ugly green "straight-from-the-early-70s" couches in our living room growing up. My brother and I would take the ginormous couch cushions and make some pretty badass forts with them.
If I discovered that someone I was dating was holing up in a blanket fort - and not to entertain a visiting niece or nephew - That would be grounds for an instant breakup.
This is not a "how", it's a "why". "Home Hacks" might be the worst title for a series of, well, articles that I've ever read, and I used to copy edit a student magazine...
HACK /hæk/ Show Spelled[hak] Show IPA
–noun
1.a person, as an artist or writer, who exploits, for money, his or her creative ability or training in the production of dull,unimaginative, and trite work; one who produces banal and mediocre work in the hope of gaining commercial success in the arts:As a painter, he was little more than a hack.
2.a professional who renounces or surrenders individual independence, integrity, belief, etc., in return for money or otherreward in the performance of a task normally thought of as involving a strong personal commitment: a political hack.
3.a writer who works on the staff of a publisher at a dull or routine task; someone who works as a literary drudge: He was one among the many hacks on Grub Street.
adorable.
and why are some of y'all taking it seriously?
a hack in masonry-speak is a row of unfired bricks, but that's obvi not how it's used above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_%28technology%29
p.s. my fort was built on a four-poster bed, with a thumbtack holding a ribbon to the ceiling, which made an exotic pointed peak in the center of the draped thermal blanket to which it was tied. It was wonderfully warm inside.
I think this is adorable and everyone should give the writer some slack. If it's not your thing, don't read the article.
As for me, my father is an engineer, growing up our forts were made with disconnected phone and extension cords, they would consist of multiple rooms and even door bells.
I wouldn't like my boyfriend to discover I'm holing up in a blanket fort (@bepsf) but I'd love to build one together!! Thanks for the article, it brought back so much.
It's only Tuesday, too. How many more days in Hack Week?
I don't know about a blanket fort...but with all the mountains of plowed snow, I've seen some igloos around my area. I remember doing that as a kid. Now...those are cool!
The doggy in the second picture looks so comfy.