How to Make a Dress-Up Space for Playtime with Your Disney Princess
A man’s home is his castle, or so the saying goes. But a princess’s castle can be found in any corner of her home. Or any largish cupboard. Or under a pile of couch cushions, in a pinch.
As any master pretender knows, it’s so easy to throw a blanket over the dining room table or some back-to-back chairs and imagine you’re in the depths of the ocean or imprisoned in a castle turret.
But with some pretty fabric and twinkle lights, and a little bit of effort, you can create a magical space for your children.
Outside Play
If you have a few trees in the backyard, it’s easy to tie a clothesline between two, then drape a lovely piece of fabric over the rope. You can spread a blanket on the ground and decorate the inside of your makeshift tent with lace pillows. You can make the tent larger by using a couple of clotheslines and a few different trees to expand the ceiling space.
Hang stars and fairy lights on the inside of the tent and thread them through the branches of the trees.
Build Over a Structure
Does your child have a canopy bed or is there a large family tent you can use? Drape sheers and/or pretty blankets over the structure, and then cut out cardstock stars covered in glitter.
Hang lights inside and out the structure, add bows, stars, snowflakes, fairies, or whatever your child loves.
Hang a Playhouse Structure from the Ceiling
Do you remember the wonderful scene in “The Holiday” where the cast in England camp out in that lovely tent in the girls’ room? You can easily copy that magical work of art and add your kid’s style to make it even more special.
All you need is a hoop, like a strong hula hoop, some clothesline, and curtains with tabs. But to make it even easier, here’s a video from Huffpost.
An Easy No-Sew Tent
This easy tent from remodelaholic can be made in under an hour and uses peel and stick fabric fuse. You’ll need to be able to use a drill, but it’s a fairly easy project.
You’ll need:
- 3 dowels (she used 7/16″)
- 2 1x2x96″ pieces of wood cut in half (to make four 4′ pieces)
- an old bedsheet
- Peel n Stick fabric fuse
- scissors
- a drill and a 7/16″ drill bit
- small finishing nails
- 2 1×1″ nailing strips
Save Some Steps
If you want a freestanding tent, but don’t feel like making one, you could buy one like this and then add a favorite pillow, blanket, and other personalized touches. This teepee comes with some fabric stars, but you can add more and some white fairy lights. Or really anything that appeals to your little princess.
A Cardboard Home
If you want a playhouse that’s strictly indoors, this adorable creation from Charlotte Smith for Home Depot comes with a colorfully tiled roof, flowers in the window box, and a swinging arch door. The finished house even has skylights. Home Depot ranks this as beginner-level and estimates building time will take two hours.
As you plan, Home Depot recommends that “you decide the best location in your home for setting up your playhouse and determine the available space. Make sure you leave enough room to move around the outside of the playhouse and be sure your kids will be able to get in and out of the space. Then, determine the layout for your playhouse, making a quick sketch if necessary.”
The only thing this cute cabin doesn’t have is pretty walls. They left the orange Home Depot logos all over the cardboard, but surely you can cut out some red-paper bricks, use some light water-soluble paint, or get fancy with decoupage glue and tissue paper.
Whatever fabulous digs you design for your very own princess, know that you’re making memories that will last a lifetime. Don’t forget to update your dress-up trunk with princess dresses, because every little royal should have her favorite outfit to wear during her extravagant adventures.
Have fun!