Fairy Tale Reading Fort

When we packed up our little Vancouver house and took apart Grae’s beloved closet book nook, I knew I wanted to create another cozy reading space once we arrived and settled in Kuwait.  Well, eventually arrived and settled, but the book nook just never really happened.  Oops.

Until just recently, that is.  Over the course of the last week, Miss G and I worked on creating a fairy tale reading fort and I think it turned out just beautifully.  She absolutely loves it, and we only had to purchase one {inexpensive and very portable} item to make it happen, which is a very good thing since we really only have 5 months left in Kuwait.

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Here’s how it all started…  With a giant mosquito net hung in a bare corner of our apartment – hah!  Not exactly fairy tale-esque, but the potential was certainly there and Grae {er… Alice} was already smitten.

Now truth be told, my plan was actually to purchase several metres of beautifully coloured tulle and ribbon, plus a hoola hoop to create something like this on my own, but when we came across this ready-made version {CAN | US | non-Ikea option} in the outdoor section of Ikea for KD 3.900, I was sold.  There was no way I could buy the required supplies for what I’d spend on two and a half lattes, plus finding things in Kuwait is not usually as simple and straightforward as one would imagine it to be.

After folding a huge quilt into a triangle shaped mattress of sorts and borrowing some pillows from around the house, Grae and I started collecting ‘fairy tale-ish’ things. Included was a pretty wooden bin filled with fairy tale books {this set of mini readers is one of our favourites!}, some fairy tale puppets from Ikea, Grae’s DIY light box with the black insert taken out and a tutu around it instead {hah!}, and a few ribbon wands that we made long, long ago.  She also desperately wanted her homemade heart-shaped wands to be included, but they were missing in action at the time.

With those few things set up inside our mosquito net, my little lady was pleased as punch and quickly hurried off to put on one of her princess dresses and the little crown headband I made as part of her paper bag princess costume this past Halloween.

Of course, then the fun began!  That morning and afternoon we had all kinds of stories and shows happening in our reading fort.

Then, the following day, Grae and I decided to make a few star garlands to help make our tent more magical.  To do so, we pulled out our stash of paint chips and Grae cut the colours apart by following the white lines while I punched out a gazillion little paint chip stars using a star punch.

We also got out some sparkly craft foam in both gold and silver and punched out several of those using cookie cutters, a chopping mat, and a mallet.

That night, I strung all of the little stars onto several lengths of golden baker’s twine and hung the strands in and around the reading tent.

Here’s the finished result…

Grae just loves it, and so do I.  Since the day we put it up, we’ve started each morning in our fairy tale reading fort with a big stack of books…

And whenever Gracen’s got some downtime, you’ll most likely find her curled up in a fancy dress with a stuffed animal and a book.

For more fun fort inspiration, check out the forts our friends from around the web have been making this month for Building Blocks & Acorns Fort Building Challenge!  SO many fun ideas!!

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