Weekday Carnival Archives

Teepees, wigwams, play tents (whatever you want to call them) have been trending for a rather long time. However last week, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed them a trend: Teepees: The New Urban Hideaway. I’m not sure why a newspaper would be so slow to catch onto this (it’s not like there’s a three-month lead time). No matter, they’re still going strong. We had a refrigerator box playhouse for a while; admittedly not nearly as chic. But that was a dozen years ago.

The teepee is great because it looks good not only in a kids room, but in adult spaces too. As you can see from these 30 rooms with teepees, they work well in white Scandinavian interiors, minimalist black and white living rooms, nurseries with traditional childrens bedroom furniture, and of course colorful playrooms. You can even erect one outdoors.

I was obsessed with building forts as a kid, always enclosing my bunk beds with blankets, and wishing I had a way to hang a sheet from the ceiling. My kids, too, used to love taking all the blankets they could gather and draping them over chairs and ottomans to create fun enclosures. There’s definitely something satisfying, and practical too, about a kid constructing a hideaway on his own. That said, it’s also nice to have a ready-made private quiet space. Wonder if my boys are too big for one now?