How to Make a Loom Tent Hideout

Amanda Thomsen

Need a space to call your own? Weave weeds, grasses, sticks, flowers, and leaves into a loom tent for a private outdoor hideout.

We all want a place of our own — a place where we can be in charge. In your own little lair or tiny animal den, you get to be the rule maker and the decider. You can make a little hiding place that’s all yours, one that you build and decorate however you like.

Make a Loom Tent

Do you ever get bored living in the same ol’ place following the same ol’ rules? Why not make a hideout in the yard to hang out on your own and do things your way?

You can make a tent or lean-to and have a cool hideout that’s perfect for hatching adventurous plans, catching some shade on a sunny day, or my favorite activity — napping!

storey-How to Make a Loom Tent Hideout-01 — Illustration by Ilona Sherratt, excerpted from *Backyard Adventure*

An easy way to start is to turn a low-hanging branch into a loom tent. Take a long piece of parachute cord and use a landscape staple to pin it to the ground about 3 feet away from the branch. Then take the cord up and over the branch, wrapping it around once. Lead the cord to the ground at an angle and pin. Do this again as many times as you like to create a string tent shape. Now weave weeds, grasses, flowers, sticks, and leaves into your loom tent!

storey-How to Make a Loom Tent Hideout-02 — Photo © Kortney Sellers, excerpted from *Backyard Adventure*

Ideas for Backyard Tenting

TRICK OUT YOUR HAMMOCK. Throw an old sheet or blanket over an existing hammock, and hold the sides down with rocks.

CREATE A PVC TRIANGLE FRAME.

storey-How to Make a Loom Tent Hideout-03 — Illustration by Ilona Sherratt, excerpted from *Backyard Adventure*

Work up your design on paper, figuring out how many straight pipes and elbows you will need. Buy your materials, build your frame, and then cover it with a tarp, an old comforter, a rug, or whatever’s handy.

MAKE A LEAN-TO.

storey-How to Make a Loom Tent Hideout-04 — Illustration by Ilona Sherratt, excerpted from *Backyard Adventure*

All you need is a wall or low tree branch and some sticks. You can lean sticks that are as tall as you are (or taller) against the branch or wall in a row. You can cover the lean-to with leaves or evergreen branches, or just layer on more sticks until you can’t be seen.

Text excerpted from Backyard Adventure © Amanda Thomsen.

Backyard Adventure

by Amanda Thomsen

The backyard has long been a space associated with recreation and relaxation, a private patch of earth to escape to, and a springboard for the imagination. In her signature style and drawing on her personal experience as a mother, gardener, and author, Amanda Thomsen encourages kids to create kingdoms of their own making, right in their own backyards. With whimsical projects for every season and any setting, from forest to pavement, fun-seeking kids and their families will rediscover the yard as a place for inspired play, using repurposed materials and existing features of outdoor spaces. Whether they’re creating tiny gardens inhabited by action figures, weaving a secret hideaway out of a loom of twine and twigs, or setting sidewalk cracks on fire with Coffeemate, Backyard Adventure lets kids of all ages turn their yards into a place they can call their own.

$16.95

$22.95 CAD

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Amanda Thomsen

About the Author

Amanda Thomsen is the author of Backyard Adventure and Kiss My Aster as well as a mom, a Girl Scout troop leader, a garden maker, an adventure planner, and a rule breaker. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and eight-year-old daughter.

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