Cozy and Collected Girl’s Room; ORC Week 3: The Tent

Here we are in week three of the One Room Challenge (halfway?!), and this week I tackled one of the big projects for this lil’ girl’s room: the tent.  You may remember my inspiration images included some darling tent/canopies over the twin beds.  For various reasons that wouldn’t work well for us, but my daughter is a bit obsessed with cozy tent-like hide-a-ways, and I dreamed up a way to make that happen fairly easily.  Hopefully we’ll get the same cozy vibe, just in a different application.

We have some real benefits on our side that helped this tent come together:  it’s a big room; big enough to create this tent and not fill up too much floor space – plus the sloped ceiling offered a fun opportunity to tuck this tent into a lesser-used corner.

Process

I can’t quite explain how this idea came to me, but I’ll try to share photos of the steps to illustrate the process.  First, though, I needed fabric.  A lot of fabric.  I visited a couple of my favorite fabric outlets for this project…there are a few of these in Raleigh that sell discontinued or overstock fabric at less than $10 a yard.

I stumbled on this gorgeous linen floral and thought it would be perfect.  Having the floral on the inside seemed like a fun detail.  This meant that I needed about  23 yards for this particular plan.  I found some solids to pair with it and got 10 yards for the outside.  Here you can see my chicken scratch plan.

Think of the tent as having four walls.  Two of them hang suspended from the ceiling, and would need fabric on the outside and inside (solid on the outside, floral on the inside).  For these two panels, I put the right sides of the fabric together and sewed along the sides and bottoms.  I turned them inside out and ironed the seams flat.  The other two walls just have the floral right against the drywall.  With these, I simply “hemmed” the sides and bottoms.

Below you can see the unfinished top edge stapled to a wood strip.  The wood strip was then attached to the ceiling (or wall).

The measurements are not precise, and the seams are not perfectly straight.  It’s definitely an amateur job.  But, it works!  And I don’t think Elsie will mind.  I did whip up a scalloped trim piece to go along the top edge to hide the imperfect corner and add a sweet detail.

I ordered some simple curtain tie-backs to hold the panels open.

Whew, I’m glad to have that task checked off the list.  Oh, and I made a decision about the rug.  I was thisclose to ordering this beauty in light blue, then I realized we could shift some rugs around in our home and use one we already had.

Now, for our updated to-dos…

• organize/purge
• rearrange
• refinish dresser
• prep and paint walls
• make tent + get comfy seating
• get bedding
• get rug
• get window treatments
• get wall art
• get mirror
• get bedside table
• storage/toy solution
• get lamps

Looks like somebody needs to get shopping!

Source List So Far

• Tent (Curtain) Tie Backs
• Rug – existing (alternative)
• Dresser Pulls
• Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Natural Cream OC-14
• Vintage Beds (similar)
• Desk (similar)
• Woven Shades in Cape Cod Sand
• Bedside Table

(affiliate links above)

Important Links:

One Room Challenge

The media sponsor for this incredibly fun and inspiring event is Better Homes and Gardens.

I am linking each week below as the challenge progresses:

My current ORC Posts:  Week 1: The Befores | Week 2: Dresser Revamp  |  Week 3 – You are here! | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

The Guest Participant Link-ups:  Week 1 | Week 2  |  Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Featured Designers for April 2019:

At Home With Ashley | Casey Keasler | Dorsey Designs | The Farmhouse Project | Home Made by Carmona  House of Funk | House of Jade Interiors | House Seven Design | House That Lars Built | Inspired by Charm | Jana Bek | Jessica Brigham | Kelly Golightly | Murphy Deesign | The Pink Pagoda | Sarah Gunn | Sherry Hart Designs | Sugar & Cloth | Veronica Solomon | Vintage Revivals |

And, if you’d like to check out my past ORCs, those posts are here:

04.18 Powder Room:  Week 1 Befores | Week 2 Wallpaper | Week 3 Mirror | Week 4 Sink Skirt | Week 5 Storage | Week 6 Reveal

10.18 Master Bedroom: Week 1: The Befores  | Week 2: The Plan  |  Week 3: The Bed | Week 4: Lighting and Art | Week 5:  The Bedding | Week 6:  The Reveal