Saturday, August 30, 2008

While away the days of summer....

...with an air tent! This is something my brother used to do in the summer with me. We would build it in the yard and then sleep in it...those were the days! It is easy to do, though you need to really make sure everything is secure as you don't want any tent catastrophes, and it is so refreshing you just may want to nap in it as well!

What you need:
*an electric fan, a box fan works best
*an extension cord (if you are building it outside
*two layers for the tent, worn vintage sheets work, the lighter the better
*rocks, bricks, books and/or other objects to anchor the tent
*masking tape or painters tape instead of the objects (might not hold as well)
*space to "build"

scrumdilly-do it!We set up our tent out doors and discovered that the small wonky fan we had was not the most stable of fans so I had to anchor the fan down do it wouldn't tip over. The first things you do is lay out the floor layer. We used a tablecloth that was a good deal smaller than the top of our tent. This size difference truly works best for a tent that has lift.

Next, we layered the top sheet over the tablecloth and anchored down three sides with any object we could hunt down.The fan was set up at the open end, smack dab in the middle. We plugged it into the extension cord and turned the fan on, holding our breaths! It worked! Sort of...some adjustments needed to be done.If you can fully seal the three sides of the tent, air from the fan will escape creating less of a lift for the tent ceiling. We moved the edges of the top sheet so that they matched the bottom layer and then we tucked the sheet under the tablecloth to create a seal of sorts. Next, we re-anchored the three sides and turned the fan on once again. We had "lift off!"Crawl into the tent and enjoy your summer day. The colors on our ceiling made for a pretty garden tent. A parachute would probably be the best bet. If you can do this near a wall where you can "build" a tent stabilizer, a piece of rope or twine that is anchored up high on the wall and then anchored to the grass at an angle it would create more support for the roof of your tent. Never leave young children in the tent unattended. Fans are super enticing to small fingers. If the fan tips or falls, it won't hurt anyone (unless it falls on them) but it may startle and that wouldn't be fun.

So there ya go, take a vacation in your backyard, front yard or living room with a nifty hideaway made from two sheets and an electric fan. We used our tent time to create doodle monsters. What are you going to do with yours?

9 comments:

  1. This is so cool.. :)
    I would probably just take an afternoon nap in mine.

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  2. I can't believe it, but we used to make tents with plastic sheeting, masking tape and a fan. Now, as a mother, my mind goes straight to all kinds of all things.

    A sheet looks much safer!

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  3. I meant "awful things"--as in, what if that plastic had collapsed...

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  4. Fabulous idea! We loved it so much we made one right away.

    http://juliekintaiwan.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/fan-tent/

    Thank you Jek!

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  5. feeder of the hungry beans, when my brother made this back in the seventies it was with plastic sheeting as well! yikes!

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  6. We made tents as kids all the time, but this is so brilliant it leaves me speechless! Thank you for sharing!

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  7. i like this idea, but the use of the fan, and the waste of electricity, doesn't sit well with me.
    Great site, nonetheless.

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  8. We loved this idea so much, we made one right away and my kids did all their school work inside. A duvet cover works beautifully - ours got really puffy.

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  9. Sarah!

    I'm smacking my head...a duvet cover! of course! Excellent!

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