PVC pipe fort/playhouse

I wanted to build my kids a fort but because I'm in a rental right now it couldn't be a permanent installation. Also, if they were going to have it indoors it had to be able to store somehow when we weren't using it. So I decided to make it out of PVC pipe and fabric. This ended up costing me under $75 since I used $1.50/yard fabric. And the kids LOVE it. Though they were a little upset that I wouldn't let them sleep in there tonight (hey, it's a school night!)



You need 8 1" side out joints (see pictures below). There is such thing as a joint that is 1" in all 3 directions but my local Home Depot doesn't carry them. So I used a 1" with a 1/2" side out and then bought 1/2" to 3/4" converters. If you also have to use the two pieces remember to buy 8 of each. You will also need one straight join piece (1") and 2 T shaped pieces (also 1") to make the doorway.

In addition you will need to buy the actual PVC pipe. If you have to do the modification that I did you will need 2 10' pipes in 3/4" and 4 10' pipes in 1". If you are lucky enough to find the joint with all 1" openings then you will need 6 10' pipes in 1" (in which case treat the red and black lines in the color chart below as all 1").





The picture below is color coded by pipe length and width.

The black lines are 4' in 1" pipe (6 total).
The red lines are 4' in 3/4" pipe (4 total).
The green lines are 1.5' in 1" pipe (2 total).
The blue lines are 2.5' in 1" pipe (2 total).
The yellow lines are 2' in 1" pipe (2 total).

The 8 side out joints go at each corner of the cube. The 2 T pieces go at the top and bottom of the door and the 1 straight join goes in the middle of the 2 2' pieces (yellow) of the door. You can use a 4' piece for the door instead and omit the straight join but this will require you to buy another length of pipe instead of using left over pieces.

You will need 6 colors of 45" fabric (if you want the walls to be different colors). I bought 2 yards each of 5 of them and one yard for the color in the door way. This gives me a little extra fabric left over that I'm going to sew into a bag to hold the pieces when it's broken down for storage. Of each color you need 12 tabs (3 for each edge) except for the door color which will only need 4 tabs at the top. Cut the main piece to fit the width, minus a couple inches on each side, so about 45-ish inches wide. This doesn't have to be exactly any width since the tabs can be adjusted to add or take up slack. Use some of the remaining fabric to make the 12 strips of each color about 2" wide (only 4 for the door color) for the tabs. Hem the edges of the walls and tabs.

Assemble the PVC cube and pin the tabs onto the fabric around each wall. By putting it on the frame as you pin this will ensure that your walls are a close fit. Once the 4 walls, the door and the roof are all pinned you can pull apart the PVC frame a piece at a time to remove it from the fabric tabs. After you've sewn the tabs into place on the walls you can put the frame back together with the fabric. *Tip* On the upright pieces, where tabs from different walls will be interspersed, note what order they're in. This will make reassembly easier later.

The finished playhouse quite comfortably fits my 3 munchkins.