So here's the deal! We just moved and I can't find my tent ANYWHERE! I'm going crazy and my husband swears it's here somewhere so no new tent (you know I'd find it the day after I bought a new one anyway lol). However, this idea is husband approved - closet time! We have a veryyyyy large closet with high ceilings that we weren't going to use. I want to make a play room for my girls to use instead of a tent, for now and probably for longer if it works out.

Here's why I am posting - I need ideas! I'll get a picture later once our Internet is up. It's large with 2 shelves,one above the other. Outside of that, it's empty. I want to somehow make it into a place they can climb and jump around in. Hubby is ok with doing whatever so any ideas are welcome! My biggest challenge is that I'd like to make some sort of 'door'. Instead of closing the 2 doors to the closet, I'd love to make some kind of net or something to form another jumping/playing/climbing area.

Thanks in advance :) and crossing my fingers I find my tent soon - I miss tent time! It's been like 4 days and between that and the move, my girls seem a little skiddish!

I think it's an excellent idea.

You could get a bunch of those Command adhesive hooks and place them around at different intervals to hang fleece ropes, plastic vines, plastic chains, ect. from so they criss-cross all over the closet. (I say the Command ones cuz they aren't sharp tipped and you can remove them without messing up your walls)

You could get a roll of the mesh people build PVC cages out of and staple it to the walls so they have something to grip if you're wanting to make it more permanant. (altho I would think that would be tough to clean if they (when they) potty on it.

As far as the door.... I would get sticky sided Velcro....all you need to do is get your mesh material, probably some pet screen from Lowes/Home Depot...cut it to fit the outside of the door frame, sew one side of the velcro to the screen, use the sticky back side on the door frame and then just velcro the screen door closed.

I am doing something similar, and am hanging loads of plastic chain all over the ceiling.

Another thing I'm going to try is making a jungle gym of PVC, plastic mesh, plastic chain and a bit of carpet to hang on the wall. I like designing and building stuff, so this is something cheap and easy I can rebuild a couple times a year.

Since I don't have gliders I can't really comment on practicality and that jazz, but I am great at designing and building stuff like this.

While you're waiting to do tent time...how about bathroom time? Just be sure to put EVERYTHING away and the lid of the toilet down. Scrub your bathroom with Dawn liquid soap and water, OR a vinegar & water mixture. Lay towels under door, & towels in your tub & sink for padding. (ESPECIALLY important is that you don't have any soap out or the toilet brush or plunger. ICK!)

Closet Time: what are the shelves made of? If it's metal, I would worry if it's safe metal?

For hanging/jumping play...how about this mesh hanging storage thingy from amazon?

Thanks for all the awesome ideas! Love em!! I needed some direction of where to start and now I can't wait! The shelves are built in and made of wood luckily. And I was going to plan on bathroom time til either I found the tent or had the awesome closet set up. Hopefully they have fun with that for now :) I totally can't wait to start setting it up, they are going to have a blast when it's finished!

(also typing this on my iPhone is making me hate autocorrect lol!)

Maybe pad your wooden shelves with fleece so that if they pee and poo ( IF! you know they WILL!), you can just take off the fleece and throw it in the wash for easy cleanup?

Yeah, I'd definately cover the shelves with something... Most wooden shelves are either varnished or painted and I'd be afraid they'd chew on them and maybe get sick. Or maybe even remove them if you don't really need them.


You could get really creative and paint some scenery on the walls.

If you go with the sticky back velcro, might as well sew some on fleece cut to fit over shelves and then stick some on the bottom to hold fleece cover on shelves and be removed for cleaning. This would work for wire or wood.

Another option for doors for a more permanent set up, would be to staple the hardware net to the walls, ceiling, & floor, then use pvc tubing for a door frame like it's done for those home made cages. But the velcro & pet screening is a very good idea.

If your shelves are the wire kind, see if you can get hang bars for them, if they don't have them already, you can cover those in fleece as well and use them to hang toys from as well as attaching vines or plastic chains to hooks if you put any up.

Don't forget about floor toys, if the floor is interesting for them to explore it gives them a chance to hang around where you'll be most likely.

Have fun with your imagination, you are lucky to have a large space to make a glider room, some other's do as well, so try a search on "glider rooms" and "photos of glider rooms" that can give you good visual on ideas.

Thanks again everyone :) Lots of great ideas - really appreciate it! Hope to start working on their little heaven this weekend!