Lara Jarvis
There’s an unfortunate irony that goes hand in hand with Bank Holidays in the UK. Seemingly without exception, the welcome time off work is coupled with the bad luck of terrible weather. And this year’s long Easter weekend was no exception. In fact it rained solidly for 72 hours in some parts of the country.
With the wind blowing and the rain lashing against the windows, our seaside plans were scuppered, so we decided to stay in the warm and enjoy some family time. But what could we do that was both fun and a little different to entertain the kids? A few swipes of Pinterest later and we were armed with a plan to bring our brand-new Sofology sofas (we chose the Bella collection) to life with a sofa fort. Naturally, the boys couldn’t contain their excitement and we quickly began fashioning a den together, cushions flying everywhere!
Gathering together our materials – the velvet sofa cushions, clothing pegs, any bedsheets we could find, teddies, obligatory fairy lights and even a potted plant, we began making our cosy home for the afternoon. The boys were thrilled, and it was great to see their imaginations taking off as they created their own design.
Fort building is one of those activities that never gets old. Not only was it something the kids enjoyed, it quickly brought out the child in my husband Stuart and I, as we carefully created, cushion by cushion, our very own fortress. It was such a nice way to spend time together as a family without any distractions. I mean, that’s not to say that building a sofa fort with two over-excited children is an easy task – especially so with a two-and-a-half-year-old who waits for no one!
At one point, following a four-year-old’s over-zealous Transformer Rescue Bot’s play time, our fort started to collapse– thankfully not bringing down the light fixture that it was attached to. So, we decided to start from scratch, using the Bella pink sofa as the base unit.
This was definitely the sturdier choice, and its location next to the radiator meant we had the perfect anchor for the roof.
The best bit about building a sofa fort is that you can just build it time and time again, each time adding new bits to give it a different design. After creating one together as a family, we let the boys take the lead. Watching their independent creativity flourish as they took on the build themselves was a perfect addition to the afternoon.
So, there we have it, our perfect rainy day home activity – fun for the whole family. The boys loved it so much they didn’t want to ever take it down. They ate their lunch in there, made up secret passwords and later we all snuggled inside to watch a movie.
Why not give this fun family activity it a go next time you’re enjoying having a day indoors?
