How to Make a Fairy Tale Castle – Outdoor Summer Fun for Kids!
I don’t know about you, but when I was a child I absolutely loved to build houses, tents, dens, castles, clubhouses etc. My two monkeys are exactly the same and when our chickens and their coop arrived last Sunday (more about that later!) they were far more excited about the two huge cardboard boxes the flat pack chicken coop came in than their 3 new feathered friends! Honestly, so was I! I immediately started to conjure up all sorts of ideas for what we could create with the cardboard – I probably should have been more interested in Mr G as he expertly constructed the chicken coop – good job by the way Mr G!!!! Anyway, I decided that we needed a castle – a good, old fashioned, fairy tale castle, like the one we had recently stayed in (again, more on that at a later date! :)) So, down on my knees I got, flattened out the 2 boxes, grabbed a black Sharpie and got drawing the outline for our castle.
I then, grabbed a craft knife and while roaring at my children to “Step away from the knife” and “watch out or I might chop your toes off” (seriously, why are kids so fascinated by anything sharp, shiny and dangerous?!?!) cut out our castle. With the help of my dad, who had stopped by to say hi and enjoy the sun in on our patio, we then stood the card up and stuck it together with heavy duty packing tape! We tried a stapler but the cardboard was too thick.
Once we had an upright structure I set about mixing up the paint that we would need. I had a “cheapo” paint tray and roller thrown into one of my arts & crafts boxes which was perfect for painting the base coat. By the time we had our castle painted grey – Doodles, Oodles and I were covered from head to toe in paint!
We added some brick details and a creeping rose of some sort and both D and O took a wall each to decorate – D painted 2 red windows and a Ninja Knight(!!!!) as well as more climbing roses and O painted a Ninja Princess with freckles (because she has to copy everything her big bro does but with a twist of her own!). I think there may have also been a Minecraft creature/character or two added! 
The whole project took us about 2 days to complete and they have been having endless fun with it since. They have also added several “details” to the internal walls – a canon, a stairs and a coffee machine! O loves inviting me to coffee in the Castle! It folds up really easily, so each night we have stored it away in the garage and each morning we have dragged it out for more fun! I’m really proud of our latest construction project! It fits 5 kids inside!!!!!!! What have you been creating recently with cardboard boxes? As always I love to hear what you have been up to and how you have been keeping your little ones busy and creative over the summer months. Have you been creative outdoors recently? Let me know in the comments and as always please feel free to leave a link to your post on kid friendly activities on our Facebook Page and I’ll gladly share and pin it! Hope you’re having lot’s of outdoor summer fun!
Ciara x
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29 Comments
Sasha
Wow, you are talented! This looks awesome! 🙂
ciwin22
Thanks so much! It was great fun to make and tonnes of fun since! 🙂
Camille
My favorite part is the door! I love that they stay busy making it then playing in it- so fun!
ciwin22
Thank you! They’ve been playing all sorts of great games all week in it!
Aedin
Wow that looks so lovely!Youre v talented!
ciwin22
Thank you Aedín, not sure about talented but I love making things!
fromheretotherewithkids.com
Awesome! You rock
ciwin22
Thank you 😀
Erica Loop
So creative. Pinning!
ciwin22
Thank you x
Let kids be kids
Wow, that looks amazing! Brilliantly painted and decorated too. The kids must love it.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
ciwin22
Thank you, they love it and have dragged it out of the garage every single morning to play with it so it’s getting a little worn and torn now 🙂
Emma @ P is for Preschooler
How fun! I love all the details. A cardboard box can be so much fun!
ciwin22
Not sure that anything beats good old fun with cardboard boxes! x
redpeffer
I love this, the details are incredible. My two would have a ball. And I’m waiting for an allotment so I can keep chickens-but I’m worried about foxes. How do you keep your coop secure? We’ll be starting from scratch (excuse the vague pun!)
ciwin22
We bought a flat pack chicken coop from the farmer we got the chickens from, it has an indoor coop area, that they put themselves to bed in each night, then we close the door on this part. There is also a secure outdoor area of there coop with roof and secure wired sides that need to be checked regularly for damage to keep the foxes away. They are free to roam our garden and a small meadow we have attached to our garden during the day. We secure them in the coop at night or if we are away for the day and won’t be back til late. I must finish my post about the chickens and get it up on the blog 🙂
Louise
must do something like this over the summer – the kids love boxes #countrykids
ciwin22
Have fun, would love to see what you make! 🙂
sophieblovett
Looks fantastic! Arthur has a fort I made out of his car seat box but it’s nowhere near as spectacular as this. I made him a plane last week too… Gotta love cardboard boxes! x
ciwin22
Thank you! Boxes are so much fun! My little boy collects them, we have to sneak them into the recycle bin every now and again just so the garage doesn’t become over run by them! 😄
Louisa
This is a wonderful idea. It looks great, my kids would love it #countrykids
ciwin22
Thank you, we’ve had so much fun with it as has anyone who has visited us this week!
Coombe Mill (Fiona) (@coombemill)
The fun that can be had with a cardboard box! You’ve created a wonderful Castle which the children have personalised and will no end of creative and imaginative fun with. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
ciwin22
Thank you Fiona! I think that I have as much fun playing and ,making things with boxes as the kids do! Have a lovely weekend!
Cheryl (@CherylInTheUK)
Love cardboard boxes. So much potential. We made our summer teepee last week, although that doesn’t use cardboard, but the children are having so much fun just playing in it. Outside dens are so much fun. #CountryKids
ciwin22
Cheryl, I’ve just had a look at your teepee – it’s amazing – brilliant fun I’m sure! Also love your stunning strawberry picking photos!
Paris at My Big Fat Happy Life
This is so awesome!!! Love all the imaginative play that’s going to go on in that castle
ciwin22
Thank you Paris 🙂
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