Just because you’ve moved out of your parents’ place doesn’t mean your days of building awesome pillow and blanket forts are numbered.
Ardent fans of NBC’s “Community” may remember not one, but two episodes in which proverbial BFFs Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir completely take over the dormitories at Greendale Community College by constructing a series of maze-like tunnels out of chairs, blankets, pillows and everything else they can find. Although a fort city sounds like an amazing, juvenile escape from the pressures of college life, what are the odds you’ll have the same resources as the students of Greendale? @@http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1439629/@@
Something as simple as a pair of blankets draped over a dining room table will provide refuge enough for a rainy day (and, let’s face it, Oregon springs provide plenty of drizzly afternoons that lend themselves to lounging around.) Take the pillows off your couch — or the mattress from a futon — and pad the floor so you have a comfy place to set your laptop and marathon all three seasons of “Arrested Development” with a friend or significant other.
Maybe you can set a couple of chairs in front of the table and drape a thin blanket from the table top over the backs of the chairs and create an incredibly short entrance to your comfy little lair. As long as you have standalone furniture to cloak with a blanket, the possibilities for your home fort are endless. And you thought you’d never have a need for those old “Toy Story” blankets your parents bought you in third grade.
If you’re in need of more ideas, take a cue from the r/forts community on Reddit. It’s the little touches, such as stringing Christmas lights around your blankety getaway or placing a rotating rainbow glow light in the center, that make your fort attractive for friends and potential love interests alike. Freshman year lends itself well to consistent blanket fort construction. Some of the older dorms may seem like prison cells or dungeons, but there’s no denying how incredibly easy it is to build a quality blanket fort in close quarters.