Pop Up A Permanent Teepee In Your Backyard

When you’ve been bitten by the big, beautiful, buzzing wanderlust bug, it’s game over. There’s no remedy for it whatsoever. All you can do is ride the wave and get into the great outdoors as much as possible. For some, that means signing up to Jack’s Flight Club and taking off every time a cheap flight alert lands in your inbox. For others, it means packing the car with the bare minimum and heading off in the direction of the sunset with barely a thought on the destination, just a love for hiking. However, there is a new trend taking over the adventure-lovers. Building your own beautiful outdoor teepee.

Ladies and gentleman of the world, welcome to the teepee.

Now, traditionally speaking, teepee’s are meant to be collapsible. They were designed to be moved easily as the Native Americans roamed around following the buffalo herds. But the DIY-ers everywhere are adopting the tip into a permanent structure in their back gardens. They can run off to everytime the humdrum of normal life gets too much.

So, without further ado, here is your quick guide to creating your outdoor haven. Let’s make a permanent teepee. Life just got a million times better.

Pop Up A Permanent Teepee In Your Backyard

The Secret Is Sturdiness

The first thing you need to do is keep everything sturdy. This means boring holes in the ground. If you have soft turf and soil, then this won’t be too much trouble. But if you discover a great plate of concrete an inch or two below the grass, you might want to consult wrenchguru.com and see if you can get away with an electric drill, or if a pneumatic one is needed. Please do this though. Sturdiness is key.

Get The Shape

To create an even shape, you’ll need to knock together a pivoting beam that you can use as a giant compass. You’ll then be able to make the measurements needed by spinning it around and marking out the edge. Once you’ve got your polygon shape, edge it out in wood and create a flooring. Simple.

This will be done by building a deck off the ground. As you measure from the top down with your pivoting pole you will know where the edges of your deck will be. You can simply cut all the boards once the poles are set. That may be easier.

Stand Up And Salute

With your off-the-ground flooring laid, it’s on to creating the actual cone structure. To get this right, everything has to be precise. It’s the only way to get the right shape and structural support needed. If you’re happy, though, get those poles up and secure them with a hub at the top.

Any strong wood can be used. Make sure the poles are longer than the canvas or plywood you wish to put outside.

Try this tutorial from instructables.com.

Give It A Shell

Given this is a permanent structure, you’ll want to apply a more durable material to the outside, something like plywood. This is where things get tricky, though, as your trigonometry is probably a bit rusty after years out of school. After getting this spot on, it’s onto cutting out a door.

Check out this guest house teepee from The Little Things.

Make It A Home

To make this teepee of yours a home away from home, there are a few touches you need to chuck at it. Flashing tape to keep it water-tight, cross beams for extra support, eco-friendly insulation to keep it nice and snuggly, pretty material to cover the insulation and then, to top it all off, the colors and patterns you want to add to it, as well as the furniture you want to pop inside.