How to make a blanket fort!

First, I'd recommend getting a child through some sort of reputable networking. Building a blanket fort when you're an adult, alone, is creepy, unless you and your significant other are into that sort of thing. *wink*

DO NOT kidnap a child. Recommended ways of getting a child: conception and birth, babysitting, cloning.

You can also lie about building a blanket fort or lie about the participation of a child.
(The child I used -see photos- is my niece, Nevaeh, aged three, who had never before seen a blanket fort, or as she called it, "cwubowse")

Materials:

-blankets
-sheets
-pillows
-thumbtacks
-safety pins
-clothespins or hairclips
-heavy objects
-crayons and paper (optional)
-Lite Brite (optional)
-ball pit balls (optional)

Tips and tricks:

You want to determine some sort of basic plan for your creation. Do you want to take up the whole room, a corner, your whole house or apartment? Decisions must me made!

You also want a variety of fabrics. I can't explain why, years of experience just tell me it works better that way!

Once you've decided your layout look for pre-existing furniture that will work for support. Dressers are great. You can open a drawer and tuck the blanket in and shut the drawer. I find this to be one of the sturdiest ways to begin. If you have a closet you don't need to get in or out of anytime soon you can tuck the blanket into the doorway. Also, if you haven't folded (or done) laundry, a laundry basket full of clothes is a good way to hold a blanket down on top of a piece of furniture and is pretty safe if it gets knocked down or over.

If you are using a lightweight material I might recommend thumbtacking the corners to the walls, but beware, putting too heavy a material or too much stress on it will cause the thumbtack to come flying out of the wall at warp speed.

I like to take everything off my furniture and the pictures off the wall. It eliminates hazards and if you're using knitted blankets you can hook them to the nails in the wall.

Clothespins or hair clips can be good to secure blankets to one another, or, if you want a more fail proof method, tie the corners together (be careful not to pull the already secured blanket too tight!) Clothespins and clips tend to works themselves off the fabric or succumb to tension, knots hold better but sometimes let in more light. Find out what you're comfortable dealing with and then take that route.

Sitting chairs on top of other furniture is a good way to achieve height in your grown up fort but can be tricky as, once again, too much blanket tension (or your cat jumping up there) can cause the chair to slide off.

If you have the capability to center your fort around a dining room table then I envy you. This is a great base for a fort as it already gives you some coverage and makes it easy to span out from the sides, your work is cut out for you.

The structure I usually end up with is sort of a slope. One side begins very high and gradually lowers to a crawling point. I find this maximizes your space usage while not causing too much stress on the blankets.

I like a lot of darkness in my fort so I clip throws or shawls loosely to the edges of my roof blankets to make sort of a curtain door.

Couch cushions, as always make great walls. However, they are high maintenance since they fall over easily. I usually rid every bed in the house of pillows and give my fort a complete cushy floor.

Be wary:

Of animals. Cats seems to find the prospect of frolicking along the canopy of a fort more appealing than being in it.

Of doorways. Nothing is worse than building your fort in one room only to find out that if anyone comes in or out through your (actual) door that it will threaten the structure.

Of fire. Candles seems fun in a blanket fort. (Really, don't they, though?) But not a good idea.

Types of blankets - a pro/con scenario:

Small blankets:

Pros: Lightweight, usually have an abundance.
Cons: Tying or clipping them takes up most of their usable area
Great for: Entrances or places where you only need a blanket secured on on side or as a hang down. Covering holes in the roof of your plan, they're light enough to lay on top without causing sagging or needing anything to hold them in place.

Afghans:

Pros: Knitted and thus can hook to nails, thumbtacks, dressed handles, and corners. Also, stretchy and can take a lot of tension.
Cons: Heavy. Let in light. Make me itchy when I touch them *scratches*
Great for: Roofs. You can literally pull one from one wall to another attached by nails and it will hold. Make sure to do it high enough that any sagging from the weight is not a problem. Also good to have a sheet on top to block out light. Rough texture keeps the sheet in place.

Comforters and duvets:

Pros: Big, thickness makes them good to tuck in drawers and doorways.
Cons: Heavy. Hard to tie. Hard to attach.
Great for: Lean-to structures. Coming down at a slope. They can't take a lot of tension but they'll cover a lot of area if you can get each end decently secured. DO NOT use the "sitting something heavy method" to hold them in place. They tend to not create enough friction. The thickness is good for sticking the dresser or the closet. It keeps a tight seal.

Sheets:

Pros: Light, tie easily
Cons: Let in light, can be hard to clothespin, do not take tension well, stretchy kind will screw you over
Great for: Everything! If clothespins don't stick using safety pins. I don't think it's good to tack these to the walls, they will pull the tack out before you realize it. Also, if you want your fort dark don't use them as the ceiling, they can't bear the weight of a darker blanket on top. Better to go with the afghan.

Your personal touch:

Everything else is flair. I usually top my fort out with some giant stuffed flowers, a Lite Brite to set the mood and a "NO BOYS ALLOWED*" sign. But what will you do? Disco ball? Strobe light? Ball pit? The world of epic blanket forts is yours for the taking!

I guess that's about all I can say on this. I can't really give you the step by step because I don't know what kind of room you have working for you. I hope my little tricks help!

*NO BOYS ALLOWED: This may be amended with donations of more blankets, offers to lift heavy objects (in the interest of expanding the fort), or donations of happy things (beer, glitter, glow in the dark stars, kisses, cookies, stickers, scented Crayola markers, or Taco Bell). Some restrictions apply.