How I built an A frame tent {a basic tutorial with iphone pics}

A while back I took the girls to home depot with me to build a tent, thanks to the race car carts, shopping with them was easy and it kept them totally entertained, here's how I built the tent...

I started with 4 long pieces of 1x2 inch wood.

I had them cut it all in half for me {which I should have actually had them cut 3 in half and then the last one cut to half plus 8 inches, that way it would be about 4 inches longer on each end when placed on top of the tent... you'll see what I mean later}.

Here are the nuts and bolts I bought as suggested to me by the employee once I explained my project.

When I got home I just free measured what I thought was best. At 7.5 inches from the top of the wood I put a dot in the middle on both piece to become my top drill hole.

My sister helped me drill the holes {don't worry the angle makes it look like her knee is under the drill it was not! however, a table is probably a safer choice}.

For the bottom holes I did 4 inches from the bottom of each piece of wood.

and for the connecting bars I drilled what appeared to be center.

Then I placed the bolt in the top hole, to connect the frame to make an A shape.

hand tightened the wing nut

above you can see both A frames assembeled.  Next we had to connect them with the bottom bars.

placing A frame 1 on the floor and holding A frame 2 on the side we drilled in the holes I made {the 4 inch from the bottom ones} into the connecting bars.

 you can see above, the connecting bottom bars are upright and A frame 1 is laying on the floor,

next, my sister held A frame 2 on it's side with those 4 inch holes over the connecting bars, so I could drill in.

above and below you can see the problem with cutting all the bars down the middle, one of the bars should have been 8-12 inches longer so it would sit in the top of the A frames.

Don't worry though, I'm a problem solver.  I just drilled both halves together lengthwise but staggered, so the top beam was thicker in the middle and it created an over hang on the ends, which is what keeps the frame from closing in on it's self.  

After we completed the frame I sewed a piece of fabric with ribbon to tie to the frame {pictured below}, but I've seen people simply lay a sheet over the top and then pack it away, anyway, that's how we made the frame.  This whole project cost about $10 and I just made it up as I went, I didn't feel like I needed plans or directions, and besides the top beam I think it was error free and minimal effort. Best of luck!

I used the tent for my fall mini collaboration with Brittany Lind Photography