Friday, July 12, 2013

Pop Up Pied-a-terre



POP UP PIED-A’-TERRE
July 12, 2013 

A few nights ago, I found myself alone at home with 5 girls growing antsy as witching hour approached.
I had ordered pizza in for dinner.
As chaos brewed, I sat staring at the mess in the kitchen. My feeble attempts at making clean up a game were quickly destroyed by my 9 year old letting me know she was on to me.
I reached for the pizza boxes to recycle when it occurred to me…great gift box.  I quickly filed it away in the I LOVE WRAPPING department of my brain.
The girls were fidgeting with the mess on the counter…the pizza boxes ending up on the floor with a 3 year old attempting to fit inside. 
Light bulb went off…POP-UP-PLAYroom.
A few months ago, we were on a real ‘shoe box-doll house making’ roll. The girls made rooms for their polly pockets out of shoe boxes (decorating with tape and stickers and paint and glitter and all of it). We stacked the boxes on top of each other after decorating, creating a house.
Shoeboxes to pizza boxes…Inspiring mind trying to change up the erupting energy, I asked if they wanted to gather supplies to make a Pop-up-playroom or better yet…a POP-UP PIED-A-TERRE for their little animals & people & furniture.
They loved the idea and started decorating away…
Painted floors, glitter windows, a plethora of possibilities…
  • We used tape as our flooring for this particular one
  • The girls painted white paper to use as wallpaper
  • We cut small slits in both sides (in the back) to wedge corners in so our room held itself up
  • We painted windows on the flaps
  • We used dollhouse furniture, animals & polly pockets to play
The girls took it a step further…Using only furniture and dolls that fit when closed as well. They thought it made an excellent packable playroom. From the mouth of a 5 year old, “look Mom (as she placed the box under her arm and walked away) this is great… I can bring it in the car, to dinner, to play dates and to France… “
The recycled pizza box pop-up pied-a’-terre will go anywhere their little imaginations will take them.

Here's the process broken down by pictures: 




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