This Parent Built a Sleeping Hut Inside Their Son’s Nursery (Complete With Hot Air Balloons!)

Cullen Ormond
·3 min read
Baby sitting on floor on nursery with newly installed tent area.

If I think of my must-haves for a bedroom, natural light is high on the list (some people have even built fake windows!). However, some homeowners, like director and producer Reilly Dowd, prove that — especially with young children — there can be such a thing as too much sun in a bedroom.

Dowd has a young son, Leo, and his room has several windows and skylights that boast natural light and gorgeous mountain views. But the abundant sun wasn’t great at all hours of the day.

Frame being built in nursery to create circus themed tent.

“My goal was to create a fully blackout room so that Leo could nap during the day, but it was nearly impossible to cover all these windows,” Dowd shares via email. “I considered just adding traditional walls and making a room with a door, but it would have interrupted the whole flow of the space — so the idea for a freestanding structure was born!”

Brass crib inside tent of circus themed nursery.

It’s no surprise that Dowd decided to create a miniature room inside Leo’s nursery — she’s reimagined an entire airstream before. When brainstorming the freestanding structure, she looked to beach shacks in Normandy (think: little huts where people change into their swimsuits) and the circus. The goal was to make it “both functional, but also playful,” she explains.

Frame of nursery tent being built.
Brass crib in circus themed nursery.

Even though the structure would be aesthetically pleasing with blue and white striped curtains and handmade hot air balloons (inspired by the New Mexico desert where their home is), it needed to be practical and be a space that Leo could grow into, too.

Toys on floor in newly designed child's room.

“My goal was for Leo to associate this space solely with sleep,” Dowd shares. “But I wanted him to feel like he had a space that was entirely his own, one that eventually he could crawl in and out of, and one that he could have some ownership over.”

Papier-mâché balloons hanging in tent created in baby nursery.
Papier-mâché balloons hanging from homemade tent.

A trip to The Home Depot’s parking lot proved fruitful for finding a blueprint for the structure. After spotting a pre-made Tuff Shed, Dowd took the measurements and ensured copying the roofline perfectly. She took those measurements, adjusted them to fit the nursery, and purchased the wood.

Baby playing on floor of newly remodeled nursery.
Blue and white striped fabric in DIY built circus themed tent in nursery.

A carpenter helped Dowd cut, construct, and install the miniature house in the nursery. From there, she painted it in Benjamin Moore’s Eggshell and sewed the Ballard Designs curtains. “We added the trim, and lastly, I hung the hot air balloons from fishing wire. The house took a full two weeks,” she explains.

Exterior view of circus tent in baby's room.
Baby playing on the floor of newly designed nursery.

The project cost around $2,000 (most of that budget went to labor costs), but it was likely well worth the money and effort. “It’s just so much fun! Such a special space. I love putting Leo to sleep in there,” Dowd writes. “And he loves looking up at the hot air balloons. We say goodnight to them every night after reading Goodnight Moon.”

Baby bike on floor of newly designed nursery.
Baby hanging on to armoire.

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