I was searching for puppy essentials for my adorable Cavachon puppy, Nala. I bought her a bed but thought that she also needed a little roof over her head and a place to call her own. After looking online to buy a dog teepee for hours, all of the ones I saw were way over my price range. I thought to myself, a teepee can’t be too bad to make on my own.

Now, I already know that Nala will be the only thing I can think and breathe about so I wanted to be completely prepared for when she comes. I found almost everything I needed for only around $30!

Supplies:

4 48″ Wooden Dowels (depending on how tall you want the teepee, you can get them in almost any size)
6 in x 9 in Painter’s Canvas (or any other fabric)
Twine or Rope
Scissors
Hot Glue and Hot Glue Gun
Hanging Chalkboard and Chalk (optional, for decoration) (I got mine on Amazon)

Because I wanted to create the classic teepee look with a little girly twist, I opted for painters canvas but still added little pink and green elements to the teepee. If you want to get really creative, you could even paint the painters canvas with a cute pattern or buy different kinds of fabrics. The possibilities are endless!

My color scheme for the teepee:

When making the teepee itself, the most important thing is to make sure the twine is secured and tight on the dowels. Other than that, the process was fairly easy and time-efficient!

Instructions:

1. Line up the four dowels in a straight line and then wrap the twine horizontally around the dowels at least 12 times. Then, wrap the twine vertically around the horizontally wrapped twine at least 10 times per dowel to create a criss-cross type of knot. This should be very tight, but not tight enough where you cannot move the dowels back and forth. Secure the twine tightly.

2. Line the dowels up and space them out evenly in a square fashion.

3. Fold the painters canvas in half and measure it out so it measures 48″ on each side. Cut off the top as to create a hole for the sticks to go through where the open side meets the folded side of the canvas.

4. Wrap the canvas around the structure. Trim the excess canvas on the bottom of the teepee.

5. Hot glue the open side of the canvas half way down so as to create a small opening for the dog. You can also hot glue the string to the dowels and the string to the fabric so that the teepee is more secure.

6. Decorate!