Building a renaissance faire booth for around $200.
This booth is made from readily available materials. You should be able to buy the metal corner pieces and bungees at a local swap meet. The rest should be available at any local hardware and lumber store.
THE EQUIPMENT
- 4 closet poles 7 foot long, for uprights
(Standard closet pole is 1½ inch diameter. I do not recommend using anything smaller.) - 3 closet poles 9′ 9″ or 11’9″ (for 12′ width) for cross-beams
- 4 closet poles 5′ 5″ or 6′ 5″ (for 12′ depth) for arches
- 4 metal corner pieces
- 2 metal roof arch pieces
- 1 blue tarp (preferrably heavy duty type with a silver coat on interior and reinforced corners) 10’x10′ or 12’x12′ (alternately, you can get a rectangle with an additional 5-10′ of length, to make a water-shedding back wall, but you will definitely need to buy an additional 10’x10′ or 10’x12′ tarp to hide it from the public.
- 1 canvas drop cloth, no grommets required. 8 or 10 oz. canvas minimum. You can treat yourself with UV/water sealant, if you like. Try to get one at least the same size as your blue tarp. Preferrably get one that is one foot larger on both dimensions.
- 50′ sisal rope
- ball of twine
- 4-8 ten inch landscaping spikes (shown here with a standard tent spike, for size reference)
- 4-8 1½ inch washers with ½ inch inside diameter, for landscaping spikes
- A BUNCH of ball-capture bungees (like, 30 or more).
THE PROCEDURE
- Taper ends of all closet poles, using sandpaper, wood plane, belt sander, palm sander…whatever you have and can use. Only one end of the 7′ poles needs to be tapered. The other end will rest on the ground, and should be left unaltered.
When done, you want the ends to look something like this:
- Connect the roof frame together. Be sure to make the three long parallel poles from the 9’9″ (11’9″) poles, and the four arch beams from the 5’5″ (6’5″). The four remaining 7′ poles are your uprights, or legs. Be sure to screw in the wing screws nice and tight (most come with eye screws now, which make nice places to hang things from…). When you’re done, it should be resting on the ground, and look something like this:
- Attach the tarp. If you got a good heavy duty type, put the silver side down (if both sides are silver, then do what pleases you). You can attach them like this:
…or wrap the poles double to make it tighter (pays off when it rains).If you have a rectangle, be sure to dangle the excess off of the side you will make into your back wall. When you’re done, it should look like this:
- Cover the tarp with canvas drop cloth. Let a bit hang from front and rear — and sides, if possible. Using 3-4 foot lengths of sisal rope, securely wrap and tie the corners of the tarp to the metal corner pieces, wrapping any excess rope downward along bottom part of metal corner. Use twine to secure ends of sisal rope by whipping. To see whipping procedure, click here. If you’re just not handy with twine, you can tape the rope (any tape) about an inch from the end, dip your rope ends into Elmer’s glue or melted hot glue, and let them dry overnight…I’d do this before you hit the festival grounds, though, or you’ll be working all day around gooey glue covered rope ends. Remove the tape when your glue is dry. Viola!
- At this point, you need to raise the roof on one side, and insert two legs into that side (remember, the upright poles need to be tapered too, but only at one end).
- Then raise the other side, and insert the last two legs. Your roof will be upright, but somewhat unstable as-is, and should look something like this:
- At this point, you can easily stabilize this shape, by running about 9′ of rope from each upright corner down to the ground about 18-24 inches from the corner pole’s foot. Drive a landscaping spike into the ground like a big tent stake and tie that baby off. If you don’t know how to tie a non-slip knot, buy a Bluejacket’s Manual at an Army-Navy Surplus. Every knot you’ll ever need is in there, plus a few you’ll never need. It’d be a good idea to put up a back wall, too, especially if your roof tarp was really long, to hide it and provide a stash spot behind the wall for things like coolers. Your finished booth should look something like this:
You should be able to figure out how to hang walls, etc. on your own from here. I’d recommend buying enough tarps to make four walls, just for security’s sake, but this should still be very close to my $200 mark. Most of all: enjoy!
If you don’t mind spending a bit more, I found a kit online that has the corners, bungees, and a tarp. You only have to buy canvas, poles, and tie-down hardware after that. They have a bunch of sizes and start at 10’x10′ for about $55 plus S/H. Click on the kit below to be whisked away to their website:
