When my partner and I went to Los Angeles for a wedding this May, we stayed at our friends’ house — except I made my partner sleep in a tent outside. In my defense, it was a matter of beauty rest; since he planned to get up early and I’m a light sleeper who needs at least eight hours, I got the spare bed inside. Plus, the tent in question is a far cry from the cheap camping tents you may be imagining. It’s actually a glamping tent that doubles as a full-blown guest room.
The tent was the first item my friend Natasha and her roommates, Andrew and Julia, bought after moving across the country into a two-bedroom in Echo Park. While their apartment is incredibly cute and well situated (it permanently changed my relationship with Los Angeles), there’s not much room for hosting. This posed a challenge for the roommates from the get-go: They signed a May 1 lease and had visitors coming ten days later (plus a slate of others lined up to escape the East Coast for a California vacation).
Natasha came up with the idea for the tent. Despite its humble size, the apartment boasts a huge, wraparound deck (nearly triple the indoor space). And where some might have seen just a deck, Natasha saw a potential guest room — if they could set up a tent in a shaded corner. She proposed it, and Andrew and Julia were onboard. They spent days combing through expensive yurts and ugly camping tents online and were about to give up when Natasha saw a perfectly sized canvas tent on Alibaba. After a quick reverse image search, she found the same tent at Walmart and purchased it immediately.
The triangular tent has a sturdy aluminum frame, meaning it stands alone without a center pole and leaves room for a twin-size bed frame (the roommates sawed a few inches of height off the frame to make it fit). The “door” zips open and closed at the foot of the bed, and three opaque paneled “windows” let in more light and air when left open. Although the tent fits only one bed, the roommates have a system to make room for two people — they put two mattresses on the floor to create a full-size bed for multiple visitors (they store the bed frame elsewhere in those instances).
Like any good guest room, the tent is decorated with Ikea’s best — a basic side table, a lilac duvet, and a shaded plastic lamp (there’s electricity from an extension cord). Andrew, who has particularly good taste, picked out a natural-toned rug to cover the open floor space and add some cushioning to the deck’s surface. You can’t see the sky through the canvas top, but a strand of twinkling lights at night mimics the stars.
Perhaps the only time a standard guest room would be better than the tent is when it rains. The canvas siding is water resistant so the interior stays dry, but sleeping can be a little unpleasant because the tent gets humid when the windows and doors are closed. Also, though not something that would deter me, Natasha warns visitors they may hear a possum at night.
It’s been over a year since Natasha, Andrew, and Julia set up their guest room, and nearly 20 people have stayed over — some for two or three weeks. A couple of visitors who were particularly concerned about sleep have opted to stay on the couch, but most who were initially nervous came around after seeing the cute décor and guest-room-like setup. While it’s true that I am not one of them (I stayed in Andrew’s room because he was out of town), my partner is one, and despite some initial grumbling, he woke up rested and said he would do it again.
This is the exact tent my friends own, which is now sold out at most retailers, but a few are available on eBay.
This is a slightly smaller (and less expensive) version, which apparently can sleep two (though fitting a bed inside may be tight).
The roommates got this exact bed frame and modified it to fit in the tent.
There are two of these in the tent to accommodate more than one person.
Ikea’s warmest synthetic duvet ensures visitors are comfortable (so far, no one has complained about being too cold).
The entirety of this plastic light glows when turned on, giving the tent a warm ambiance at night.
Lilac bedding adds some color to the tent’s neutral canvas.
Andrew’s rug of choice, which is on sale for nearly two-thirds off the original price.
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