Remember that amazing DIY cardboard castle playhouse? It’s fabulous! But perhaps just a little, er, large?

If you’re looking for a smaller project for your young Shining Knight and Little Princess, Enchanted Learning offers free instructions for making a box castle that’s a simple construction on a much smaller scale. Use anything from a cardboard grocery box to a shoe box, depending on how big you want your cardboard castle to be.

4orMore‘s cardboard box ideas page suggests adding cardboard tubes for turrets and towers — you know, like a Disney fantasy castle. And of course, decorating the castle with paints and markers is half the fun.

Perfect for school projects on the Middle Ages and unlimited tabletop games of make-believe— and it’ll fit onto your child’s toy shelves when not in use!

The only thing as cool as a playhouse made of milk jugs is probably a cardboard castle that you can make yourself, then paint up in faux-stone effects to look like the real medieval thing!

How to build a cardboard castle:

First, get yourself 8 of those big cardboard boxes that refrigerators come in. Mr McGroovy (of www.mrmcgroovys.com) will tell you how to get your boxes for free, and even how to cut them down properly to bring home in a small car.

Then, you just follow the step-by-step instructions for cutting it out. There are plenty of clear illustrations to keep the project on track…

In fact, if you’ve ever put together an IKEA bookshelf from all those mysterious pieces, there’ll be no trick to building a castle from cardboard boxes!

Mr McGroovy was inspired by plans found in an old Boy’s Life magazine, back in February 1967 — and you’ll be inspired by Mr. McGroovy, if your inner child is allowed to have its way!

“If you dream it we can create it.” That’s the motto of Sweet Dream Theme Beds & Children’s Interiors, a small family-run company that’s fast making a name for itself in creating custom, one-of-a-kind, theme beds and children’s furnishings.

One recent design project was a very special custom bed — a castle fit for King Arthur, custom made for Susan Van Duyn’s wheelchair-bound, six-year-old son, Sean.

Susan needed a bed that would make her life a little easier by providing easy wheelchair access, give Sean a clear view of his TV, include extra storage for child care items, and, most importantly, provide her son with safety, mental stimulation and comfort.

The Sweet Dream team was up to the challenge… and one month later, after many long hours of consultation, design, and construction work, Sean’s custom castle bed was unveiled.

The custom castle bed was not only beautiful to look at, it was full of fun.

Most importantly, the bed incorporates several clever safety features without a hint of the “hospital feel,” including a wide front gate which swings open at wheelchair height. It’s made from tough, see-thru acrylic and covered with an elegant dragon and lion motif.

Another feature is the thick acrylic barriers at the foot and head of the sleeping area. These keep Sean safe and allow Susan to peek in on her son from any angle, but also gives visual access for Sean to watch TV if he wants to.

The front of the castle towers have built-in covered storage cabinets and cubby compartments to stow essential items for Sean’s care.

As a finishing touch the bed was faux finished to perfection to match the existing faux design in Sean’s bedroom.

Visit www.SweetDreamBed.com to learn more about the Sweet Dream Theme Bed and other imaginative custom furniture for children — including the Princess Castle beds and bunk beds, the Tree House loft bed, and a more “rough-and-tumble version” of the Castle bed, the Boys Pirate Ship bed (coming soon), and many more.

“The Queen Mother lovingly created the garden at the Castle of Mey on Scotland’s northern coast and it became her summer retreat for more than half a century,” says
Tamsin Hope Thomson in The English Garden magazine, September 2005 issue:

Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother noticed the Castle of Mey on her first trip to Caithness back in 1952. As friends drove her to their house along the Scottish coast, she saw a neglected castle, then named Barrogill. It had been up for sale for months. The gardens were overgrown, there were no bathrooms or electricity but she took a liking to it immediately.

What a gardening challenge, even with a royal budget and extensive gardening staff!

There’s no castle further north in Scotland, and the Castle of Mey is open to gale-force winds “known to rip up cabbages and toss them 60 feet” it is said.

A twelve-foot stone wall protects the kitchen garden — a delightful hedge-edged maze of veggies and flowers — but the sycamore trees in the East Garden are wint-bent into living sculptures, “braced against the elements as though brushed by a giant arm.”

The castle and gardens have been open to the public since 2001, so travelling gardeners can wander the woodland paths or enjoy a quiet moment in The Shell Garden, where Her Majesty liked to sit on a summer evening.

Head gardener Grant Napier has been experimenting with more perennials — “a wee bit here and there,” he says — to extend the gardening season, and the flower display is apparently magnificent right through the season.