A Private Space For A Shared Bedroom - Dream Tents Review

My daughters (aged 2 and 6) share a bedroom. They have done since Christmas and most of the time it works pretty well. We have a 3 bedroom house and with the hope of 3rd child on the way it made sense to move the girls in together. Plus I hoped to stop my eldest shutting the door in her sister's face yelling she couldn’t go in HER room. I have discovered there are three main problems with them sharing a room: firstly it is constantly an absolute mess, there are so many toys in there and neither girl could be considered tidy. Second, both girls at times want their own space, understandable as I do too. Thirdly my eldest doesn’t go to sleep until far too late and the only way to get her sleepy is for her to read in bed, which requires a light on. We were sent a Dream Tent to review and I was interested to see how we got on and if it could solve any of our sharing a bedroom challenges.

A view of the top bunk of a bed with a pop up bed on one end with tie back doors


I’ll come straight out and say that it has done absolutely nothing for the state of their room. It is still a total mess (apart from for a few days after my very rare tidy ups) and my daughters still have no inclination to tidy up after themselves. This isn’t really a surprise.

The Dream Tent has however helped with the other challenges because it gives my eldest somewhere to hide and it also provides somewhere she can read before sleep without too much light disturbing her younger sister.

A side view of the Wonderland Dream Tent in the dark with a red light shining inside

What are Dream Tents?


The Dream Tent is a pop up ‘tent’ that you attach to a single bed so it provides an arch over one end. It has ‘doors’ that hang down at the front providing privacy, but they can also be tied back out of the way. It comes with a little light which can be attached to the top and it has a pocket on the inside which is handy to keep a book. The arch is tall enough that my 6 year old can comfortably sit inside. It’s pretty simple in design, but hard to describe so check out the photos to see what I mean.

Dream Tents attach to a bed by clipping to a plastic arch you put underneath the mattress on either side. It clips and unclips pretty easily so you can remove it whenever you want. The tent immediately springs flat when it isn’t held in place and if you are good at folding up pop up things you can get it quickly back into it’s small circular storage bag to store out of the way. I always have to wrestle with these sort of things for several minutes before going back to the instructions and then doing it near instantly.

A view of the Wonderland Dream Tent on a bed with the doors closed providing privacy and no view of inside

My daughters sleep in a bunkbed so the Dream Tent provides a special private world on the top bunk that works really well for us.

During hotter nights I have worried about my eldest sleeping with it over her head, but I have made sure there is ventilation at the back where it's against the wall and I have also insisted the doors are tied back. I haven’t noticed a temperature increase in there, but I know there is when I have been sitting in play tents so I wanted to be cautious, especially given how hot their room can get in the summer. In the winter it could be an added bonus.

The included clip on light can be angled to shine different directions and it cycles through different colours. Unfortunately it is no match for a 2 year old and within a few minutes of my youngest climbing up onto her sister's bed one day she had tried to pull it down and snapped it at the joint. The light still works fine, but it no longer connects to the clip. Not a massive problem but something to be aware of if you have younger siblings (the tents are recommended for 3 years plus). My toddler is particularly drawn to torches and any toy considered to belong to her sister.

And a word of warning: the tooth fairy finds it a little challenging (although not impossible) to get into so you might want to take it down if you are expecting a special night time visitor.

We have the Wonderland design which has a snowy snowflake forest scene on, think Frozen. I like how it looks like a magical world in there at night when they light is on inside. There is also a Space Adventure design available. The Dream Tents are available to buy instore or online now from Smyths for £19.99

The Dream Tent at night with a blue light glowing from inside

***Disclosure: We were sent the Dream Tent for the purpose of an honest review. All opinions are mine and my families.***


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