How to extend your tent's living space

Camping Skills

As your family grows and your camping needs change, you’ll discover that the four-berth tent you bought when you started out camping as a couple a few years ago is no longer fit for purpose, especially for longer camping holidays.

The obvious solution is to upgrade and buy a bigger tent. But that can be expensive and leaves you with another problem. While a huge family tent is ideal for longer breaks, where you can settle down for a week or more and unpack all your camping gear, they are not practical for short weekend getaways.

For a short trip, you don't want to spend a long time setting up so you need something quick and easy, but still spacious enough for your needs.

Some campers will buy a large tent for longer family holidays and a smaller model for weekend trips. This can be an expensive approach, but a cheaper alternative is to buy a smaller tent and an optional extension, that can be used to increase living space on long trips.

Here is everything you need to know about creating more space for your family's camping needs without having to buy a bigger tent

(Photo by Iain Duff)

A windbreak is probably the cheapest and easiest way to extend your tent. Simple and effective, and quick to set up, they can be used with all sizes of tents. As well as providing outdoor shelter for cooking and just generally sitting around, they help to define your pitch and provide some privacy from curious eyes. Although quite what you’re doing that requires privacy we’d probably rather not know.

Campers who are with friends and family will often use windbreaks to create a marked-off communal area between their tents – this is great for socialising but some sites frown upon it and it can feel quite antisocial towards other campers, so make sure you check in advance that it's allowed.

(Photo by Iain Duff)

Most tent manufacturers now offer various opportunities for you to extend your tent. These include optional awnings, extensions, porches and canopies – although being able to tell an awning apart from an extension can be difficult, if not impossible.

Regardless of the terminology, these extensions can vary from a small rain shelter to a full-on enclosed section. What you go for largely depends on your needs and what is available for your tent. Some extensions are tailored for specific models while others are designed to be used on any tent, or a wide range at least.

Usually they come without a groundsheet, so think about whether that's something you want – you can buy a bespoke one from the camping shop or go for the cheaper option of a general tarpaulin that could be cut to size.

The biggest benefit of an extension is the flexibility. For around £250 you can buy a high-quality weekend/touring tent with comfortable sleeping space for a family of four or five.

But for another £150 or so you can add a front extension that transforms the tent into a big family model with a second large living space, ideal for use as a kitchen/dining area.

What you have then is a quality tent that is considerably bigger than many of the market-leading family models – for little more than half the cost. Not only that, in effect, you have two tents for the price of one.

(Photo courtesy of Robens)

The trouble with tent extensions is that they can be heavy and bulky, expensive and difficult to pitch. So, if you’re just after something simple, yet versatile, that can offer shade or shelter from the rain, you might be better off with a flysheet tarp.

These can be set up directly next to your tent's entrance to provide a covered extension, or a bit further away. Perfect for sitting under or for using as a cooking area and on warm nights you could even sleep under it – as long as you don't mind sharing your space with bugs.

(Photo by Iain Duff)

Huge structures like Coleman's Event Shelter offer a variety of flexible shelter options from rain, wind and sun. We featured a range of different models in the last issue. Some are totally enclosed with fabric or PVC sides, while others are merely open-sided shelters.

Either way, they offer outside space where you can cook, eat and drink before returning to your tent to sleep. Toilet and shower tents – where you can create your own self-contained en suite facilities – also fall into this category.

Again it's essential to check with the campsite in advance to make sure you are allowed to pitch your shelter – there may be an additional charge.

(Photo by Camping Magazine)

Rather than going for a more expensive event shelter, you could raid your shed or garage and set up a cheap and cheerful garden gazebo. They make great cooking and eating areas and with side panels in place, there's the possibility of protection from insects and the elements.

As with event shelters, many sites have banned gazebos and others charge extra for extensions, whether bought or home-made.

Sites with marked-out pitches are, generally, less able to be flexible in accommodating large tents plus extensions.

(Photo by Camping Magazine)

The DIY option has always been popular among practical-minded campers. Everything from nylon fabrics sewn together into all sorts of shapes to huge cheap plastic tarpaulins and groundsheets lashed down over tents and cars.

It might not look pretty but it can be just as effective as the expensive extensions supplied by manufacturers.

(Photo by Iain Duff)

Rather than asking you to buy an extension, porch or awning as an optional extra, some manufacturers have started including them with the tent.

Whether this counts as an extension or not is debatable, as it's basically part of the tent, but it does allow you to maximise your living space.

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