3 Easy Steps Instructions How to Build Gilligan’s Island Hut Cabana. Throw a Beach Party, Castaway Theme Party, or Hawaiian Luau with this Fun Party Prop.

Learn how to make a Gilligan’s Island Hut/Tropical Beach Party Cabana.

I love creating party prop projects for you that offer versatility, so you can get more than just one use out of them. This project will work for not only a Gilligan’s Island theme party prop, but it will also work great for a Beach Party, a Hawaiian Luau party and a Castaway Themed Party.

I was part of a group that entered a theme party decorating contest. So we planned and hosted a Gilligan’s Island Theme Party. Our group absolutely crushed it with the Gilligan’s Island party props we created, including this one! And we won 1st place in the theme party decorating contest! Yes!

Watch the Video:

 

• I have provided the instructions below on how to make this Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana.
• Below the instructions you will find the Project Supply List for this project.
• Also, as I am an Amazon associate I have provided links for you on this page for some of the supplies I used to make this project.

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

How to Build Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana

Step 1

Build and Assemble Wood Frame

• First, we used pine, a cheap and light-weight wood. We used an electric screwdriver to screw together our wood frame which measured 6 feet wide across the front and back, 4 feet long on each side and 6 feet high.
• Next, we cut some wood pieces into wedges approximately 4 inches in size. The wedges will be used to help secure our PVC pipe arched roof and keep it in place.

Step 2

Assemble the PVC Pipe/Roof

Part I

• We used 2 pieces of PVC pipe, each one being 12 feet in length.
• Now we began the process of attaching the pipes to the corners at the top of the wood frame. The 2 PVC pipes will be crisscrossed over the top of the wood frame.
• We will now need the wood wedges we made earlier.
• We needed 2 people to accomplish the steps of this part of the construction.

Part II

• We drilled a screw through the one of the pipes and continued to drill all the way through the wedge and down into the wood frame.
• With one end of the pipe now secured to the wood frame, we carefully bent the pipe into an arched shape (as pictured here) and proceeded to screw the other end of the pipe down through the wedge and into the frame.
• Next, we repeated the same steps with the other piece of PVC pipe.
• Then we brought the pipes together at the center and secured them together with zip ties (as pictured here).

Step 3

Assemble the Gilligan’s Island hut decorative roof and colorful walls with green plastic tablecloths.

•  In order to cover our arched PVC pipe roof frame, we took 2 of the green plastic tablecloths and stapled then together along the seams.
• Then we draped them over our PVC pipe roof. And we used a staple gun to staple the tablecloths all around the edge of the top of the wooden frame to keep them in place.
•  Next, we proceeded cover the outside of the wood frame of our hut, by stapling the rest of the plastic tablecloths to the hut. Be sure to leave the entryway of the hut open and not covered by a tablecloth.

Congratulations! You have completed the construction of your Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana!

Decorating

Now it’s Time to Decorate your Beach Party Cabana.

• How you choose to decorate your cabana beach party prop is all up to you.
• Take a look at our fully decorated hut to assist you with some of your own special decorating ideas.
• We decorated with items such as: green plastic tablecloths, Hawaiian Luau Leis, gorilla suit, Hawaiian table skirt to dress up the front roof of the cabana, beach party scene setter/photo backdrop, and a Hawaiian Luau photo booth poster.
• We dressed in Gilligan’s Island costumes with items like Gilligan’s red shirt and white bucket hat, the Skipper’s navy blue Captain hat and Hawaiian hula skirts.
• Enjoy and have fun with it!
• I hope you and your party guests will love my Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana party prop.

Project Supply List – How to Build Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana

PROJECT SUPPLY LIST

1/2 in. PVC Pipe – Length 12 ft. (2 – 12ft. pipes)

Lightweight Wood (I used pine as it is the least expensive):

• 1 x 2, 14 – 6 ft. pieces – or cut larger pieces to length
• 1 x 4,   3 – 6 ft. pieces     “          “         “          “
• 1 x 4,   2 – 4 ft. pieces     “          “         “          “
• 2 x 2,   1 extra piece of wood to be cut into 4 wedges (refer to assembly instructions)

• Plastic Tablecloths: or other material of your choice (enough to form walls of hut/cabana)Screw driver/electric screwdriver
• Screws
• Stapler and staples (to attached tablecloth to hut/cabana)
• Zip ties (to secure PVC pipes together)

Build Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana

Assembly Instructions

Pre-Assembly Notes:

You will probably need 2 people to assemble this hut/cabana.

The height of the wood frame of our Gilligan’s Island Hut Tropical Beach Party Cabana will be 6 ft. The dimensions of the wood frame will be 6 ft. x 4 ft. (6 ft. across the front & back and 4 ft. on either side).

Be sure to refer to hut/cabana photos before cutting wood pieces to size

Frame Assembly:

• Cut all wood pieces to size (as necessary)
• Lay out all wood pieces
• Referring to the Hut/Cabana photos, begin assembly of the wood frame
• Screw wood pieces together (as pictured)
• Be sure to leave an opening (entryway) in the front of the hut/cabana
• Note that one of the one of the 1 x 4 pieces of wood will be attached as a center support in the back.

Roof Support Assembly

• Cut 4 wood wedges from 2 x 2 wood.
• The wedges should be cut at a 90 degree angle (see photo).
• The wedges will be used to support the 2 – 12 ft. PVC pipes which will form the roof frame (see photo)

You may need to decide what the easiest way for you will be to accomplish the next step. The wedges will need to be screwed into the top 4 corners of the wood frame of the hut. However, keep in mind that the PVC pipe will need to be secured to the wood frame by screwing through the pipe and through the wedge, all the way down into the top of the wood frame. So rather than screwing down the wedge first, you may want to screw down through the pipe and wedge at the same time. Most likely you will need two people to accomplish this step. Here is how we decided to accomplish this step:

• First we measured and identified exactly where the ends of the pipes would need to be attached to the wood frame and marked that spot on the pipes. Then we pre-drilled a hole into the marked spots on the pipes.
• Next we drilled a screw through the pre-drilled hole of one of the pipes and continued to drill all the way through the wedge and into the wood frame. With one end of the pipe now secured to the wood frame, we carefully bent the pipe (as pictured) and proceeded to screw the other end of the pipe down through the wedge and into the frame.
• Next we repeated the same steps with the other piece of pipe.
• Then we brought the pipes together at the center and secured them together with zip ties (as pictured).

Roof and Walls Assembly

Now it’s time to give our hut a decorative roof and colorful walls. As you can see from the photos, we used green plastic tablecloths as the roof and walls of our hut/cabana. Since we used plastic tablecloths we were able to staple them to the hut/cabana. Keep in mind if you use a heavier weight material to cover your roof and walls, staples might not be enough to secure the material to the hut.

• First we stapled plastic tablecloths to the outside of all the sides of the wooden frame, except for the “entryway” at the front of the hut/cabana.
• Next we formed the tablecloth roof. To do this, we stapled 2 plastic tablecloths together along their seams. Then we draped them over our PVC pipe roof. Next we stapled the tablecloths all around the edge of the top of the wooden frame to keep them in place.