By Home Decor Contributor Jennifer from Brave New Home.

My son has been really into all things fireman related lately and loves finding household items to use as a pretend fire house to extinguish pretend fires.  I’m not big into buying toys so I created this fireman hose backpack for him to pretend with.

For this project, I picked up a jump rope from a dollar bin and used a mini backpack I already had on hand.  I also used various colors of craft paint.

I started by painting the backpack white to give myself a blank canvas to work with.  Then I spray painted the jump rope black to create a fire hose and gave the handles a coat of silver.  I created the look of two water canisters with my paints.  After it dried completely, I went back in with a black Sharpie for touch ups.

I cut two holes into the backpack, cut the jump rope in half, threaded each end through a hole, and secured the “hose” with a knot.  Not only is the backpack great for play, it makes a great accessory for a Halloween fireman costume!