Kids Playground Ideas

frankenyoter

frankenyoter

No Rain, No Rainbow
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Location
DARK CITY
I am wanting to build my little one something to rip around on in the yard. Looking at probably a slide, a swing, a sandbox, and maybe a little fort-like action, etc. I would prefer to build it myself to save some coin and personalize it. A quick Google search pulls up tons of diy kits and you just buy the lumber.

Does anyone have any expertise to lend to someone going down the is road? Recommended vendor?
Photos? Unwanted components?
 
I always wanted a tree house with a rope ladder when I was growing up. Any way you could do something like that even if it was just on posts? And I don't know how old your kid is but some of my favorite memories of my dad are when I helped him with carpentry or his automotive projects so get them involved when you can.
 
Some old coil springs to make a riding horse
Get a tube bender and make some weird monkey bars
build a free standing(non) tree house with a sand box under it, complete with a knotted rope, a fireman's pole, and a roof. suspend one beam out to hang swings on, a heavy axle complete with hub and a tireless wheel, weld tube to it to make a merry go round, floor it and bend some tube and there ya go
 
I am slowly working on a pole barn so I can maybe have a roof over my rig when I wrench. That being said I designed it around building a big tree house for kids to play in. That will be a few years down the road before its is needed.

My kid is nearly 20 months so not too much agro stuff needed. I like the ideas you have upnover! It would be good to have a future expansion plan in mind. The merry go round parts are in the yard. I think the sand box underneath is a must.

I just need to allow some outside play time during the summer. It will be in the front yard inside a fence so the wife or I can turn our head for a minute without much fear.
 
Make sure you have a cover for the sandbox to keep animals from using it as a litter box, don't won't the kids to dig up that kind of treasure! If you make the cover sturdy, then the kids can also use it as an outdoor stage.
 
I'll have to find pics of this monstrosity my brother built for his kids.

its got a tree house, bridge, swings, slide, and some other things. needs a tire swing though.
 
Black Bear said:
I'll have to find pics of this monstrosity my brother built for his kids.

its got a tree house, bridge, swings, slide, and some other things. needs a tire swing though.
Click to expand...

That thing has its own freaking zip code !! I've seen pix, you sure county zoning wasn't involved in it ?
 
Build it and put a zip line of it to a tree with some handle bars on a pulley. I still love making those things.
 
Blkvoodoo said:
That thing has its own freaking zip code !! I've seen pix, you sure county zoning wasn't involved in it ?
Click to expand...

Ha.. i dont ask questions i dont want to know the answer to.

alh3.googleusercontent.com__jnutGdvj_Mo_TPUn3jDDJdI_AAAAAAAACec_AGYa0H2wSiw_s745_1116000838.jpg
 
i'm hopefully going to do some 'natural' style playground at my house. This concept of play is big in Europe but hasn't caught on in the US yet. I'm really diggin' embankment hill slides and just big mounds of dirt or grass that kids can just play on. Anyway my guy is 1 so I got a year or so to get something built. Here some websites I've gotten ideas from:

http://dream-weavers.co.za/junglegyms.html#3
https://www.naturalplaygroundsstore.com/
http://pinterest.com/tdawson/natural-playground-ideas/
http://www.google.com/search?q=natu...Q&biw=1458&bih=869&sei=cGNKUf-wKJHa9QS18oCICA
http://www.naturalplaygrounds.com/gallery/index.html
 
upnover said:
Some old coil springs to make a riding horse
Get a tube bender and make some weird monkey bars
build a free standing(non) tree house with a sand box under it, complete with a knotted rope, a fireman's pole, and a roof. suspend one beam out to hang swings on, a heavy axle complete with hub and a tireless wheel, weld tube to it to make a merry go round, floor it and bend some tube and there ya go
Click to expand...

Old axles, tube benders, and kids? Sounds like a recipe for this guy!

 
As mentioned in another recent thread, being the son of a marine got me a lot of cool stuff when i was a kid. My tree house was a free standing tree fort with a USMC mess tent as the upper floor, complete with rollup sides for sunny days. killed many imaginary nazis from that fort.

The sandbox started out under neath (the ground floor) of the tree house, like Upnover mentioned, but my affinity for sand lead to my dad just bringing in a whole dumptruck and inundating the entire fort area with sand. add water hose and shovel and have hours and hours of entertainment.
 
FunkSkunk said:
i'm hopefully going to do some 'natural' style playground at my house. This concept of play is big in Europe but hasn't caught on in the US yet. I'm really diggin' embankment hill slides and just big mounds of dirt or grass that kids can just play on. Anyway my guy is 1 so I got a year or so to get something built. Here some websites I've gotten ideas from:

http://dream-weavers.co.za/junglegyms.html#3
https://www.naturalplaygroundsstore.com/
http://pinterest.com/tdawson/natural-playground-ideas/
http://www.google.com/search?q=natural playground ideas&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=bmNKUYbdJYja9ATx8oDAAg&ved=0CDUQsAQ&biw=1458&bih=869&sei=cGNKUf-wKJHa9QS18oCICA
http://www.naturalplaygrounds.com/gallery/index.html
Click to expand...

It looks like we are on the same page. I looked at a the links and thanks for sharing. I particularly like this concept.
ipad-pics-1-042.jpg


Without a ton of space or funds, I think something like this will fit my yard well. Probably build it out of locust.
 
You could always find a McDonalds they are dismantling, and purchase the old PlayPlace.....

That's what my next door neighbor did....now then any recommendations on fast growing privacy barrier trees? :lol: Currently, if we have to give directions to the house, we just say make a left before the McDonalds PlayPlace...can't miss it :rolleyes:

ai44.photobucket.com_albums_f43_GCncsuHD_Playplace.jpg
 
GCncsuHD said:
You could always find a McDonalds they are dismantling, and purchase the old PlayPlace.....

That's what my next door neighbor did....now then any recommendations on fast growing privacy barrier trees? :lol: Currently, if we have to give directions to the house, we just say make a left before the McDonalds PlayPlace...can't miss it :rolleyes:

ai44.photobucket.com_albums_f43_GCncsuHD_Playplace.jpg
Click to expand...
Thats pretty awesome!
 
jeepinmatt said:
Thats pretty awesome!
Click to expand...
Pretty awesome till you have to look at it every day :handed: , and it's a family friend so you can't exactly complain without hurting feelings. They came over the other day, to congratulate me and the wife on expecting our new baby this fall, and said even though their youngest is outgrowing it they'll leave it up for our new kid :lol: yay.

I don't have a good ground level picture of the PlayPlace, but you can kinda see it in the left side of this picture. This picture was taken looking out where the front door of our house would be before it was built.
ai44.photobucket.com_albums_f43_GCncsuHD_2011_11_11_15_14_36_851.jpg
 
GCncsuHD said:
Pretty awesome till you have to look at it every day :handed: , and it's a family friend so you can't exactly complain without hurting feelings. They came over the other day, to congratulate me and the wife on expecting our new baby this fall, and said even though their youngest is outgrowing it they'll leave it up for our new kid :lol: yay.

I don't have a good ground level picture of the PlayPlace, but you can kinda see it in the left side of this picture. This picture was taken looking out where the front door of our house would be before it was built.
ai44.photobucket.com_albums_f43_GCncsuHD_2011_11_11_15_14_36_851.jpg
Click to expand...
Haha, you definitely weren't kidding! I hope they sanitized it well...
Tell the neighbors that you'd like to move it to your place, so that they'll take it down. Then you could "never find time" to put it up, and then post it on free craigslist. It'll be gone within an hour.

(or, just post it on there now :lol: )
 
jeepinmatt said:
Haha, you definitely weren't kidding! I hope they sanitized it well...
Tell the neighbors that you'd like to move it to your place, so that they'll take it down. Then you could "never find time" to put it up, and then post it on free craigslist. It'll be gone within an hour.

(or, just post it on there now :lol: )
Click to expand...
That was the wife's exact suggestion, tell them we'd move it to our place...then never get around to putting it together :lol:
 
frankenyoter said:
It looks like we are on the same page. I looked at a the links and thanks for sharing. Without a ton of space or funds, I think something like this will fit my yard well. Probably build it out of locust.
Click to expand...

Hey no prob, I like the concept and its natural so you really can just go in your backyard/woods and just find stuff to screw together. Plus its not another piece of plastic like everyone else has. I'm tired of getting plastic toys for my son on christmas/birthday (and he's only 1!!), whatever happen to metal/wood/fabric things!?!?
 
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