DIY Swing Set
It's simple (and budget-friendly!) to build your own swing set with a complete kit. One blogger shows you how.
Photo: Jenny Dixon
There comes a time in every parent's life when you start day dreaming about a swing set in the backyard. It's exciting to imagine the laughter and picture all the fun it can bring your kids. Then comes the reality...swing sets are expensive! Also, we've seen firsthand what Pennsylvania weather can do to a swing set. We knew we needed something sturdy, reliable, and super awesome.
After doing a lot of research, we found a man in our area who builds play sets. He was reasonable and his play sets were very sturdy, but the catch was that we lived too far for him to make the drive. He suggested we build our own. What? Insert panic. My husband is very handy, but there was no way we could do this, right? He told us to buy a swing set kit. The kit would tell us what materials we would need to purchase locally as well as detailed instructions. So we did just that and our play set turned out amazingly. Better than we ever thought it would. I wanted to share a few tips about building your own play set that might help you get started.
How to DIY a Swing Set
1. Purchase a swing set kit online. It will come with the necessary hardware for your set and provide a very detailed list of materials to buy locally (such as lumber, nails, etc). This allows you the ability to buy the exact type of lumber that works for your climate. For us, pressure treated wood was best.
Photo: Jenny Dixon
2. Decide what extras your set needs based on the age and needs of your children. We decided to skip rings and purchase a tire swing and monkey bars for our set. We also purchased extra rock climbing rocks in order to make our rock climbing wall taller than the original design plans.
3. Don't forget about slides. As you can see we added two to our play set, one is a wave slide and the second is a spiral tube slide! Our original plans didn't account for a tunnel slide that tall, so we made some modifications to make it fit.
4. Give yourself time. A swing set of this size takes time to build. Don't be afraid to ask friends for help, especially with the heavy lifting.
Photo: Jenny Dixon
5. Involve the kids! This is a wonderful opportunity to involve the kids in the design and construction. Have the kids sketch what their dream play set looks like. Construction time is a great learning opportunity. Allow the kids to hammer in a few nails or test out the power drill (with proper supervision and safety wear of course!). This will be an experience they never forget.
We created many wonderful memories during the construction of our family swing set and hope you will find it just as rewarding we we did!
