DIY Swing Set Makeover I read somewhere a few years ago about the "backyard season of life", & it never rang true til the last couple of years. We are so in that season. Meaning, so so much of our time is in the backyard. We spend mornings outback eating breakfast together. The girls play the majority of their day out back. After school it the first place they go to. We spend so many nights back here, during the summer & fall several nights a week we are out back with a fire with our smores basket! So here we are smack dab in the middle of the "backyard season" & our backyard just wasn't the place we needed it to be. Our backyard is one of the only things I love about our home. It is HUGE. It flares out like a baseball field & is quite large for a yard in the city & we want to utilize it! We are doing several things back here that I can't wait to share but we are going to start with the swing set! Our girls love it! I swear they could swing for hours! But our swing set, while only about 4 years old..looked terrible. We could have re stained it. But a blog friend, Brooke from Nesting with Grace, painted her swing set, & it was exactly what I was going for! SEE. Terrible. I know lots can compare because we have a very common swing set, & when we see it at other homes that have it had a couple years, it looks just the same as ours. It just doesn't weather well. So-- We are moving soon, so we were torn with just tearing it down, or re doing it. We wanted to replace it but what we want to replace it with, we would want to take with us. & it just seemed silly to do that now. So we decided if we could re stabilize it, & get it looking good it would stay! The kicker is I wanted to do it as cheap as possible! & yall it turned out better than I even expected! First, the day after we got back from Mexico {which is also why the grass is crazy long in the before photos! Then I thought, lets wait to cut it. Gives the before more umpf lol} I started sanding down the swing set. & started to paint! WHITE PAINTED SWING SET WHAT PAINT DID YOU USE? What you normally should use, is a porch or house paint. However, it was $40 so we used barn paint! it was $15! Score! I decided to really let the girls have fun with this, & make it a family project. So they painted the entire thing themselves! They did great! It isn't a perfect paint job, but the girls had a blast & I love the sense of accomplishment they felt & the fun we had as a family doing it all together. I spray painted the green joint, black. Here is Brandon straightening it back out & stabilizing it. It had a bit of a lean! ha! Then we replaced the two swings & monkey bar for 3 wooden swings! Next, we took down the canvas roof & replaced it with a tin roof! Brandon had to add onto the "roof" for the tin to be stabilized. In these photos you can also see where I replaced the yellow plastic handles from the ladder, to barn door handles! It changed the look so much! Now that the main stuff was done, it was time to make it "pretty"! We went to the fabric store & the girls picked out fabric. But after we got home, they asked if I had any material that looked like the runner on the outdoor table, & I had forget I had a curtain panel of that fabric. So I cut it up, & the girls sewed them up all themselves. I scotch guarded them, & hung them with a suspension rod. We took a ply under layment piece that we had laying around & made that into a chalk board on the back park to make a little space a mud kitchen! My girls sit back here & concoct so much things. We went to the dollar store & they got all their mud kitchen essentials! I also got this adorable dinner bell to add on too! Still deciding if that was a good purchase or not as the girls like it...alot. I'm sure our neighbors are thrilled LOL I really wanted to make this look like a little playhouse so adding these solar lights really made the look. They are perfect size for playhouse, easy to install & since its solar there is no wiring or anything! Just some screws! This little Welcome Home sign was the perfect touch to top off the whole thing! Isn't it the cutest? It isn't perfect, but it so perfect for us! The girls live it in it anymore! Resources: Original Swing Set Paint: Behr White Exterior Barn & Fence Paint Swings Dinner Bell Solar Lights Welcome Sign Share This Post Related Posts