DIY Climbing Structure & Sand Box
Amid quarantine, my husband was inspired to build a climbing structure for the boys. We are very fortunate to have access to a yard in San Francisco. It literally doubles our space and has become such a refuge since the zoos, museums, and playgrounds have closed. We started cleaning and clearing up the yard earlier in the year, by pulling up all of the weeds and overgrown brush, which revealed uneven and broken pavers and a near complete “Sunset sand lot”. Since we don’t own our home, I wanted to make the space usable without spending too much money and not installing anything permanent.
I decided to make these minor yet major changes to our yard:
use pavers to cover up the sandlot - I tried to level it as best as I could without tamping it
rake the back planter wall and then covering the sand with weed block - then topping with mulch nuggets
to cover up the bulk of the yard, I purchased a turf rug to provide a cleaner space for play as well as some cushion for rough play
I was initially pretty excited when my husband mentioned that he wanted to build a climbing wall. My thoughts immediately jumped to a pikler triangle - something that I had always wanted to have, but unfortunately, I also knew that my boys were now too old for. Pikler triangles encourage babies and toddlers to build their core strength and gross motor skills. They are generally handcrafted from wood and although most claim to be foldable, it’s one of those baby contraptions that take up a lot of space and once it is put up & out, no one really collapses them for stowing between plays.
Browsing the internet, we thought that making two “ramp” style climbing boards (a popular accessory to a pikler triangle), and leaning them against the fence would work. However, once we consulted our friend, he determined that the fences in the yard were stronger laterally (side to side) versus vertically (front to back)- therefore, we shouldn’t build something to lean on the fence as it may cause the fence to collapse. Instead, he suggested a free-standing structure to sit against the fence with the climbing walls facing one another- allowing the force of the climbing to move with the fence instead of against it.
By this time, I bowed out of the project and let the two of them design and build. They decided on a trapezoid design with a rock wall on one side and a more challenging rope & slat ladder on the other. I made a few trips to the local hardware store to pick out waterproofing sealant and hardware for the other project - the sandbox.
We had two standard plastic sandboxes (one for sand, one with gravel) that worked great, but proved to be too short for my tall preschooler. And so, some more browsing on pinterest inspired me to tell my husband (hah!) to build something similar to the one by Crate&Kids. I wanted something with clean lines and a large lid with handles that would double as a play table.
Pikler triangles - Etsy search listings
Peak & Rainbow - they have an amazing toddler gym - a larger version of the classic pikler
Rock Climbing Holds - Gray Set & Green Set
Waterproofing Sealant - Behr Semitransparent Weatherproofing in Navajo White
