Good morning monday! And hello to all my friendlys! Did you guys survive the weekend? Are you snowed in? We got an epic amount of snow over the weekend…..1/8″ of an inch….and the boys thought it was the best thing ever. Will told me that it was a winter wonderland. I realized that my children may never know what it is like to wake up to a foot of snow outside, dare their little brother to go out in it wearing only shorts and then lock the sliding door. Good times. Sorry Timmy.
So if you are looking for a project that is snow related….you came to the wrong place. But if you came looking for a swing tutorial…you are in luck my friend. This is your day.
Will has recently been asking for a rope swing. There is one down by the creek but I wanted to make something that he could actually sit on comfortably and that wouldn’t scratch up his sweet little cheeks. When I saw this wood round at the home improvement store, I knew….that’s it!
I simply lightly sanded it and then drilled a hole in the center. You really don’t even need to own a drill to make this project. Home Depot and Lowe’s usually have ‘test’ drills sitting out and you can put your hole in your wood for free. This is a half inch hole because I had half inch rope but if you have something different, drill appropriately.
Will specifically asked for it to be his second favorite color. (Ummm….my kids rank colors as their first, second, third favorites and so on. And then they want me to remember which one is which. It’s very taxing for my brain.)
After he reminded me it was BLUE, I went to work with a fun but easy design. I simply spray painted the entire swing white (Rust-Oleum’s gloss white) and then taped off different sections of the pie.
Then I sprayed it with the first color of spray paint – Rust-Oleum’s Gloss Seaside. I let that dry completely and then I peeled off the paint in the inner parts of the blocked off pie slices (the sections in red below). I also then COVERED the newly painted Seaside sections (that is what I highlighted in blue below) with more painters tape.
After spraying the exposed bits with Gloss Navy Blue and let it dry, I coated the entire thing with multiple coats of poly to make it protected outside. Then we cut a length of rope and slipped it in the hole. Here is the knot that we used for the bottom. And yes, I did feel like a girl scout again when I tied it. thank you for asking 🙂
We slipped it onto a tree branch (aka, it was awkward and we got overzealous about tying it and Will complains that it isn’t high enough to do Ninja Warrior tricks off of but we feel like it’s safe enough for our dudes. Make sure you use caution if you do this at home) and the kids had a blast. The best part about this project is….it got that rope outta my garage 🙂 It’s been sitting in that box for EVER. and ever. and ever. like ever.
So remember – I am not responsible if you die because of your own DIYed swing but I take all the credit if you feel 22 again 🙂 And happy DIYing!
holy moly your painting lines are just epic…you’ve had a lot of practice I imagine 😉 seriously drooling over that seat, its so pretty!
We had a swing just like that growing up and when my dad tied it up, he left a “tail” of rope underneath to help with the grabbing and launching of the swing! It was super helpful but also lead us kids to grab it and try to throw each other off. Gotta love the 80s 🙂
Very Fun and beautifully executed! Love it!
http://doodlet.me/
I love how easy and affordable this is! We moved to this house two years ago (almost) and it has an amazing yard that feels like a state park, with flowers and trees and is so big… and for our little kids it’s great except we can’t afford fancy playset equipment. It is all so expensive, and they are growing so fast I just can’t justify it. This is a great way for us to make use of one of those big amazing trees, without going broke this spring. Thanks!
Super cute. Love the paint job too. I need a tree though. We bought a house in a new construction development. So no trees. Lol.
Love it! and SO easy!! I can’t wait to see pictures of your little ones having fun on it 🙂
Now I want a swing for me, need to feel 22 and giddy.
Oh no! My sister did that and she planted like eight trees immediately 🙂
xo – kb
Oh man…I feel ya! Our yard is big and it takes forever to keep up with sometimes!
xo – kb
We had a swing like that. The branch rubbed the rope until it broke and sent my daughter sailing through the air and into a heap on the ground. No bueno. Be careful.
The rope broke?! Whoa! What kinda rope was that? What kinda knot did you use? That’s crazy….I’ve heard of tips on picking the correct branch and making sure you can remove the swing so that you can maintain it and check the rope and branch for breaks but never heard of the rope actually coming apart. That’s nuts!
xo – kb
I just sent this to my Dad, he and my Mom have a swingset that needs a new rope swing. I think this is easy enough for him to make!
Glad that you painted and poly’d it. I grabbed the same round and made a very similar swing about three years ago but didn’t protect it properly, the wood delaminated in the spring rains and came apart. I ended up replacing it with a much less cute, but far more durable plastic seat. One way to help protect both tree and rope is to run the rope through a section of garden hose where it meets the tree branch (so a 1′-3′ section depending on the diameter of your branch).
So cute! Adding this to my DIY list for as soon as it warms up just a little!
There is a way annoying pop up ad on your mobile page that completely redirects from your site. It’s about an iPhone 7.
Hi Andy. Thanks for letting us know. It just happened to me too, and it’s annoying! I’ve contacted our ad network to have this removed. Thanks again!
Thanks! My in-laws spend $35 on a plastic one for my kids just like this…they fight alot over it….I’m picking up two wood rounds tomorrow!
Hi Katie-
So all of our home improvement stores have scaled back their inventory and no longer carry things like this in stock. Weird. Since I am trying to have something ordered online, got a link you could share?
Thanks so much!
For the wood board?
xo – kb