Do you think that the people who designed all of the kid’s wooden swing-sets at the big box stores got together and said, “Let’s think of the best color combination to blend in with nature. I know! Let’s use a Cascade bottle as our inspiration!” And now here we all are, with the brilliant yellow and green swing-sets.
This is almost exactly like the swing-set my husband picked up from Walmart one Saturday. Once it was put together, I was happy to see their little faces. But, oh my gosh…as I washed my dishes, it was right in my line of view out the window. (That was also the moment I realized it matched my dishwasher soap.)
I left it that way for a while and was fine with it. But one day, I decided I wanted to make it have a little pizzazz. I got my paint out and set to work.
I painted the whole thing white. (I still have to paint the inside of the little “clubhouse” portion. You can see that one of my little Picasso’s decided to go to town with chalk on the inside of the clubhouse. Awesome.)
I stenciled rectangles along the window and painted them black to look like shutters.
I found a cute wooden pot in the craft section of Target. I painted it black and added a faux-boxwood ball I found at HomeGoods. (It blows off constantly, so I am planning to glue it down.)
I painted the metal pieces used to hold the swing-set together black. I liked that they contrasted with the frame and wanted to keep them that way.
I ordered a long piece of matte vinyl in black and cut it to the length of the slide. I simply stuck it on over the yellow part of the slide and it was perfect!
I ordered outdoor black-and-white-striped fabric and simply threw it over the awning it comes with. I stapled the ends with a staple gun along the inside of the playhouse.
Here is what I used:
White Paint for all over the wood: Painters Touch in White, Semi-Gloss finish
Black paint for the painted on “shutters” by the window and for the metal pieces that are green in the before photo: Painters Touch in Black, Flat finish
Black and White Outdoor Fabric (I ordered 3 of them and had a bit left over.)
Something like this boxwood ball is perfect: Boxwood
Vinyl for the slide: Black Vinyl (It says it’s not permanent, but go with this style because it has a nice matte finish. The other option is high shine, and would probably hurt if it got hot in the sun.)
It was so easy to do and made such a big difference. Ironically, it’s become one of my favorite things in our yard!
