DIY Basement Indoor Playground with Monkey Bars



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Last Christmas, we were really in a predicament.

Our precious daughter turned 8 on December 15th. And with our huge extended family, she received so many presents for her birthday, we were out of Christmas gift ideas. As the number of days to Christmas morning got less and less, we got more and more stressed. We couldn't give her nothing, yet she needed nothing.

Nothing you can buy at the store, that is.

Our little girl loves to climb and hang and swing, and comes home regularly with peeling blisters on her hands from hanging on the school monkey bars. We've had to change outfits before school because the pretty dress doesn't cut it on the monkey bars. So at the last minute, on December 20th, just five days until Christmas morning, we began working on an indoor playground.

I had never built such a thing, and couldn't find many examples online. So - I can't believe I'm admitting this - we sorta winged this one. We just bought a stack of 2x4s, and started cutting (or not cutting - I tried to use full length 8 foot boards as much as possible), and screwing plywood to it.

The easiest way we thought to build a structure strong enough to support monkey bars in the middle would be to build two playhouses, and then connect them together. Then when our son is old enough to care, he'll have his own side.

We worked whenever we could, whenever we could find ways to get her out of the house (it was by now Christmas vacation). Sometimes we worked after bedtime (forgive the sweats I'm in please in the video), other times Grandma came over and babysat. It took us a good three days to build, with much of the time spent gathering materials and planning and building as we went. If you follow my plans below, it will be much easier.

And this is what we came up with!

I've built alot of things - much bigger things, more expensive things, more refined things - but this one is the greatest of all -

Simply because this one makes this little girl so happy.

It's 2x4s. Scrap wood. Plywood.

And it's pure joy for our daughter. Its squeals of laughter and hours of quiet imaginitve play. Its a fair amount of hollering and screaming when all the kids come to play. But there are no adult words to describe how much our little daughter loves this indoor playground with monkey bars.

We meant to paint the wood. We meant to decorate and accessorize.

But we can't get the kids off of it long enough to put any more work into it. And that's okay.

The children have made it their own in their own suprising ways too. I would never have thought the bridge (with secret tunnel underneath) would become a stage, and I would watch the most wonderful plays acted out on it.

The children have converted one of the downstairs areas into a school, complete with all my totes turned upside down into desks and a principal's office under the bridge.

But her favorite thing of all is the monkey bars. She's always hanging on them, or begging us to watch her new "tricks".

I'm so thankful for the tools I have, the knowledge and experience I've learned through building, a husband willing to work with me on a big project, and to be able to give this kind of happiness to my children.

We put together a video as best we could under the rushed circumstances and limited working hours, hoping that the video might help you build your own playhouse or indoor playground. Check it out!

And if you do build this for your children, please share! We'd all love to see how yours turns out too!

XO Ana Family

Bunk Bed Twin
Intermediate
Children's
Bedroom Kids and Toys

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