DIY Kids Seesaw for under $30

Since the weather is absolute perfection in New York right now, we’ve been spending every waking hour outside! My kids wake up and first thing they want to do is go jump on the trampoline, go play on the swings or just plain go OUTside! I love it! I even enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast on my patio last week and loved every minute of it.

I was inspired by Ana White’s “Birthday seesaw” and I knew it was destined to be in my own backyard! I’m a novice wood worker so I know that ANYONE can build this and build it well. It took about 2 hours or so. Ana gives a full shopping list, wood cut list and how-to tutorial for the whole project making it a cinch!

image via Ana-White plans

I used Ana-White’s tutorial completely and added some padding and fabric to the seats to make it a little more comfortable and dress it up a bit.

We had a playgroup at my house for my son’s 2nd birthday and the kids LOVED it! I hadn’t painted it yet when the party rolled around but the kids could care less. ha!

Here she was the day of the party…

The Birthday Boy, precious little Parker! (How in the H is my baby 2 already??)

After Parker’s birthday party, I decided I should probably put the finishing touches on this little seesaw…

I used my staple gun to staple the red/white chevron fabric (from Fabric.com). I may still opt to add clear vinyl to the seats. My only concern is the vinyl getting hot on their little legs. The chevron fabric has held up extremely well to the weather so far.

I used Rustoleum’s pre-tinted paint from Home Depot called Glossy Apple Red!

After spraying a few coats of the glossy red paint on the wood, it’s done! We’re so excited for summer and my boys are thoroughly enjoying every square inch of our backyard.

Just FYI: my aunt and I rode the seesaw with no problems so I’m comfortable it can hold children 100+ pounds on each side.

EASY DIY Seesaw tutorial for kids - Build this for under $30!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer! XOXO!

: Light Duty Staple Gun

: Rust-Oleum Glossy Apple Red

: DIY Lego Table

: Frozen Crown

: 101 Summer Activities for Kids

June 26, 2012

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Between Blue and Yellow

June 26, 2012 at 6:18 pm

That is so cute! Great job. I met Anna White over the weekend, she is lovely.

Reply
Classy Clutter
June 26, 2012 at 6:20 pm
LUCKY! She is so talented!! Thanks for stopping by! XOXO, Mallory

Sonya Sosa

June 26, 2012 at 8:16 pm

Seriously! That is uberly genius and adorable. I think I need to try that.

Our Pinteresting Family

June 26, 2012 at 9:04 pm

That is an amazing project!!! I think I may need to try this one out. Megan

Tutus & Tea Parties

June 26, 2012 at 11:10 pm

Oh how fun!

Have you heard about our Craftastic Competition? I’d love for you to enter in it! Lots of prizes to be won too!

Hydrangeas and Harmony

June 27, 2012 at 3:05 pm

That’s so cool! I never would have thought to make a seesaw ourselves. I wish my younglings were small enough to still enjoy something like this.

Christina Hermosa

June 27, 2012 at 5:49 pm

This is wonderful! I will definitely do this in the future. Thank you!

Michelle

June 28, 2012 at 4:36 am

Amazing and the paint color with the fabric is soooooo cute! My daughter would LOVE this in our backyard!! Thanks for sharing and I am a new follower!
Hope you had a great day!
Michelle
http://www.delicateconstruction.com

Cassie @ Primitive & Proper

June 28, 2012 at 12:40 am

that is so fun! love the red, too!

Recipes We Love

June 30, 2012 at 12:06 am

So glad I found this. My little boy has been begging for us to ask my father in law to build him one!

Brittany @ My Decoupaged Life

June 30, 2012 at 3:00 pm

You did amazing! My three year old is actually sitting right next to me and keeps saying, “I want one!” Hmm…maybe we’ll have to make one sometime. I love the red too. It adds a great pop of color.

Beck

July 2, 2012 at 4:14 am

This is fabulous!! If I had children I’d definitely make one. Or maybe I’ll make one anyway!!

Alissa@CraftyEndeavor.com

July 3, 2012 at 2:11 am

This is the cutest seesaw I’ve ever seen! how fun!

CSI girl

July 5, 2012 at 3:04 pm

What a great idea!!!Perfect summer addition. I hope you will link these up to The CSI Project. The challenge is Summer outdoor decorating and parties. Come on over! You just might win!!!!

http://www.thecsiproject.com

Missy

July 9, 2012 at 2:21 am

Thank you so much for sharing your project with us on Someday Crafts! We will be featuring your project tomorrow on our blog Please stop back in and grab a Featured at Someday Crafts button for your blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

Sewing-Chick

July 14, 2012 at 4:22 am

Wow, this is great. We’re getting our basement finished right now, and we have a lot of wood left over. I bet we could make this for next to nothing. I also have some green camping chair fabric that I could use to cover the seats== the chair broke but I refused to throw it out because I knew the fabric could be used somehow 🙂

Naptime Review

July 15, 2012 at 3:47 pm

MIght need to send this to my dad! YOu don’t see See Saws much. Thanks for sharing. Newest follower from Sunday Scoop. Love for you to stop by and return the follow when you can. I am hosting Mom’s Monday Mingle tonight and tomorrow. Love to have you 😉 Last week we had over 180 mom blogs! Hope to see you there!

http://www.thenaptimereview.com

Cheerios and Lattes

July 21, 2012 at 3:05 am

The see saw looks great! Our boys would love it. I would love to invite you to share this on Saturday Show and Tell. My readers would love this and some of the other posts on your blog. Come join us at http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/saturday-show-tell-20 Thanks and have a great weekend.
-Mackenzie
http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com

Alese

July 26, 2012 at 12:33 pm

This is so awesome! I love it! I blog over at http://www.2crafty4myskirt.blogspot.com/ Every Friday I feature a fellow crafter. I would love to feature you and this porject in an upcoming Friday. If you are interested please let me know toocraftyformyskirt@hotmail.com

Six Sisters

September 8, 2012 at 2:55 pm

Love this teeter totter! We are totally going to make this! We would love to have you link up to our Strut Your Stuff Saturday link party at sixsistersstuff.com. We hope to see you soon! -The Sisters

Funtasia Nyc

September 9, 2012 at 10:06 am

Perfect birthday gift for energetic, active kids! They will certainly love having a piece of the playground in their own yard!
kid party brooklyn, ny

JNW1016

October 17, 2012 at 1:46 am

Is your fabric still holding up? We have so much humidity I’m thinking I would have to use some sort of outdoor fabric.

Emily

February 5, 2013 at 3:29 pm

Wow, this is wonderful!

~Emily
http://tossedsaladlife.com

Dolly Girl

April 7, 2013 at 1:28 am

Aqua Armor Waterproofing Spray 😉 http://www.amazon.com/Armor-Fabric-Waterproofing-Natural-Fabrics/dp/B002WLUYUG

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June 11, 2013 at 10:48 am

[…] 31. Play on a seesaw […]

GM

March 14, 2014 at 1:39 pm

I wonder if there is a way to enlarge it for bigger kids???

Reply
Tami
June 14, 2014 at 2:08 am
We just made this today and it turned out great! My husband and I had a blast playing on it. I would think the size is adequate for any age/weight child. On the contrary, my husband added an extra hole on the uprights so we could lower it some for 3 & 4 year olds. We can raise it when they get older. It’s very sturdy. And, even at our lowered level, when my husband was on the ground it was like when I was a child with no way down until let me. Our grand babies are gonna love this!

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Jacque

July 1, 2014 at 7:26 pm

I absolutely adore this. I have a blog called It’s A Handmade World. I promote handmade shops around the world. I have pages on there where you can put a button to your shop, a button to your blog, a favorite tutorials page and more. I would love to share this with everyone. I was wondering if you would let me put this on my favorite tutorials page along with a link back to your blog? Feel free to add your blog button and shop button too if you have one.

Thanks bunches,
Jacque