Fun & Kid-Friendly DIY Backyard Ideas

By Alex Kuchel─

What better way to keep the kids or grandkids occupied than getting them to pitch in and help you construct a useful and attractive DIY idea you’ve been wanting to add to your backyard?

The key is to find backyard DIY ideas that don’t require too much time or too many fiddly bits. This way, you’ll hold your child’s attention and not have to worry about them injuring themselves.

Below, we’ve picked a few easy DIY projects that are ideal for family bonding. We hope you and your family enjoy them.

Outdoor Movie Theatre

Your kids will love you if you can play their favourite Disney animations on the big screen in your backyard. And your wallet will love you for saving your family a trip to the dark, packed, noisy cinema

Creating an outdoor cinema in your own backyard is actually very simple, and hardly requires any hard labour. You can choose a few different options: a big screen you wheel out when you fancy it or either a clear wall or fabric for a projector.

Spend a little time working out the optimal layout. Ideally you’ll create a space where you can fit plenty of comfy chairs for all and for people to come and go without blocking the projector.

The trick with this project is about maximising space and kitting yourself out with the right equipment – lanterns, mosquito coils, comfy chairs, speakers, drink dispensers, and of course the right movie! Get these elements right and you’ll find yourself – and your backyard – in hot demand.

Canvas Tent

Source: The Merry Thought

Great for kids and adults alike, a backyard tepee is great for everything from stargazing to telling scary stories. There’s something cosy and therapeutic about being in a canvas tent and feeling the world float by.

DIY tent projects vary massively in terms of construction. There are some mammoth tents out there if you’re looking to test yourself. But for the purposes of a kid-friendly DIY project, we’re big fans of this one by Merry Thought, which uses a lot of natural elements to keep it reasonably simple.

That means that you can be sipping a hot chocolate and adorning it with your favourite quilts, pillows, books in no time. We guarantee you’ll feel right at home.

Gumboot Garden

From our experience, we’ve found that kids love gumboots, getting dirty and spraying things with a hose. This DIY project ticks all of these boxes and more.

Grab some old gumboots (a mix of colours, sizes and styles works well) and get creative first by either spray painting or hand painting the outsides.

Once dry, grab some soil and the seedlings/plants of your choosing. You may want to nail the gumboots to the wall first or plant then nail, it’s up to you. Anyway, fill the boots most of the way with soil and plant as you normally would in a regular pot, it’s really that easy.

Sandpit

Although our final DIY backyard idea is much tougher than those above, we thought we’d include it because of how popular the end result is. A sandpit is a perfect accompaniment to a family backyard and well worth the time and money investment.

This project, presented here by Bunnings, is best carried out with a friend. In a nutshell, you’ll need to choose a site to house it, undertake a bit of minor excavation and then lay out your timber sleepers.

Building a sandpit does require some work but that smile on your kid’s face when you unveil it will be well worth the effort.

Alex Kuchel is the National Brand Manager at Australian Outdoor Living, the outdoor entertainment and artificial grass specialists. She loves her job and jotting down her thoughts on all things outdoors. Her latest article is entitled 30 DIY Backyard Ideas.

Outside of work, she enjoys scoffing sorbet in the sun, feeling the sand between her toes, trying to tame her naughty puppy “Sabre” and savouring everything the outdoors has to offer, especially in summer!