Creating a fun, kid-friendly backyard

[Ad- gifted products] We have had quite a saga with our backyard. In our previous rental house, we wanted to level the backyard to add a trampoline, and when we offered to pay the price to get it leveled, our landlord let us know they were selling our house. We did end up moving and finding a new house we loved, but we didn’t touch the backyard at first, as it felt like some sort of cursed area. This year, we have spent a lot of time creating the perfect backyard and it’s finally done! As a parent, I always want to balance how I want things to look and how fun they are for our children to experience, so we divided our backyard.

Outdoor Play

One of the first things we purchased for our backyard was our trampoline. This was what we wanted in the old house, and were convinced everyone would get enough fun out of it. The trampoline was good for a year, but there were ways we have brought it back to life in our re-doing our backyard. First, we got a UFO Swing. The idea behind this was that Amelia and Robin love going to the park and when they are there, they often are waiting to use the swing or on the swing, so having a swing in our backyard felt ideal. This swing has easy to instail pegs that hold it into the ground, it was decent to put together, though did take a chunk of time and the instructions were not super clear on the seat, and it’s adjustable. Robin, Amelia and Kai have all spent time on it!

We put these two bigger bits of play equipment on one side of the garden, after Dann had taken out a bush to make room, and figured now we needed music. Adding in a bluetooth speaker that any of the kids can connect to using their phone has really increased the amount of time they will all spend outside. It’s also quite fun for parties. We got one that hangs on a pole, so that it’s not on the ground all the time, and that charges, is waterproof and can even double as a sort of torch light.

Adding in Lighting Features and Decorations

Though the bluetooth speaker was sort of a lighting feature, we wanted to add more lighting into the backyard, so that we could use it at night or when it gets dark in the fall months. There are so many different outdoor lights to choose from, but we wanted something super colorful to match our brick wall that we painted and our little white shed that we also painted to be super colorful. That area of our backyard is more of the decoration area, and having some backlighting was important, so we went with the outdoor festoon lights, which looks stunning and come in color changing options!

To continue to make the backyard more interesting for the fall months and add more light to it, we also got a beautiful fire pit, so we can create little fires and toast marshmallows together. Kai, Robin and Amelia have all said their favorite part of glamping together last year was creating a fire pit, so we figured we would have one at home, and it would be fun for both adults and children alike! We also can get a little grill for the top of this fire pit, so that we can grill on top of it.

We also wanted to add in some decorations, so took out some paint for a splash of color, then focused on what we wanted to see in the backyard. We made one of those viral DIY Flower Pot ponds, which came out lovely, and added some little fish in it, who have not yet been eaten by the birds that keep coming for a bit of a swim. We also added in some decorative backyard pole things, towards the back, to fit into a rocked area in our backyard.

Functional Features

When it comes to creating a backyard that’s an extension of your home, you want to make it really useful to you. It is, after all, a large part of your property. We added in a large cat house for our three cats, so that they could be outside with us in a safe way. Pesto, our middle cat, really loves it outside so a cat house is really something he wanted! The cat house we ended up with is quite large but very well decorated and impressive. The entire thing was super easy to set up, especially compared to the trampoline and swing.

We also wanted to add some things within the backyard that were primarily things I wanted. We obviously have the laundry hanger outside, which is always functional, but I wanted a vegetable garden. We found our backyard had a large blackberry bush, so I got a stand for that and started clipping and moving it around the stand. Then, I got a vegetable patch, and filled it full of spring onions, as we go through so many of those. Amelia picked out tomatoes for the garden, Robin picked out beans and Kai picked out beets, which are all super fun to grow, harvest, and then eat. Along with this little garden, I added some big potted edible plants; mint and a blueberry bush. These edible features have been so fun to pick at and graze, especially the berries.

Another functional feature that we have had for quite some time is our bench, which is also the sort of adult seating in the yard, as the children prefer to sit on the swing. This bench actually has tons of storage inside and is filled with the outdoor toys the children have; ribbons, balls, hoola-hoops, bubbles – everything they need to access to use the backyard to the best of their abilities.

A backyard we want to spend time in

In the end, we created a backyard that everyone wants to spend time in. There are so many fun features – and adding a lick of paint to the tiles, back wall and shed added so much fun to the space too. When it comes to your backyard, you should really consider making the most of it, as it is an extension of your home. Having one that is functional and that you are able to use regularly can add so much more to the space that you are taking up.

Check out our other Home Design articles.