Playground Border on a Budget -

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In this post, I’ll be sharing a reveal of our most recent DIY project. Our outdoor playground area! We completed this DIY playground border in one weekend using materials found at our local hardware store.

large playground area with mulch and sand and where we used wood to border around and separate the two play areas

showing where the sandbox meets up with the mulch playground edging

If you are looking for playground ideas for outdoors, I hope this post can come in handy and give you some inspiration for your own backyard play area.

Pin it for later here!

DIY playground area using edging, mulch and sand for two play areas connected.

backyard playground ideas with wood edging and mulch

There are several playground border ideas swirling around out there but to keep this project simple and, on a budget, we used treated 2x4s.

Playground Border (Design)

We knew we wanted a dark look to complement our black mulch that we bought for this project. We used outdoor black spray paint to give our boards a black finish. We were trying to hurry through this project so we could surprise our daughter for her birthday.

wood boards we used for playground surround

painted wood boards before installing playground border

We chose to use a can of white paint to outline our design (for reference, S is for sand & M is for mulch).

starting our playground diy by drawing out our design

This way we knew where to skim off the ground and place 2×4 boards.

Playground Edging

We laid the boards in place and started to attach them!

adding our wood boards around the playground perimeter

playground frame connecting the boards all the way around

To create the playground edging, we connected the 2×4 boards that met up together by using a scrap piece of wood as shown in the photos.

playground build connecting the two boards together with tool

building a playground area border with 2x4 treated wood boards and scrap to connect

We used this method all the way around.

man installing the border for playground

close up photo of attaching and securing boards together

For the board that ran the other way we screwed right into each other.

two connecting 2x4 boards for a diy backyard playground

DIY sandbox

When completing the sandbox portion, we worked our way over next to our fence and secured it to it.

Here are all our boards pieced together to create our playground border. You can see how it’s coming together as well as the DIY sandbox. We should of finished painting the boards prior to installing to make it easier. Oops.

the side of the DIY sandbox attached to the playground border to make two separate play areas

We cut the boards according to the size and shape for our playground borders as you can see below.

cutting the board to get rid of the overhang

Playground Border (Slide Section)

As seen in the next photo, we opted for a slanted look in the front to customize a larger area for the slide section.

extended playground border in the front of the slide

To do this we just held up our board next to the other boards and made an angled cut on each side.

making an angle cut to make the boards meet up nicely

It gave a little bit of extra room for the kids coming down the slide and turned out quite nice since we have a small backyard.

playground view with the border around it almost finished

Adding Dirt

To fill in any gaps beneath the boards we added a couple bags of dirt.

adding dirt all the way around our playground area

Laying Plastic Over Grass

At this point, we laid and secured the plastic with garden stakes. Once we did this, we were able to anchor down the swing set through the plastic in the ground.

laying plastic sheet over the grass for the backyard playground

Of course, here we are last minute spray painting. Oops. It’s fine. it’s fine.

last minute spray paint for the 2x 4 boards around the playground

As mentioned earlier, in order to lay the plastic down we used garden stakes to secure it to the ground and a razor knife to cut it to size.

staking down the plastic the rest of the way inside the playground area

This was a great way to cover the grass without having to remove all of it too. Our little secret.

playground area with plastic ground cover

cutting the plastic sheet with a razor knife

Playground Ground Cover

At first, we weighed our options for what would be the best playground ground cover. Pea gravel? Rubber mulch? We decided on regular black garden mulch since it was the most budget-friendly option of all of them.

getting ready to spread black mulch inside the playground area border

We spread it throughout our playground area using a metal rake.

spreading mulch with a metal rake around our swing set and playground border

The kiddos did help but they couldn’t wait to try it out before it was finished.

kids playing on a playground with black mulch and black border around the edge

Once we got to the other side, we filled in the other portion of our playground border with sand.

spreading sand with metal rake inside DIY sandbox

Here’s how our playground border around the swing set turned out!

view of our finished playground in small backyard with mulch, sand and 2x4 treated wood border

The kids definitely approve!

large DIY sandbox with border that goes around to playground area

They especially love the DIY sandbox!

side angle of our small backyard playground with black 2x4 wood boards and black mulch

Here is the angle where we adjusted the size to make more room coming down the slide.

playground view of the enxtended area coming down the side with black border and black mulch

Although we are no experts (just DIY enthusiasts) this playground border ended up being an overall quick DIY project that will entertain the kids all summer!