Building a Backyard Sandpit: Ideas & Inspiration to DIY
When it comes to sensory play, sand has to be the #1 choice of both my preschooler and my very young toddler. Most kids love to play in the sand! And whether you choose a more temporary version or create a permanent fixture, it’s really not that difficult to add a dedicated sand play space to your backyard.
The wooden sandpit we built in our backyard is almost three years old now and it gets used virtually every day. It is holding up really well, requiring only minimal maintenance such as removing grass runners that sneak through between the logs, raking out a few leaves and turning over the sand regularly. Based on our experience, if you are considering adding a permanent sandpit or sand box to your yard, I would suggest you first consider;
- Choosing the location carefully: Make sure your preferred area is level and consider the amount of sun it receives each day (it’s a delicate balance between being shaded for sun protection of delicate young skin and not receiving enough sun to keep the sand reasonably dry). Avoid areas overhung by lots of large trees that are likely to drop leaves directly into your lovely, white sand.
- Prior to filling with sand, line your sandpit with gravel for drainage and landscaping weed mat or shade cloth (not plastic) to keep the grass, weeds, worms and (many of the) bugs out.
- If you are concerned about the sand ending up indoors, site your sandpit a little further away from the house and keep a small hand broom by the back door for brushing sand off before heading indoors. Because she does play in the sand so regularly, Immy is really good at remembering to brush the sand off before she comes indoors.
Of course, if unlike us you do not happen to have trees that need removing in your own backyard, there are a many different options for creating a border for your sandpit…
The sandpit in Sharon’s Garden (left) features a timber edging like those available through large hardware stores, garden nurseries or landscape suppliers. Making the most of a small outdoor space, Eiya’s sand area is surrounded by eucalyptus stumps collected by her Grandpa.
Keeping with the timber theme but much less demanding when it comes to the DIY side of things are Little Eco Footprints’ sand tub in a wine barrel and a commercially produced sand box such as the one on the right, featured at The Imagination Tree.
If brick or stone is a better fit for your landscape, be sure to check out Rebekah’s semi-permanent sandbox solution at the Golden Gleam and the stone edged sandpits that form part of a magical dry creek bed play area at Fun at Home with Kids.
If space is most definitely not an issue and you are lucky enough to have local access to large boulders then this wonderful sandpit from Mummy Musings and Mayhem is sure to inspire. This surely must be the Rolls Royce of sand play areas!
Finally, you’ll find ideas aplenty for extending the imaginative and creative play potential of your sandpit in this post at Happy Hooligans (which also includes some very clever storage suggestions for sand play loose parts).
Do you have a dedicated sand play area in your backyard?
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- Our Favourite Outdoor ‘Un-Toys’
- Making Space for Outdoor Play When Space is Tight
- 7 Steps to Creating an Outdoor Space Kids Will Love
- 7 Tips for Making Outdoor Time a Habit
What a fabulous round-up! I am in love with all of these ideas!!!! Thank you so much for including us, Christie! 🙂
Thank you for being so inspiring, your outdoor space is divine.
Loved reading through this post…so many ways to have fun creating a sandpit! Thanks for including us Christie…pinning now!
Love your sand play space, Jode 🙂
These are all great ideas! I am sure my children would love something like this, but here in the UK surrounded by neighbours with cats I think the sand pit would end up as a cat toilet very quickly. Is that an issue where you are? Any thoughts? Up until last summer, I used a very large underbed plastic storage container for sand. I put it up on two large plant pots so it was high enough to stand and play with. My daughter loved it- and it was definitely no mess and cheap to do. The plastic container lasted 2 years before cracking because we left it out year round in the British weather, but I would love to do a full size sand pit if I could get around the cat issue.
We do have a cat but she is house trained so we haven’t had any problems. That being said, at the child care centre I ran we used a cover made from shade cloth (lets water through so good for drainage) and we sewed some metal chain into a channel along the edge to weigh it down. The chain was heavy enough for the cover not to blow off on the wind but light enough that the children could help pull the cover off. Hope this helps 🙂
That’s a great idea. I’ll have to give it a try this summer. Thanks Christie!
We did the same thing with our old one – just sewed a wooden rod in one end to weight it down. It worked really well, until my son and his friend’s pulled the rod out to play with…
Thank You so much for posting this, we have some sand leftover from a house project and I’ve been wanting to make a sandbox for my daughter, the ones they sell are too small for her since she is 8 and this post soooo handy, thank you so much!
Good luck with your project!
So many gorgeous play spaces! We have a sandpit – of sorts – that we built in our backyard years ago for child #1 – he’s 11 now, and I think we did it for his 3rd birthday party. Unfortunately it’s long since fallen into disuse, all the sand gradually dug out and spread around the yard. Our dog (who we’ve had for about 5 years) took to grabbing the sand toys and chewing them up, so the kids moved their sand play area to an old clam shell pool out the front. I think it’s time to refurbish the back yard sandpit though. The dog’s a lot calmer now, and my three-year-old dearly loves a good sandpit.
There are several types of sand…any suggestions?
Thank you!
About outdoor sandpit. I live in New England USA. Do you think pests like ants would be attracted to a sandpit? Thank you. Kathy