How We Made Our Own Beautiful Dreamy Garden Swing

162

What could be better after a long, hard day at the office than chilling in a lovely, tranquil garden? Especially this time of the year when the weather is so glorious. Our highveld garden must be one of my all-time favorite places to unwind, so when we made a swing for some of our teddy bears a few weeks ago, it got me thinking about making a bigger version. There’s just something about a swing that brings back so many beautiful memories of a time when things seemed so much simpler. When the only thing you had to worry about was how high you could fly.

The world is a playground and life is pushing my swing Click to Tweet

These old bones of ours probably couldn’t handle wild swing rides anymore ;-) But they sure could do with a dreamy garden swing, where we can relax and contemplate the small things in life. So that’s what we did, we built ourselves one.

 

We’re very fortunate to have a lovely, well-established garden full of indigenous trees, so finding a spot to hang the swing wasn’t a problem. All we had to try figure out was how to make a dreamy garden swing.

How To Make a Dreamy Garden Swing

The seat was easy enough. We just took a few pallets and joined them together and then painted them with white roof paint. We figured if the paint lasts on the roof for years, it would be perfect for a swing seat too.

 

Once we had the seat, we started thinking about how to add the dreamy bits. Please stay with me, coz this is where it gets interesting ;-)

How To Make Large Polystyrene Beads

Those beads on the sides are actually polystyrene or Styrofoam shapes that we found at the craft store. They can be used for so many different ways. We made a hole with a skewer stick through the center of each shape and then covered them with some self-adhesive mesh tape to make them stronger and more durable. These babies are going to be hanging outside in all kinds of weather and I want them to last. The mesh also gives the grout, which we’ll be adding in the next step, something to grip onto.

 

Once all the shapes were covered they were dipped in watered-down waterproof grout and left to dry overnight.

 

If you insert a skewer or a straw into the shape before dipping it definitely makes things easier ;-)

 

And that skewer or straw helps keep the shapes upright while they dry too.

 

After the first layer of grout has dried, the shapes were sanded and then dipped again until they were completely covered.

 

Getting the Dreamy Garden Swing Ready for Hanging

To hang the garden swing we used:

• 4 x Female 8mm eye nuts
• 4 x 8mm self-locking nuts or torque nuts
• 8mm Galvanized thread bar
• 4 x Locking carabiners and 2 x normal carabiners or snap hooks
• Galvanised chain
• A tube inner
• 2 x Galvanized Screw Pin Anchor Shackles (not pictured below)

We drilled four 8 mm holes in the pallet swing seat and inserted the female eye nuts from the top. The galvanized thread bar was cut and screwed into the eye nuts from the bottom and then everything was tightened with a torque nut.

 

The locking carabiners were inserted into each female nut before adding a 70 cm chain on each side. Finally, a normal carabiner was added to the middle point of each chain.

 

Our trees are really special to us and I didn’t want to damage the branch where the swing would go. After some thought, we decided to use a tube inner around the chains that would go over the branch to protect it.

 

The ends of the chains would be joined together using the anchor shackles after the chains go over the branch.

 

Attaching the Beads and Hanging Her Up

Once the swing seat and the bit that goes over the branch were ready it was time for us to add the beads to create the dreamy look. We measured the height from the branch down to the ground and cut two pieces of 3.5 mm plastic coated wire. A 4 mm rope clamp was added to the wire and then a polystyrene shape and a bead for love.

 

The rope clamps stop the shapes from moving down the wire and they can be re-positioned just by loosening the clamps. We added clamps, shapes, and beads until we were happy with the whole look and then made a loop at the bottom and top of the coated wire and used some more clamps to secure the loop.

 

Finally, we used the carabiner to join the looped plastic coated wire to the swing seat. With a little bit of height adjustment, we then connected the whole swing to the chains that we’d thrown over the branches using the anchor shackle.

 

And our romantic garden swing was done :D

 

Now we can spend countless hours under the trees in our romantic garden swing, dreaming dreams and just relaxing.

 

And you’d never say those “beads” are just polystyrene balls :D

 

I’m hoping it will be easy enough to adjust the swing as the tree grows by lengthening or shortening the chain at the top or bottom. We just need to un-clip the carabiners or the anchor shackles at the top and adjust accordingly. Well, that’s the theory anyway ;-)

 

If you like the idea of making your own dreamy garden swing don’t forget to pin it for later.

I’d really love to know what you think of our dreamy garden swing. It’s in the perfect spot and hubby really loves it. I swear he’s spent more time on that swing watching me, with a beer in hand, making things than I have. Now my inner child also wants a turn. Wanna join me? We can take turns ;-)

 

Oh BTW, if you’d like to make something similar or prefer to buy rather than DIY,  we’ve got you covered Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket. It helps us come up with more crafty ideas to share with you

And as always, here’s wishing you a beautiful, crafty and love-filled week. Thank you for popping around for a visit.