Back & Forth

Our girls absolutely love to swing.  They’d eat, sleep, and p-double-o-p swinging if they could.  I imagine it’s a past time most kids share.  Lucky for them, for their first birthday last year Grandpa and Grandma bought them two of these swings.  Unlucky for them, we literally just hung them last week.  We’ve had them stored away in the attic over the winter in hopes that this spring we’d have time to hang them.  The plan was to find a solid branch or two in the front yard and hang them from a tree.  The other part of the plan was to paint them so that 1) they’d sort of match the house a little better since they’d be right in front of it and not detract from curb appeal and 2) so that they were more gender neutral since Sebastian would probably share his sisters’ love of swinging one day.

So, finally and with some spray paint specially made for painting plastic (by Krylon), the swings went from this:
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with this:
photo 1 (2)

to this:
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As you can see, we ditched the front yard/tree swings idea after a good friend gave us their old swing set.  Now all the fun is in the backyard.  (Side note:  If you’re on the market for some swings and not opposed to a little DIY, check these out.  Our original plan was to make two of them but by the time we could have gotten them done with everything else on our plate, the girls (and boy) would be inhabiting them in high school.  Not cool.)

Unfortunately, I’m not enthused with the spray paint.  Even though it’s made for plastic, it has seemed to easily chip away in areas where plastic meets plastic, like where the safety bar meets the bottom of the seat.  The seat itself however has held up pretty good so far.  It’s withstood a few rainstorms and a week of being outside in the heat.  Time will tell if it’ll hold up for the long haul though.  I’ll keep ya posted. 

I used one can of spray paint per seat and could’ve used more.  I’ve found that as much as I like the way that Krylon sprays in a line vs. a circular spray like Rustoleum and other spray paints, it doesn’t seem to cover as well.  One can would probably have been good enough per swing had I used Rustoleum but since it sprays with a circular spray, it may have been tough to not have the swing look blotchy.

Either way, the kids really don’t care what the swings look like as long as they move. 

And move they do.
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6 comments

  1. Hi! Longtime reader/stalker, first time commenter.

    Have you posted a tutorial on how to make those cute headbands the twins are wearing? Or is it one of those obvious things I should just know? Did the fabric come from an old shirt? Or? Thank you!

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    1. Hi Sarah! I haven't posted a tutorial yet because I want to add a few more headbands to the mix but for the ones the twins are wearing in this post I used this super easy tutorial - http://cassidymillerphotography.com/blog/2013/04/19/fashion-friday-diy-headwrap-turban/
      I used a striped turtleneck I found at Goodwill! :)

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  2. Love the switch to white swings! And yes, pretty or not, the most important thing is that they swing :) I'm already scoping out potential branches in my yard for future baby swings!

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    1. Fun! I loved the idea of hanging the swings on a tree so much so I'm a little bummed. But, they swing. :)

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  3. Way to go, they look great, and the girls look delighted. Just the other day I was wondering how much time I have spent pushing swings over the years.......must be at least one full year by now!

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    1. Haha! That has to be true! It's a bittersweet relationship you must have with swings Julie...and that I'll have one day too! :)

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