Playgrounds for Small Backyards: Shrinking our Best Sellers

Not everyone has a massive backyard, and that is ok! Some of you are looking for playgrounds for a small backyard and are wondering if we can shrink down some of our best sellers to make them fit your space.

In this blog post, I will take three of our best selling swing sets, the Cubby’s Fort, Sea King, and Captain’s Castle, and shrink them down to the smallest dimensions I can while trying to maintain the main features of the swing sets. The great thing is, you can use the following tricks on almost any standard swing set or in your own custom design to get a compact playground for a small backyard.

If reading isn’t your thing, than just scroll to the pictures. Let’s get started!

Cubby’s Fort

The standard Cubby’s Fort is 19′ left to right and 12′ front to back. Let’s see if we can shrink this a bit while keeping it essentially the same set.

Let’s first delete the waterfall slide completely. With it gone, let’s move the rock wall/ladder combo to the front of the tower.

We do need a slide. While more expensive, the super spiral slide sticks out only 5′ from the tower so let’s use this slide. To make up for that additional cost, let’s delete the checkerboard. Now, let’s shrink the monkey bar swing beam to a 2-position monkey bar swing beam.

After making those changes, you are 17′ right to left but only 8′ front to back. You still have to keep in mind the path of the swings, but this has dramatically reduced the footprint and changed it into a playground for a small backyard. Refer to the schematics below.

Sea King

The Sea King has a spacious 6’x8′ tower but can we turn this into a space saving playset? It starts at 26′ right to left and 11′ front to back. Let’s give it a shot.

First, we do the traditional shortening of the 3 position monkey bar swing beam to a 2 position swing beam. Next, we delete the waterfall slide as it sticks out 8′ from the tower. We will move the rockwall to the left side of the swing set tower and then replace the staircase with a ladder.

We still need a slide. The sidewinder slide when put in the far right corner of the the tower will give us the smallest dimensions possible but the super spiral slide on the front looks better.

After those changes, we have made the Sea King into a small playground for your back yard. It now measures 18′ left to right and 13′ front to back.

Captain’s Castle

For our last set, let’s take the mighty Captain’s Castle and change it into a space saving play set. Granted, there is only so much we can do to reduce the overall dimensions, but let’s try it. We start at 21′ left to right and 21′ front to back. Let’s shrink that down.

The first thing we do is turn the tower sideways. We will run a 2-position monkey bar swing beam from off the right side of the 5′ tower with the waterfall slide coming out the front and the ladder out the back. The super spiral slide will be on the back of the 7′ tower and empty towards the ladder. We will set the rock wall to the front of the 7′ tower.

I know that is confusing if you don’t do this every day, so refer to the picture above. This takes the dimensions down to 17′ left to right and 17′ front to back without losing any pieces besides one swing position. Not a bad compact playground for a small backyard.

As you can see, all of our standard swing sets can become a space saving playset though some may stretch the definition a bit. This is the beauty of designing your own playset, you are not stuck with the listed dimension. With a little creativity, we can help you customize a swing set that will fit your backyard!