Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 4Finishing touches
- Assembly
Getting all the pieces inside and screwing everything together is definitely not a one man job. Once you have it all reassembled, including a few long screws into the bridge and tower. Add a few metal angle brackets on the top inside corners as you see fit. Glue and nail down the top hand railing trim along with bottom moldings. Shim as necessary.
-Painting
After a few coats of dark gray, paint the trim along the top and bottom to match the child safety foam corner pieces. My brother did a very creative and quite frankly fantastic job sponge painting the stone blocks. He just trimming the corners off of a normal sponge. My mother and I free hand painted the cloud, sun and bird background.
-Lighting
I stapled a strand of white mini Christmas lights inside along the top. I also installed two torch lights from Ikea to the outside, running their wires in and up to a small shelf. I rewired and attached a Christmas tree foot switch on the inside for easy access. (Picture 3)
-Extras
The wooden shield screwed in the front came from a renaissance fair I went to as a kid.
The safety foam padding was purchased online and stuck on with the double sided tape that came with it. I only had to cut a few pieces to fit and it has been a great extra feature.
If you are thinking about building something like this, and I think you should. Here are a few tips I can share from my experience. Use all nice plywood, the few dollars saved on the cheap stuff will cost you later in sanding and wood filler. Build it strong enough for kids and adults. Make all openings kid safe, either too small or too big to get their heads stuck. You will need a thick pillow or padding at the bottom of the fireman's pole. Screws are not good for holding carpet down. Lastly double or triple pad the flooring, your knees will thank you.
I hope you enjoyed my project and take these plans and tips to build something fun.
Getting all the pieces inside and screwing everything together is definitely not a one man job. Once you have it all reassembled, including a few long screws into the bridge and tower. Add a few metal angle brackets on the top inside corners as you see fit. Glue and nail down the top hand railing trim along with bottom moldings. Shim as necessary.
-Painting
After a few coats of dark gray, paint the trim along the top and bottom to match the child safety foam corner pieces. My brother did a very creative and quite frankly fantastic job sponge painting the stone blocks. He just trimming the corners off of a normal sponge. My mother and I free hand painted the cloud, sun and bird background.
-Lighting
I stapled a strand of white mini Christmas lights inside along the top. I also installed two torch lights from Ikea to the outside, running their wires in and up to a small shelf. I rewired and attached a Christmas tree foot switch on the inside for easy access. (Picture 3)
-Extras
The wooden shield screwed in the front came from a renaissance fair I went to as a kid.
The safety foam padding was purchased online and stuck on with the double sided tape that came with it. I only had to cut a few pieces to fit and it has been a great extra feature.
If you are thinking about building something like this, and I think you should. Here are a few tips I can share from my experience. Use all nice plywood, the few dollars saved on the cheap stuff will cost you later in sanding and wood filler. Build it strong enough for kids and adults. Make all openings kid safe, either too small or too big to get their heads stuck. You will need a thick pillow or padding at the bottom of the fireman's pole. Screws are not good for holding carpet down. Lastly double or triple pad the flooring, your knees will thank you.
I hope you enjoyed my project and take these plans and tips to build something fun.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
