Introduction: Boulder Tower for Kids
A quite easy an fast project, that brought a lot of fun to my kids.
Material:
- 3 old door panels
- 2 tension belts
- 2 furniture castors
- some wood (waste)
- screws
Tools
- saw
- screwdriver
Step 1: A Single Boulder Wall
1 ) It started with a bloulder wall (an old door) for my little princess. I took the waste from edging some boards, because the had the angled side from the tree radius, that made them good for gripping.
2) i sanded them to prevent injuries
3 + 4) i mounted them on the door panel
5) i tried it by my self to, to check the stability, then my kid(s) began to climb
Step 2: Make It Bigger
After a few days of fun, it began to became to easy ....
So i made 2 new concepts for more doors. First with the doors side by side. The second one with the doors in a triangle arrangement.
Step 3: The Tower Concept Wins
I tried the tower and it was really stable, so is went on that way.
Step 4: Build the Tower
At first i cut some holes in the tower, for more adventure feeling :D
then i mount some more wooden handels. I mount them on both sides of the door panel, so the kids could climb in the inside and on the outside.
I fixed the triangle really tough with the tension belts, and mounted some furniture castors at one door, so i could move the tower by tilting to the side with the rolls.
Step 5: Climb and Play
Now it was ready for playing.
It was a big fun for the small kids. They could climb different ways and made some contests.
It works for two sommers, then i moved to an new house an build a new wall in their room.
It brought my older one, to a quit good climbing level, far better than her fat daddy ;-)
Warnings:
- Check the stability every day, if the belts loosen just a little bit, the tower tilts easier.
- Stay with your kids. Help them, cheer them on, give them hints ... prevent them from generating fears when they feel alone.
- Bigger Kids are tilting the tower easily, it's for kids up to 6 years.

Participated in the
Outside Contest 2017
9 Comments
5 years ago
I really admire the hold itself, curious how much the grip could take.
I'll guess it would be the screws breaking first
Reply 5 years ago
The grip has never been a problem for the smaller kids. None was ever falling down :-)
But you are right to take a special look at the screws. They schoul not be to short to fix the hold good enough.
So it worked for two years fine (pics are from 2014) ... it is just replaced, because i build a new wall in the kids room in our new house ... and my new garage is/was to small for even the folded wall.
Btw. I bought some professionell holds for the new wall. The younger kids prefered the wooden holds . When they became older that changed and the bought holds became their favorites.
But now the older one (8 y.) don't like all of these toys anymore. She loves the 4.5 merers boulder walls in our local boulder-club with the weekly changing routes, this is something i can not build at home :-).
5 years ago
Great idea, awesome work!
Reply 5 years ago
Thank you!
5 years ago
this is cool, i intended to make a climbing wall in the play room for my son but you version has the advantage to be collapsable and storable easily.
the only doubt i have is about stability : isn't there any risk of this tower to fall, as you didn't attach it to a base?
Reply 5 years ago
The collapsable part saved a lot of space in my Garage .... but only in winter ... in the summer time i stopped folding it, because we used it nearly every day .... then i need to suck in my stomach to leave my car :D :D :D
Reply 5 years ago
We had some older Kids in the Neighbourhood ... 11 and up .... they wanted to climb, but they could reach the top of the tower standing on the tows ... and that kids had the chance to tilt the tower.
It is not only the weight, but if the Kids are "longer" and their centre of gravity overhangs to far.
So you can assume if they are to big, and it became risky, the tower was anyway already uninteresting to them.
5 years ago
I love it but was wondering how tippy it got. Glad you said ages 6 and under. Too tippy if the kid weighs more.
Reply 5 years ago
repost:
We had some older Kids in the Neighbourhood ... 11 and up .... they wanted to climb, but they could reach the top of the tower standing on the tows ... and that kids had the chance to tilt the tower.
It is not only the weight, but if the Kids are "longer" and their centre of gravity overhangs to far.
So you can assume if they are to big, and it became risky, the tower was anyway already uninteresting to them.