Painting the Swingset

      When we first told Apollo we were moving he was not very happy about the idea at all. He thought that we would be leaving all of our stuff behind and getting new stuff in the new house. For a 3 year old the thought that you'll never see any of your toys again is pretty traumatizing. Luckily, I explained to him that all of our stuff would be coming with us and he warmed up to the idea of moving a little more. What really won him over though is when he saw that the new house came with it's very own playground!

 

Well okay, not so much a playground and more like a dirty old tetanus trap of death.

      Even though this thing was in horrible condition I knew that Apollo would throw a crazy fit if we got rid of it. So then I reluctantly accepted the responsibility of cleaning and painting the swing set. I started with a Brillo pad and bucket of hot water and got to scrubbing. It got the dirt off pretty well and a little bit of the rust but just wasn't doing the job (plus it was taking FOREVER). 

      So, I hit up the store for some CLR. I guess they make a CLR formulated for outdoor use that doesn't kill the grass but I couldn't find it. I started scrubbing with the CLR/water mixture until the dirt, and as much rust as I could bear to scrub, came off. It even took some of the paint off which worked out well for what I was trying to do. I would HIGHLY SUGGEST wearing some rubber gloves for this because that stuff starts to burn the hands after awhile. 

      Then, I took the hose to the whole thing with a power washer tip on it and rinsed the CLR off. I waited a few days before I got the paint but you could start painting once the swing set is dry.

 

      I used this Rustoleum spray paint that is good for multi-surfaces and outdoors. What I also liked is that it is really thick and one coat is equal to two coats of regular spray paint. As you can tell from my hands it is probably a good idea to wear gloves. As you can't tell in this photo, you should also wear long sleeves, some kind of glasses, a painters mask, and anything that will protect your skin. Spray paint is not easy to get off and I had to live with blue specs all over my face, arms, and feet for a few days.

    Here it is about half way done. At this point I decided that just one shade of blue looked boring so I went back and got another, slightly darker, shade. I used masking tape to tape off certain parts I wanted to leave the lighter blue. I also used a sheet of paper to protect the spray from hitting some parts I didn't want to spray with one or the other color. If I had to do it again I'd use a piece of thin cardboard instead of paper because the paper was too floppy. 

     And the final result! Okay nothing too dramatic or exciting but I was able to get rid of and/or cover up most of the rust. I was kind of disappointed with the colors, the blues were really really close in shade when it all dried so I didn't get the contrast I wanted.
    A really important thing you should check before you go through the effort to paint an old swingset is that the rust is only on the surface. If the rust has ate through any part then either replace the part or get rid of the set completely. 

      Apollo is too small to reach the monkey bars right now but I plan on removing these and replacing them before he is. Rusted through play equipment can be VERY dangerous, just because it is painted doesn't mean it isn't there! So please please please replace any parts that are rusted through like this. 

     I also want to replace the chains on the swings and the actual swings themselves since they are pretty rusted as well. I will keep this page updated with more photos when that happens!