DIY Sandbox

Before we get started I wanted to say Happy Memorial Day to Everyone! With the official first day of Summer past us it is not time to start all of the summer like activities! Swimming, Golfing, Sunbathing and one of the most important one in my book the BEACH!

This past weekend to help kick off Summer, my friend Jessica and her 2 kids Mason and Rylee decided to have our own day at the beach. . .well make a beach in the backyard :) Jessica had picked up your standard pool from Walmart for a great value of $9.99, so I decided to make a sandbox so that we could truly have a beach! When I looked at Walmart at there Sandboxes I was nearly blown away at the cost of a box to put sand in! $40-$150 people!!!! Have you lost your mind!!!!! Needless to say Zoey and I got right back into the car and went over to Home Depot to build our own! And thank goodness my old faithful scrap wood bin was able to save the day again! I was able to grab 4 beautiful pieces of wood for $1.01 each, had them cut the same size and we were off to the races! Check out the directions/pics below!

Materials Needed:

x4 Pieces of Wood  (I used 2x6 aprox 3.5 ft long)

x4 90 degree brackets ( pic below, can be found by the deck braces, $0.47 each)

Wood screws ( we had plenty hanging around the house)

Weed guard fabric

Staple Gun or Hammer and nails

Power Drill

Sand Bags

Steps:

1. Take your 2x6 Pieces of wood and have them cut the same length, for those of you who dont know this, Home Depot will cut the wood for you for free! 

2. Take 4 pieces of wood and make them into a box formation.

3. Take your handy dandy brackets and attach your bracket to each of the 4 corners together, it does help to have a second person handy, or use the wall to help push the pieces together while you drill.This pic was from another project of mine. . .Same concept though

 4. You should now have a put together box! Congrats!!! How easy was that!

5. Take your newly constructed box and attach your weed guard fabric to cover the bottom of your box. Attach with your staple gun or hammer and nails. This will not only prevent creepy crawlies from getting into the sand, but also the weeds!

*Note: For those of you who have not purchased a staple gun, Home Depot has a wonderful selection for $10, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing one if you are a crafter or DIYer (not sure if that is a word lol)

6. Flip box over so that the fabric is on the ground and fill with sand! TADA! SANDBOX!

I would recommend that any sandbox you build be AT LEAST 4 inches deep! To know how many bags of sand you will need. Simply multiply the Length x Width of your sand box. Take that total and multiple that by 0.667 to find out how many bags of sand you will need. We needed 6 bags to fill a 3.5 x 3.5 box.

Cost of Sandbox: 

x4 2x6 boards $1.01 each

x4 Brackets $0.47 each

x1 roll of weed fabric $9.99

x6 bags of sand $2.50 each

Total Cost: $30.88 WITH SAND INCLUDED!!!!!

Savings Tips:

#1 Home Depot has 2 different kids of Play Sand, both are the same size just different prices. The one in the gardening department is $3.55 per bag. There is a second area inside by the housing materials for $2.50 per bag!

#2 You do not HAVE to use the weed fabric, its just a nice to have. . . But if you are like us and are planting flowers at the same time, just cut a piece off and use that, no need to buy a whole roll!.

Total cost for a perfect summer, toys included. . .$50! Hows that for savings!!!!