Simple & Affordable DIY Sand Tent Tutorial

Make your own DIY Sand Tent with this tutorial!

Sandboxes seem to be a backyard staple for families with young children. Playing in the sand encourages open ended & sensory play in the great outdoors.

Since this is the exact type of outdoor play that we strive for, we wanted to add a sand play area to our backyard. We opted for a sand tent over a regular sandbox. A sand tent is simply a child-sized tent with play sand covering the bottom. Our kids could play in here for hours on end!

Why Should You Make a DIY Sand Tent?

So you want to add your own sand play area, but you aren’t sure which option to choose… Let me give you the pro & con list for sand tents to help you make your decision.

DIY Sand Tent Pros

• A tent will keep cats and other animals from using your child’s sand as a potty zone.
• A sand tent will help protect your child from the summer sun.
• If you live in a windy area like we do, your backyard could turn into a sandstorm if you don’t have something (like a tent) to keep the wind out of the sand.
• Weeds can grow through open sandboxes, but our tent keeps weeds out.
• A sand tent is very easy & inexpensive to create in your own backyard.

DIY Sand Tent Cons

• If you use a cheaply made tent, it might not hold up to the weather and you would need to replace it each year. Our tent was less than $20 so we didn’t mind replacing it, but next time we will purchase a higher quality one.
• That is seriously the only con that I can think of…A sand tent really is a great option!

We chose to purchase a child-sized Ozark Trail tent from WalMart. We zip it up at night to keep the cat out, it provides shade and a windbreak, and it will keep weeds out. Putting this together took me about 15 minutes by myself. It was really very simple.

How to Create Your Own DIY Sand Tent

Step 1:

Set up the tent according to the instructions. Most only require that you put the poles through the pockets and stake it down. I used a 6’x4′ tent from WalMart.

Be careful with the poles if you buy a cheaper one like this because they can snap (as mine did). Duct tape is serving as our temporary fix;)

Step 2:

Pour your sand. I purchased 11 bags of sand per recommendation of Google, but I only needed five. You can use more or less depending on how deep you want the sand to be. Five bags was perfect for our DIY sand tent.

There was a pretty good distance for me to carry the sand. I was six months pregnant at the time of this project soI needed to avoid putting too much strain on myself. I didn’t want to wait for my husband (patience is a virtue that I don’t have yet) to get home to move them for me so I pulled out our sled and got to work!

Step 3:

Throw in some fun sandbox toys and let the kids go wild! I purchased our toys at Dollar Tree and only spent around $10.

TIP!

It gets pretty humid where we are so I am assuming that the sand might get a little damp and icky if I keep the tent closed all the time. I will try to avoid this by opening the flap on really sunny days when I am outside and can keep an eye on the cat. This will allow the sand to dry out periodically.

DIY Sand Tent Costs:

• Tent– $18-$25
• Sand- $20 (5 bags @ $4 each)
• Sand Toys– $10

Total—>$48-$55

You can’t beat that!

>>More DIY Ideas<<

• DIY Farmhouse Baby Gate
• Make Your Own DIY Planting Containers
• DIY Compost Bin with a 5 Gallon Bucket
• DIY Horseshoe Headband Holder

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