Backyard playgrounds that don't look like a catalog.
Custom play towers, swings, slides, climbers and playhouses, designed around your yard and your kids, with the landing surface figured out before we pick the slide.
Kids think about
How tall the tower is. Whether the slide is a tube. If there's a secret spot underneath.
Parents think about
What's under the slide when they bail off it. Whether it'll look like a playground took over the yard.
What we build
A playground is a collection of small decisions.
Every KidScapes play area is designed from scratch. We don't sell a Model B tower with an upgrade package. We ask what your kids do all day, walk the yard with a tape measure, and then draw something that fits both.
Most play areas combine a few of the same ingredients: something to climb, something to slide down, something to swing on, and somewhere to hide. The differences are in the proportions. A four-year-old and a nine-year-old need different heights, different grip sizes, and different levels of "I did it myself." A good structure gives each of them a route that feels like theirs.
Towers, decks and platforms
Deck heights from 3 to 7 feet, sized to the oldest kid who'll use it in the next couple of years, not the youngest. Roofs matter more here than in most places. At 5,000 feet, a bare deck in July is unusable by noon.
Slides
Straight, wave, spiral and tube. Tube slides stay cooler and are a favorite with kids who like enclosed spaces. On a sloped lot we often build a hill slide instead: a wide slide set into a turf berm, with no ladder and almost no fall height. Toddlers can use it alone and big kids still race down it.
Swings
Belt swings, bucket swings for the little ones, nest swings that fit three kids, glider swings and rope swings from a tree that's been checked by an arborist. Swing bays need the most clearance of anything on the play structure, and we plan that first.
Climbers
Rock walls, cargo nets, rope ladders, monkey bars, overhead rings and firefighter poles. Climbers are how we make a structure grow: the same posts take a beginner rock wall at age four and a steep bouldering panel at age nine.
Playhouses and hideouts
The space under a deck is the best real estate in the yard. We finish it as a clubhouse, a pretend store, a chalkboard room or a shaded reading nook with a bench. Playhouses can be standalone too, sided and roofed to match your house so they read as a garden building, not a toy.
Heart anything you like
Saved ideas go on your board and come with you into the project builder.
Under the slide
The surfacing conversation, up front.
Most backyard playground injuries are falls to the surface, so what's under the structure matters more than what the structure is made of. Here's how the common options compare in a Colorado yard.
| Surface | Feels like | Good for | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineered wood fiber | Soft mulch that packs a bit over time | Natural look, lower cost, large areas, strong impact performance when kept at depth | Needs topping up every year or two. Tracks indoors. Can hold snow into spring on the north side of a structure. |
| Rubber mulch | Springy loose fill | Low maintenance, drains fast, doesn't decompose | Gets hot in direct sun. We only use it under shade. Not our first choice near a pool or splash pad. |
| Poured-in-place rubber | Firm, seamless, colorful | Accessible routes, wheelchairs and strollers, color and pattern, zero raking | Highest cost. Needs a proper concrete or compacted base to survive freeze-thaw. Repairs are visible. |
| Turf over a shock pad | Looks like lawn | Yards where you want play and lawn to blend, sledding hills, multi-use space | Impact rating depends entirely on the pad underneath. Turf alone is not a safety surface. Surface heat needs managing with infill choice and shade. |
| Sand | Beach | Toddler zones, play value doubles as a dig area | Needs a cover strategy for cats and weather. Displaces under swings and slide exits. Not accessible. |
We design use zones and surfacing with published consumer playground guidance in mind and follow the surfacing manufacturer's installed-depth specifications. That's a design intent, not a guarantee against injury. Supervision still matters, and we'll tell you honestly which features need more of it.
Grow-with-you
Same posts. Different kid.
A well-built structure should outlast the age it was built for. We design the frame, footings and deck to take future hardware: a rock wall panel where the toddler slide is now, a trapeze bar on the swing beam where the bucket seat hangs today, a zip line anchor on a post that's currently holding up a roof.
Plan for it now and the yard changes with a Saturday and some bolts. Skip it and you're tearing out a set in five years.
See how play changes by age- 4' deck, toddler slide, bucket swing
- Low rock wall with big holds
- Sand under the deck
- Same deck, spiral or tube slide
- Belt swings, trapeze, cargo net
- Clubhouse under the deck
- Bouldering panel, monkey bars, zip anchor
- Swing beam becomes a hammock frame
- Or the footprint becomes a half court
What changes at 5,280 feet.
Sun and heat
UV up here is intense and slides get hot. We orient slides north or east where we can, use lighter colors, and put a roof or shade sail over the deck.
Wind
Front Range gusts are real. Footings are sized and set for uplift, not just gravity, and roofs are fastened like roofs, not like lids.
Expansive soil
Clay soils heave. Posts sit on proper footings below frost depth with drainage stone, so the structure stays plumb through March.
HOAs
Many Front Range neighborhoods have height, color and setback rules for play structures. We check before we design, not after.
Questions parents ask
Playground FAQ
How much yard does a play structure need?
More than the structure itself. A slide needs a clear zone at the exit, swings need clearance front and back roughly twice the height of the beam, and everything needs a use zone around it. A modest tower with one slide and a two-bay swing typically wants a footprint in the range of 20 by 25 feet including surfacing. Small yards are still very doable; we just choose features that share clearance, like a hill slide or a nest swing instead of a full swing bay.
Wood, metal or composite?
Cedar and redwood are the traditional choices and age well when sealed. Thermally modified wood and composite decking resist splintering and need less upkeep. Powder-coated steel is strong for swing beams and monkey bars. We usually mix them: wood where kids touch it, steel where it takes the load. See Materials matter for how we choose finishes.
Will it look like a public playground?
Not if we're doing our job. Residential play should look like it belongs to the house: natural timber or painted to match the trim, planting around the edges, surfacing that blends with the landscape. The structure can be big and still be quiet.
Do I need a permit?
Usually not for a play structure alone, but rules vary by city and county along the Front Range, and some HOAs require approval. Anything with a roof over a certain size, electrical for lighting, or a retaining wall may trigger one. We handle the checking and tell you what applies.
How long does it take?
Design is a few weeks depending on how many rounds we go through together. Build time for a play area alone is typically measured in weeks, not months. If it's part of a full backyard with grading, water and turf, the play area is one phase in a longer schedule and we'll lay that out in the proposal.
Tell us what they climb on now.
The couch, probably. We can do better than the couch.