Another Climbing Wall

Those of you who have been following Fresh Coat of Paint over the years may recall the climbing wall we built at our last house. It was one of my favourite projects ever and I was a little disappointed that we sold the house after enjoying it for less than a year! At the time, we asked our buyers if they'd like us to leave the climbing wall and they said they would. We were delighted to leave it but we knew we'd have to build a new one in this house!

Instead of the mountain theme we had last time, this time I opted for whimsical trees modelled after the Truffula trees, but with colours to compliment our family room.

To begin the project, we measured the space and bought a piece of plywood to fit.

Then, I roughly sketched the background (I practiced on paper first) and painted it.

Corey used 3" construction screws to anchor the board into studs in our wall. It left visible holes in the board, which we filled with wood filler and touched up at the end of the project.

Corey used 1/4" toggle bolts to secure the holds, which are available on Amazon and Ebay.

Rudy helped us place the holds and she actually loved being involved and kept tying to screw them into the wall herself! It was adorable and she was so proud that she helped!

Rudy loved the wall right away. She hasn't climbed too high yet but she keeps practicing. Each time she comes down, she claps her hands and says "Yay Rudy!"

A Climbing Wall For Our Mountain Goat

You're going to think we're crazy but we've built a small climbing wall for our one-year-old.  Okay, so Rudy's one and a half now but we actually built this wall for her months ago when she was still crawling!  Let me provide some background so you can see that we conceived this idea in a very sane way.  Here goes...

Rudy loves to climb.  Don't blame me; She gets it from Corey!  There is something unsettling about a baby who can not yet walk but will climb on to the back of the couch and then attempt to get her foot up on the window sill before being pulled down by terrified parents.  It was in trying to keep her safe and direct her to safe activities that I came up with the idea for a climbing wall.  Corey amended it by suggesting a more horizontal, rather than vertical climb and our idea was born.

Corey knew that we would affix plywood to the wall and anchor the climbing holds (purchased on ebay) into the plywood for extra support.  I decided to paint an abstract mountain range on to the plywood.  We ended up choosing the three lighter greys from the photo below:  (lightest to darkest) Sherwin Williams "Icy Avalanche", "Modernist Gray", and "Perpetual Gray"

Over the course of a few nights, we prepared the plywood.

We measured the angles and "drew" our mountain range in tape.  Corey affixed it to the wall along the studs using a laser level (7) and we filled in the holes (8) before touching up the paint.

We used photoshop (10) to plan the positions of the holds.

We sorted the holds, since some were better for stepping on and others made better hand grips!  Each one was anchored deep into the wall through the plywood.

We eventually added a different type of hold as well, which was easier for Rudy to step on with shoes.  

For months, Rudy was indifferent but she loves her climbing wall now!  It's good exercise (especially on a rainy day) and it gives her a lot of confidence!  You should see her tackle the climbing wall at our local park!

Today, Corey was making dinner while I was at work.  He popped his head into the family room to check on Rudy and she had started climbing the wall on her own!  He snapped a pic to send me because we are both so proud!

This has to be one of my favourite DIYs!