TRANSFORM YOUR COMPOSITE DECK INTO A KID-FRIENDLY PARADISE

Your composite deck is a unique space in your home; one unrestricted by walls or roof and open to the possibilities of inspiration from mother nature. It’s a place where your children can explore and imagine uninterrupted with a sense of freedom whilst keeping them safely nearby, just a sliding door away from you. What better spot to give your kids direct access to creativity?

While some people think of an outdoor deck as just an extension of a house, we see it as a haven for magic. Here, in this special place located somewhere in between your home interior and the vast wide open, your children can encounter free-to-be-messy loud chaos or star light star bright tranquility.

Your Eva-Last®deck is more than the sum of its planks – it’s the basis for beautiful childhood memories to be made. Here are six simple ideas to help your children make the most of your outdoor space by transforming your composite deck into a kid-friendly paradise.

1. Bring The Beach To Your Doorstep

Your Eva-Last® sundeck is just begging to get in on the action of summer fun. While it’s great to take the kids to the beach, the necessary logistics, schedule conflicts and intimidatingly long car rides can often make it more of a chore than it’s worth. That’s ok – when you can’t go to the beach, just bring the beach to you. Put basic plastic kiddie pools right out on your composite deck. Fill one with water and another one with sand. Add in some floaty toys in one pool and sand toys in the other and you’ve got an instant kid-tastic mini beach set up.

Unlike most wooden decking, Eva-Last composite decking is moisture and slip resistant to help keep kids upright on their feet. And as far as the sand “beach” goes, the scratch resistance you get with Eva-Last composite should let your kids build castles without worrying about a wayward shovelful of sand getting flung onto the deck.

Bringing the beach home and onto your deck means skipping the traffic and overpriced ice cream vendors, while still enjoying the lovely sunny days of summer.

2. Let Your Toes Touch The Sky

You don’t need an entire gymnasium just to enjoy the free feeling of a swing. Erecting a swing on your composite deck lets your kids’ toes touch the sky – while you’re free to relax or get dinner ready while keeping an eye on things through the kitchen window.

Consider installing an Eva-Last composite pergola which can function as shade, a point of visual interest and a frame sturdy enough to hold a swing for a small child. Eva-Last now offers a line of composite/ aluminium trusses specifically designed to span farther and be sturdier than wooden pergolas. All you need are two hooks, some rope and a swing to transform your composite deck into the best playground in town. Using easily detachable clips to put up the swing means you can take the swing down and store it away whenever it’s not in use.

If your kids aren’t the only ones in the family who love the carefree act of swinging, then use your deck as the place to set up a family swing. Whether you choose a ground-based glider or to hang a family porch swing from above, an outdoor swing immediately beckons you to sit back, relax and let go of your cares for a moment or two.

3. Make Way For Messy Arts And Crafts

Glitter is just fabulous – until you have to clean it up. Often the barrier between kids and crafts is our own reluctance to deal with the unavoidable mess they leave behind. Shifting your craft table to your outdoor deck means keeping your house orderly while kids channel their inner abstract artist outside.

With Eva-Last composite decking, cleaning and care is minimal and no specialised decking cleaning are required, even in a children’s art zone. Just use the hose to spray away spills or the broom to sweep off the bits left over from the days’ art project. If there’s a more serious stain, regular dish soap should be all you need to clean it off.

4. Rhyme Time And Movement

Fact: kids like to move around. All the time. But there’s not always space in your house (or in your patience!). Send them outside on your composite deck to get their groove on. Set up music. Put out a play pit of plastic balls. Open an enticing box of old scarves and ribbons to encourage your wee ones to dance, bounce and move around on the deck to their hearts’ content.

This is where that scratch and slip-resistance of Eva-Last®composite decking comes in handy once again. Your deck is hardy enough to withstand even the toe tapping energy of growing kids.

Your outdoor deck is also a stage in the making for your youngsters to let loose their thespian skills. With just a simple sheet hung over the Eva-Last®composite pergola or screening, your deck becomes a home theatre – one in which the main star just happens to call you Mom or Dad. Using your deck as the base for a live performance means you can keep an eye on the kid-directed rehearsals from the convenience of your home and then easily bring out a lounge chair from the garage to join in when the audience is summoned.

5. Slouchy Story Space

Books are a celebration of imagination. Instilling a love of reading in your children will help them in school, help them in their futures and help their own creative juices flow. Setting up a designated reading space just for them helps establish a reading routine and encourages them to think of books as something special, not just a homework chore.

Bring out bean bag chairs, comfy, soft cushions or invest in specialised outdoor Eva-Last®composite furniture to create an outdoor library lounge. Keep it simple and let your kids soak up the tranquility and calm of being surrounded by Mother Nature as they dive into their latest book.

While your kids bask in the beauty of their stories, you can enjoy the wonderful view of your children doing something worthwhile. And just to add to the pretty picture, Eva-Last composite is available in a huge variety of colours, textures and finishes to pull some style into the scene.

6. A Fortress Worth Defending

If your home is your castle then your deck is the optimal point for defense. Engage your children in the age-old game of protecting their “fort” by hanging up sheets, towels, or old blankets from your fort “rafters” to create the ultimate play place. While your fort might not stay up forever, the memories of letting loose and acting silly with your kids will. Push back the deck furniture, move the flower pots out of the way and clear a space on your deck to become medieval knights and princesses in your fortress.

Eva-Last®composite is designed to withstand residential use without warping, cracking or splitting. So your kids can storm (or defend) the castle without damaging the deck, or getting splinters in their bare feet. If someone suggests pouring a moat’s worth of water buckets in the midst of the play fighting, well, you’ll be glad to have decking that’s moisture resistant.

Final Thoughts

While an Eva-Last composite deck is a serious investment in your home’s value, it’s designed to bring more fun than seriousness to your daily life. Your deck has the potential to become your children’s favourite place in the home – and your favourite place to watch them grow, watch them learn and jump in on the action as well.

With low-maintenance, hardy composite you can do less worrying about caring for your deck and spend more time enjoying it. You can say “yes” more than “no” to your kids’ ideas and let them dance, create and pretend in a nag-free zone. You can give them the chance to experience how wonderful it can be to sit outside and just be still. Or you can give them a place to run, jump and be so busy that they will sleep all through the night (and maybe even go to bed early).

Eva-Last  is a globally recognised and trusted brand that manufactures and distributes specialised bamboo-plastic composite products and building solutions, namely, decking, cladding and indoor flooring. With over a decade of experience in all stages of the industry, from production to installation, Eva-Last  has both practical and technical knowledge that is used to assist owners, developers, architects and building professionals alike in achieving their design objectives. Eva-Last  strives to continually improve and innovate, delivering revolutionary composite products and attentive support to all customers.