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How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

06/11/2013 By Charlene 82 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure policy.

How to Make a Giant Water Bed- for just a few dollars you can make a giant outdoor water bed for the kids to play. You won't believe the joy this will bring- PERFECT activity for parties!



Update: As you can see my children were quite small when we made this water blob.  I have tried this years later with my bigger kids (aged 8 and 9) and they are just too big now for the water blob.  This is better suited for either one child to play or toddlers to play- not bigger kids.

Here is a very easy and inexpensive way to bring tremendous fun to your summer this year!  Make a Giant Water Bed for the kids to play- you won’t believe how much joy they will get from this project.

My kids still talk about this as the highlight of their summer (and that summer we also went to Disneyland so there you have it.)

We had a terrible heat spell this weekend so I decided this was the time to finally make one of these giant water beds for the kiddos (or water blob if you prefer).

This was fairly simple to do and the price of the materials was about $13 at Home Depot or Lowe’s. You just want to get a plastic sheeting (extra strength) and really good tape.  The sheeting we used was Husky Brand and found in the section with the laminate flooring.  The tape was Scotch Duct tape and it worked really well- that can be found over by the paint.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

To start with you want to lay the plastic sheeting out- we laid it out in the driveway.

Next fold it in half and start taping all around leaving one small hole in one corner for the hose to fit.  Make sure you tape well and really press the tape in to get a good seal.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

Once you do that position the water bed where you want it.  Try for a flat surface and obviously on grass.  Our yard slopes down so it was a little harder to get the water even in the bed.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

One little tip as you are taping your sheeting. Check out Stratco Fencing Catalogue to find awesome products for your outdoor area. We folded the sheeting over and then folded it up about 2 inches so the tape was not exactly on the seam of the two pieces.  If you have it right on the seam all the pressure from jumping will be on those sides and you will have more leaks.

If you fold it up slightly and then tape it-the taped part will be on top of the water bed and less likely to leak.

Feed the hose inside the tarp.  Try to push the hose to the far end of the tarp so you can fill more evenly.  I propped the end of the hose up on a plastic tub and taped it gently in place so that water wouldn’t escape out when I was filling the tarp.  Fancy right?

Once it is full just take the hose out and tape up the hole.  We used the corner as our hole for the hose to make it easy to find and seal again.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

 

It takes a bit to get the entire tarp filled with water- I added some blue food coloring once it was full and before I sealed the corner so it would look prettier. One or two jumps and the food coloring spreads out.  You can also add little plastic fish and things but just be careful because you don’t want to pop holes in the tarp.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

This is what the final product will look like.  The girls had fun jumping on this for a bit (I jumped too and it is pretty darn cool!)  I wanted to lay down and read a book on it myself.

But they started to get a little bored with the jumping and so….

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

I turned on the sprinklers.

And the fun really began.  They LOVED it after the bed got wet and I had the sprinklers on low and they raced through (slip n slide style) for ages.  In fact I finally had to yell to come inside and we left it all out there for after dinner.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

It did spring one or two leaks- just grab the tape and patch them up.

How to Make a Giant Outdoor Water Bed

Overall I’d say this was worth the effort.  It was something new and different for the kiddos and I think it is a fun thing for bigger kids and really little ones.  If you have toddlers you might consider putting large goldfish gummy candy or something inside because I can see them crawling around and really noticing the details of the water swooshing around.

I think if we go to Grandpa’s house or somewhere that we don’t have a lot of toys I would totally make this again.

And if you haven’t met all the neighbors in your community yet- I guarantee you will have people stopping by to see what the heck you have going on :).

This is part of the 30 days to a Funner Summer series.

You can catch up with the entire series by click below:

  1. Day 1: Get Organized!  How to organize children’s activity bags.
  2. Day 2: End of Year Surprises for Children
  3. Day 3: Strawberry Lemon Slushie Recipe 
  4. Day 4: Homemade Hamburger Seasoning to AMP up your burgers
  5. Day 5: How to make Giant Bubble Solution
  6. Day 6: How to Save Money on Road Trips
  7. Day 7: How to Create a Summer Schedule.

 

 

Filed Under: Children's Activities

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Comments

  1. Kelly @ Kansas City Mamas says

    06/11/2013 at 4:51 PM

    I love this series, Charlene. Your kiddos are so lucky to have such a creative mom.

  2. Charlene says

    06/11/2013 at 4:58 PM

    Thanks so much Kelly!! I just do the cute things others seem to come up with :). I wish I was this creative!

  3. Rachel Meurer says

    06/11/2013 at 5:24 PM

    Did you leave the hose in and turned on the whole time or did you turn it off and seal it once it was full?

  4. Charlene says

    06/11/2013 at 5:45 PM

    Rachel,

    Once it was full I turned off the hose and sealed the part where the hose had been.

  5. mimi says

    06/11/2013 at 6:52 PM

    What a great idea !! You are so much fun 🙂 !!

  6. Stacy says

    06/11/2013 at 8:27 PM

    ohhhh! This is such an awesome idea! We will be doing this….. adding it to the summer list! Thank you!

  7. Nicole Walker says

    06/11/2013 at 9:18 PM

    Charlene, How did your lawn look after you were done? I am thinking of making one for our annual Fourth of July block party. Thanks for the great summer ideas. I love this series!!

  8. Charlene says

    06/11/2013 at 10:27 PM

    Nicole,

    I put it down at like noon and emptied it at 8 ish and crumbled it up to get all the water out overnight. I didn’t notice any damage to the lawn but then again it was super hot so the lawn was in need of extra water.

  9. Nicole says

    06/12/2013 at 6:14 AM

    Thanks Charlene! Now I just need to figure out how to keep the “big” kids off of it 🙂

  10. cathy says

    06/12/2013 at 1:32 PM

    how heavy does this get when it is full? i was thinking of making it, but then sliding over to the patio at the end of the day because we have sprinklers go off in wee morning hours, and then dragging back onto the lawn the next day. would a 2nd tarp underneath make it easy to slide across the lawn?

  11. Charlene says

    06/12/2013 at 2:12 PM

    Cathy, Ours was way too heavy to move around.I don’t know if a tarp would be easier. You could try and see.

  12. EC says

    06/12/2013 at 2:45 PM

    Charlene, I bet your house is the popular hang out with the neighborhood kids now!
    Maybe do star-gazing at night with everyone laying on it 🙂

  13. Shannon G says

    06/29/2013 at 3:24 PM

    What kind of tape did you use, Charlene? I’m thinking Duck Tape would probably work, but I saw that your tape was black…

  14. Mickey says

    07/01/2013 at 8:36 AM

    We tried out this idea the past weekend. My almost 1 and almost 3 year old loved it. They had so much fun on it. Thank you so much for sharing.

  15. Idiot Guy says

    09/18/2013 at 5:01 PM

    yaaaaaa this was so much fun! Too bad a stupid teenager popped it during the night. He was drunk

  16. Dorothy says

    04/01/2014 at 10:24 AM

    You could even slip in glow sticks for after dark fun!

  17. Charlene says

    04/01/2014 at 11:16 AM

    Good idea Dorothy except I would be afraid they would puncture or maybe weaken the bed if jumped on at the wrong angle. It is a good idea though I just wonder how to execute it… I’ll think about it when we make ours this year 🙂

  18. Jill says

    04/12/2014 at 12:07 PM

    I called this one a Pinterest fail. Glad yours worked. Our sheeting cost $25, leaked more than I imagined and barely lasted half an hour.

  19. Charlene says

    04/12/2014 at 2:01 PM

    Jill- I can say for sure ours was not a fail. Sorry it didn’t work for you. Did you see the note in my post about how to put the tape on the top not the sides? I think that was what helped a lot for ours.

  20. Jen says

    04/12/2014 at 2:12 PM

    Could you use an air bed instead of having to tape – but not fill it up all of the way?

  21. Charlene says

    04/12/2014 at 2:17 PM

    Jen– I am not sure how that would work. It might ruin the airbed and you’d want to look at the seams to see if they would hold up to the jumping. Also I think a lot of airbeds are fairly thick right? You might need crazy amounts of water to fill them up.

  22. Sian says

    04/21/2014 at 11:40 AM

    Or another great idea, have a blow u mattress and fill with water! I did this last year, so much fun 🙂

  23. Tina says

    04/30/2014 at 7:38 AM

    What if you cut the glow stick open and pour several into the bed as its filling?

  24. Charlene says

    04/30/2014 at 7:46 AM

    Try it and see :). Glow sticks are so cheap it wouldn’t be much of an expense and very cool if it works :).

  25. robyn says

    05/08/2014 at 4:58 PM

    I bet the glow bracelets and necklaces would work better than the glow sticks since they aren’t as large or sharp. Making this for my daycare, they will love it!

  26. Marisa says

    05/14/2014 at 5:00 AM

    We did this last year after seeing it on this site and the kids LOVED it. I loved how easy and cheap it was and I really loved seeing how much fun my kids had on it. My three have already asked for this again and I am more than happy to make it for them. If you have doubts about this project take it from me this is a good one and well worth it!!!

  27. Charlene says

    05/14/2014 at 9:04 AM

    Oh I am so glad Marisa :). It is a little work but what a memory they will have 🙂

  28. Nicole says

    05/19/2014 at 7:53 PM

    Did anyone save theirs after they drained it, or is this just a one time, drain and be done, activity? We are def. doing this over the summer!

  29. Charlene says

    05/19/2014 at 8:37 PM

    Nicole- it is one time. You could save it if you wanted too but to completely get every bit of water out, fold it up (and then you’d have to worry about mold) and save it might not be worth the trouble. Especially if the kids were hard on it. It is not that expensive to make and the time invested wasn’t significant so to me worth doing even if it is only one or maybe two days. If our family of 4 plans one day at the water park it would be 5 times this amount 😉

  30. Adrienne says

    06/05/2014 at 11:04 AM

    Can’t wait to try this! I’m going to add a good amount of glitter inside to make the movement of the water show up even more.

  31. Erlene says

    07/21/2014 at 8:10 PM

    What a fun idea. What type of tape did you use?

  32. Kristina & Millie says

    07/23/2014 at 6:49 PM

    oh love this idea! how fun to jump and slide around on the water bed!

  33. Lauren @ Bless'er House says

    07/24/2014 at 6:33 PM

    Ok. This is way too cool. For real. I’m ready to do this right now and I don’t even care that it’s pitch black outside at the moment. 😉 Thanks so much for linking up!

  34. Cynthia says

    07/25/2014 at 11:56 AM

    So fun! I’m sure I would have loved this when I was a kid! Perfect summer activity. Thank you for Linking at the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. Hope to see you again next week.

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I'm Charlene- thank you for stopping by MY FRUGAL ADVENTURES! I am a Mom to two little girls living in gorgeous Northern California. This is a fun place to find simple & affordable inspiration for everything from gifts to home improvement to travel to children's crafts to what's for dinner tonight! READ MORE >>>

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