Playground design ideas

We’ve come up with five playground design ideas to help spark your imagination once you’ve decided the best surface for your playground. For each design idea, we’ve give you a couple of examples, so no matter what stage your design is at, you’ve got plenty to consider!

1. Shapes

A simple, yet effective playground design is to incorporate different shapes, or the same shape in differente sizes. The most commonly chosen shape is circles, however squares, triangles or even stars aren’t out of the question! Wet pour is the ideal solution for designs like these, however shapes can also be created with rubber mulch.

RubbaSmart wet pour rubber playground surfacing being used on a playground. Over green artificial surfacing, blue wet pour is used to create a puddle shaped design beneath some playground equipment

2. Lines

Lines, although often used when repairing a surface, can also make for a great design. As shown with this grass pathway – lines don’t have to be straight – they can be wiggly too! Or you can turn the lines into a ‘blocky’ design, like with this bright yellow, orange and red wet pour playground in Aberfeldy.

This image shows some repairs completed around the edges of a wet pour playground
artificial grass and wet pour
Wetpour surface design in public park space. Vibrant red and yellow criss-cross design creating a modern, attractive central attraction for the local area

3. One single colour

The simplest playground design idea is to use a single colour across the whole area. By choosing one colour, you are likely to save on cost due to material usage and time taken to install the surfacing. However using just colour can be exciting too – for example you could use a colour and black fleck to make a dark blue, or use a combination of three colours to create an earth-tone.

wet pour rubber safety surfacing outdoor playground solutions
Wet Pour Rubber installation. The brown rubber covers a playground surface, around wooden play structures and a workers is laying and smoothing out a final section
wet pour surfacing for schools

4. A wacky design

If you truly want to stimulate the minds of the children who will be using the playground, your best bet is to go for a playground design idea that is a little bit different.

A few of our suggestions include;

  • blocky, colourful lines
  • car-themed or road design
  • tropical beach & island
  • water splash/splodge
  • flower petals
  • multi-sized stars 
  • different shapes in different colours
Step 4- Aberfeldy Wetpour Rubber Project Finished
artificial grass for schools
Artificial grass installed along a building with puddle shaped EPDM wear pad

5. 100% Natural look

Our final suggestion is to go for a design with a completely natural look. Doing this is quite simple – by installing a product such as our grass mats where the grass will grow through over time. Some playgrounds, such as those built in national trusts or on sustainable new build housing sites, often require a natural looking playground that meets Critical Fall Height requirements. EcoSmart grass mats are the perfect solution to this requirement, and when installed alongside our patented SmartPlay shockpad, are certified for up to 3m fall height.

smartplay increases critical fall height
grass mat standrad playground surfacing requirements

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