A Porch Swing for Baby Margot's Half Birthday
/Margot is six months old! We celebrated her half birthday with half a cake (for mom and dad), and a new swing (for her). Two of her favorite things to do are sit independently and stare at foliage, so we combined them into a treat for us to all enjoy together. We hung a lil’ baby swing where a planter used to be and I must say that a chunky baby is way more fun to admire than a rusty hanging basket.
For Margot’s half birthday, my mom baked this vegan chocolate cake and I topped it with this ½ birthday candle. Margot wore this festive romper and we installed a swing to enjoy for many more half birthdays to come. (Margot is eating solids, but we aren’t giving her sugar, so she didn’t eat the cake, although she did manage to grab a chunk out of it!)
Side note: Do you celebrate half birthdays on the date of birth or at the halfway mark in the year? So, if born on 3/18, do you celebrate 9/18 or 9/16 (the halfway mark in the year using this calculator)? We couldn’t decide so, I celebrated each of the days. Please weigh in!
If you look behind Margot and her silly grin, you can see a hanging planter on our porch. I put it there because a hook was previously installed, but I never really liked tending to the plants. I should have removed the hook years ago, but alas, I kept it and kept watering plants that perpetually died.
Enter this swing.
I had planned on getting her a cloth and wooden swing like this one that my friend endorses, but decided to go for the classic jungle gym swing. Sometimes it looks lame and like I put no effort into the design. But other times I love how it’s perfectly retro and the dark green matches the exterior of our house. If I decide I don’t like the rubber swing, I can always swap it out another time! But, for now, I’ll appreciate that this one has zero maintenance (those cloth ones would definitely mildew in our coastal climate like my other outdoor fabrics do).
I bought this swing hardware to install the swing. It comes complete with all the pieces and ready to be installed in a sturdy structure. It’s admittedly chunky and overkill for a small baby swing, but I’d rather it be overengineered than under.
The bummer is the “beam” we wanted to install it into wasn’t actually a beam. It’s just a hollow box, so we didn’t have the proper support for installation.
My contractor/carpenter/neighbor buddy came over to do the installation as a holiday gift for us, and we worked together on devising a safe and reasonable-looking solution. We came up with what you see above (which looks way worse before being painted - stick with me). He secured a piece of lumber to the framing of the hollow beam which we then secured the swing hardware to. It provides more wood for the swing hardware to grip to, and it reinforces the whole thing by being screwed into the structural part of the porch.
I painted the wood dark green to match/mimic the columns. I considered painting it that beigey base color of the house, but the dark hue helps it recede and be less noticeable.
Not terrible, right?
I do regret not shopping around for a dark green chain before buying the yellow one, but oh well. The yellow unfortunately stands out when looking at the house from the street, but it actually works perfectly when looking out from inside because it blends in with the yellow-y lemon tree.
If you’re in the market for a swing with dark green chain, here’s a link.
oh goodness, those fingers!
She’s been in the swing every day since installing it! We’re able to rotate it back and forth so she can face out onto the foliage, or turn it around and put on a sun hat when it’s too sunny.
