Playgrounds are becoming essential at many businesses and organizations, including shopping malls, restaurants, churches, museums and family entertainment centers. When renovating your business premises, you might consider adding a play area to capitalize on the numerous benefits.

Play areas can boost your business’s profitability by attracting more traffic and increasing the time guests spend there. These spaces also increase your business’s appeal to families by offering fun places for kids to play, burn energy and explore their imagination. Parents and guardians can enjoy the other offerings within your business without worrying about how to keep their little ones busy.

Including a play area during a renovation will positively impact your bottom line, as it shows you care about your customers and want to provide the best experience. Even with a limited budget, adding a playground during a renovation can help you maximize your return on investment. With proper planning and strategizing, you can implement an interactive playground that keeps children engaged and entertained for longer.

1. Assess Your Space

The first step involves assessing your available space and taking accurate measurements to determine how much of it you can use for the play area. You might not need as much space as you originally assumed, or you may find out that you need to think a bit bigger to fit in your ideal playground.

Here are a few considerations when renovating to add a playground:

• Consider the flow of space: Ensuring proper flow in your playground maximizes the fun, as kids can utilize every inch of the space you provide them. Be sure the play space fits in with the surrounding building elements and doesn’t appear like an afterthought.
• Identify potential obstacles: Locate any physical limitations or obstacles around the potential site, including nearby buildings or other businesses, utility lines, drainage systems, and trees.
• Ensure easy access: Position your play area near an easy-to-reach spot to ensure traffic flow within the business premises and allow parents to watch their children as they play.
• Maximize vertical space: If you have limited horizontal space to build, you can leverage your available vertical space to include play areas. This approach might involve installing tall play structures with multiple levels or incorporating them into existing structures like walls and trees.

2. Analyze Your Budget

The cost of your play area will be determined by various factors, including equipment, materials, building permits, site preparation, shipping and installation. In addition to play equipment, you must factor in the costs of adding playground furnishings for parents and guardians who will watch their kids as they play. By creating a complete play space for both kids and adults, you can satisfy your patrons and create memorable experiences.

Ultimately, investing in high-quality play structures and designing a long-term plan for maintenance and upgrades helps keep costs in check. By choosing durable, well-made equipment now, you can avoid tedious and costly repairs and maintenance later. If you have a limited budget, consider constructing the playground in phases or choosing financing options to fund your project.

3. Optimize Zoning and Layout

When planning your playground layout, you may want to divide it into different zones that accommodate different activities. Overall, the play area should cater to kids with varying energy levels, abilities and play needs. Here are the main zones you should think about when planning the layout of your playground:

• Active play zones: These are most kids’ favorite places, where they can expel their energy by playing on equipment like slides, swings and seesaws.
• Quiet play zones: These are spaces where kids can relax and expand their imaginations as they participate in calm activities like drawing, coloring, meditating or reading.
• Sensory play zones: These areas include equipment and objects that stimulate different senses, such as colors and textured surfaces.
• Social play zones: These zones allow kids to spend quality time with their peers by playing in groups.

4. Plan the Overall Design

The design of your playground plays a crucial role in attracting families to your facility. Creating an immersive play experience that appeals to and engages kids is key. While generic, basic designs might be cost-effective, they don’t typically have the same appeal as custom playground equipment. Custom play items are built with your business and vision in mind, making them unique and exciting for users. As you plan your play space, consider how custom play equipment might better suit your business and your patrons.

Here are some playground add-on ideas to elevate its visual appeal and functionality:

• Choose a theme: Themed play areas give your business a competitive edge and encourage imaginative play. Some popular playground themes include animals, aquariums, fantasy, nature or castle adventures. A theme that directly correlates with your business’s brand can be fun and attractive to families.
• Create a story: Use your brand story to seek inspiration for designing playground structures. Otherwise, you might recreate a popular kid’s book or movie. You could also model your playground to mimic a fan-favorite childhood song or rhyme. No matter which option you choose, making your playground a destination instead of simply a place to swing and slide can be impactful for your business.
• Include surprises: Your playground design should excite kids and pique their curiosity. Consider adding secret dens, hidden wonders, passageways, secret messages and hiding places to create a magical atmosphere.
• Harmonize with the natural environment: Outdoor play areas should allow kids to connect with the natural environment by ensuring flow and cohesion with the existing natural features. Consider building around trees, rocks, stumps, logs and gardens on the premises.

5. Choose Appropriate Playground Equipment

Your choice of equipment determines the usability of the space you’re redesigning. One of the most important factors to consider when installing commercial playground equipment is the age of the kids using it. Age-appropriate playground equipment allows kids to enjoy safe play, as it’s made for their development and stimulates their social development.

It may also help create more positive, pleasant play experiences by minimizing kids’ frustration when they can’t fully utilize the equipment or boredom when it doesn’t challenge them enough. Additionally, the best playground equipment promotes accessibility and inclusivity by providing a play space that kids of all abilities can navigate and enjoy.

Design an Immersive and Interactive Playground With Soft Play®

If you’re planning to include a new playground in your building renovations, partnering with a team of experts can play a foundational role in your project’s success.

Soft Play is a global leader with over 30 years of experience creating innovative play systems, and our team can bring your vision to life. Our professional playground designers and installers are trained and certified to guide you through design, installation and long-term maintenance. We’ll work with you to build a playground that helps kids have fun, learn and build memories.