I discovered Bijou Build at Outdoor Retailer this summer. The company was founded by Amada, a mom from Maine who did not like the large plastic play structures. She thought they looked obnoxious and the idea of looking in her back yard at all that plastic was disheartening.
I get it. I’m not a fan of plastic either so the Bijou was immediately appealing. The color scheme leans heavily on a neutral palette with a few pops of rich teal and other subtle hits. I love that the bones of the structure are five 10-foot 2×4 boards and the connecting pieces are solid metal.
The primary tent like structure is called the Mainstay and there are a number of accessories to expand the offering like the swing set, a rope bridge, rocking/swaying platforms, hanging bars, pockets, and more. With two kids, we opted for two Mainstays and the rope bridge to connect them.
All of the Bijou components come in medium sized boxes so shipping costs are kept at a minimum and the aforementioned lumber can be picked up at, or delivered from, a local source.
As gear testers, we try to make our experience as much like everyone else so after the boxes and lumber arrived we jumped right in. This was a mistake. We later discovered there are some nuanced parts of the process and watching Bijou’s build video is a must do before starting the project. My suggestion for Bijou is to make step one of the instructions to watch the video—maybe even put a QR code there to go right to it. It took me a while to find the video navigating the Bijou website and discovered it’s all the way at the bottom in the footer links.
The Bijou website says the Mainstay can be built in an hour. Having not watched the video beforehand and we let the kids help a little (though once we moved beyond the power drill use, their interest waned quickly), it actually took us two hours. And, with that experience (we still didn’t think to look for the video) it took us just over an hour to build the second Mainstay. So, even if you’ve seen the video, give yourself plenty of time to build it.
Our plan was to put the rope bridge between the two Mainstay structures. But by the time I had spent three hours building those two tents, I was ready for a break. The next day I started on the rope bridge and had trouble getting the tension right to keep it from saging on the ground. Bijou recommends two full size adults get on the bridge to test it before letting the kids play on it—which I totally appreciate—but I couldn’t get it to work. I felt the instructions were a little ambiguous and that I was having to work too hard to get everything connected. I think with a little more engineering effort, the tolerances could be a little more forgiving and that would make the process easier. At this point, if I got it to work, I wouldn’t want to take it down again which would defeat the “ease of portability” feature advertized. I’ll post an update once I tackle it again and sort it out.
The materials for the Bijou are as eco-conciously sourced as possible. We already covered the local lumber, the connector piece is solid steel, and the five different styles of panels included with each Mainstay are polyester made from recycled water bottles.
The Mainstay also comes with two carrying straps that are very handy. I found it best to have someone help me move it around when it’s fully collapsed but Bijou does sell a roller for one person to move it around without having to drag it.
It’s also much easier to set up with two people (collapsing is easy with just one person). With five legs, it can be tricky—as you pull one or two of the legs out, the weight shifts to one of the back legs and can lift a leg you just pulled out causing it to move back in again. I tried various methods of staking a leg down first, then trying to get the other legs out and it’s just hard with one person. Get a buddy.
It really needs to be staked out to be safe to climb on and the included U stakes do fine. That means it needs to be set up on a surface you can stake into. Being in Colorado, we encountered some buried rocks or roots that caused the stakes to bend a bit, but that’s just the way it is out here. Bijou wants a stake on the inside of each foot and two stakes on the outside. The inside ones are the hardest to pound in because the 2×4 beam goes right over it and the stake needs to be set at an angle to get a good whack on it with a rubber mallet.
The included solar powered string lights are a nice touch, but the kids only really get to see those in the late shoulder season and winter in Colorado when the days are shorter. I’m curious to see if they are up late enough to enjoy those in the summer when the days are longer—and they’re often in bed well before dark and well after sunrise.
The tricky spot is the price. The Mainstay without lumber is $600. There’s plenty of opportunity in my neighborhood, or at least within striking distance, to find play structures being given away for free… the only cost is usually the time and effort to go pick the structure up — it’s how we scored our 14-foot trampoline.
But, for some there’s value in not having an (admittedly) ugly trampoline or big plastic play structure in the yard. If that value is somewhere over $600, then the Bijou might be for you.
