Live project · Updated as the build progresses
The British School Salalah is a small, non-profit school on the humid southern coast of Oman. Their play team had a vision: a wooden pirate ship the children could truly climb aboard — inspired by the traditional Omani dhow, safe enough for five-year-olds, and tough enough to survive salt air and monsoon rain for a decade or more.
It began with a single enquiry from British School Salalah. Hon Playground moved the conversation to WhatsApp, shared the factory's export certificates, workshop videos and timber reports, and offered a fully refundable design fee — the design cost is credited back once the playground order is placed.
Key points: Factory-direct · Export-ready manufacturer · Refundable design fee.
The school sent a photograph of a traditional Omani sailing ship as inspiration — carved bow, tall mast, timeless lines — and asked for a simpler, child-friendly version in natural wood. The requirements were clear from day one: a real climbable deck, a tunnel, a slide and a net-climbing wall, all sized for children aged five to nine.
Key points: Theme: Omani heritage · Ages 5–9.
Hon Playground's in-house design studio built the first 3D concept renders within days — a wooden hull with a swirled carved bow, a slide, a rope-net wall, tunnels and a rock-climbing ramp. Rendering is a dedicated department in itself: the concept stage exists to let the client see the customized playground before a single board is cut.
Key points: In-house 3D design · Concept rendering.
Over many months the design was refined detail by detail — exact school greens and blues, gold bolts, a crow's-nest watchtower, a fireman's pole, seating inside the tunnel, and mounting points for the students' own prize-winning treasure maps. A tight site forced a real engineering puzzle: EN1176 requires a minimum 1.5 m impact zone on every side, so events were rebalanced, the slide moved to the stern and the walkway widened to 2.7 m — all without losing the ship.
Key points: EN1176 fall zones · Brand-exact colours · Client co-design.
Durability drove the hardest decisions. Hon Playground walked the school honestly through every option — treated Finnish pine, HPL, wood-texture HDPE, rosewood and Robinia — weighing cost, humidity resistance and lifespan for a demanding coastal climate. The choice: Robinia (Black Locust) hardwood for the structure, a galvanized-steel internal frame that resists rust, and a matte epoxy seal, engineered to last with simple yearly maintenance.
Key points: Robinia hardwood · Galvanized steel frame · Matte epoxy seal.
A customized playground should wear the client's brand. Working from the school's hex codes — green #14B484 and blue #002B5C / #0081C6 — Hon Playground matched tunnels, steering wheels and railings to real paint swatches, then photographed the physical colours for sign-off. Gold accents and a natural wood finish completed the look the children had drawn.
Key points: #14B484 · Gold accents.
With the engineering files approved, production ran about 20 days. Robinia timber was milled, the galvanized-steel skeleton welded and treated against rust, the watchtower built with EN1176 fall-buffer mats, and the whole ship finished in three layers of paint. Throughout, Hon Playground sent the school a steady stream of workshop videos — factory-direct, nothing hidden.
Key points: ~20-day build · EN1176 buffer mats · Video QC updates.
The school named the ship The Golden Hind in memory of a beloved governor, carried on a carved golden nameboard with a dedication plaque: “Designed by Tanzin Emma Islam & BSS Students · Built by honplay.com.” The finished ship was disassembled into big, labelled pieces, packed flat into a container with an installation guide, and set on course for port in Oman — inspected on video, right down to a child's play-test, before it ever left the factory.
Key points: Carved nameplate · Flat-pack container · Video inspection + play-test.
A made-to-order play structure designed around your theme, site dimensions and brand. Hon Playground provides in-house 3D concept design and engineering, then manufactures it factory-direct — exactly as shown in The Golden Hind pirate ship built for a school in Salalah, Oman.
Yes. Every customized playground is engineered to the European EN1176 standard, including fall-height buffers, minimum 1.5 m impact areas, railing heights and tunnel clearances, and is delivered with an engineering file.
Hon Playground works in Robinia (Black Locust) hardwood, preservative-treated Finnish pine, HPL and wood-texture panels over a galvanized-steel frame with a matte epoxy finish. The right material is recommended for your climate — for humid Salalah, Robinia hardwood was chosen.
Yes. Hon Playground exports customized playgrounds worldwide, factory-direct EXW from Wenzhou, China. The Golden Hind was packed flat into a container with an installation guide and shipped to port in Oman.
After the 3D design and engineering files are approved, production took about 20 days for The Golden Hind, followed by roughly 30–40 days of ocean freight to the Middle East.
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Send us your site photos and ideas. Concept sketch within 24 hours, 3D rendering in 5 days — and this level of transparency from first weld to final installation.
