Cornholes... the Saga | Crafted Niche - a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorialsCrafted Niche – a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorials

Cornholes… the Saga

June 20, 2012 in Building and Repurposing, Gettin' Crafty, Outside

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This project has been in the works since March. Wow… yes, March. (Remember that time I told you I’m a procrastinator? well… I wasn’t kidding.)

My middle sister, Karen, got married in Destin, Florida and I thought it’d be fun to MAKE her wedding present. Knowing her love for cornholes (aka beanbags), I knew it’d be the perfect gift! PLUS – we had rented a big vacation home for everyone to stay in, so I thought cornholes would be a great activity that EVERYONE could take part in.

I dug up some building plans online. There are so many FREE building plans available so do some digging and find one that makes sense to you. I chose THIS ONE and got busy. Using birch plywood and 2×4′s I whipped up the cornhole boards in a couple night’s worth of work. I did my best to follow the instructions carefully so I’ll spare you the gritty details of every cut.

So… to be completely honest, I waited until the last minute to build these. I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn’t go get the supplies right away. By the time I started building, it was a week before the wedding and I had SO much to get done. It came down to the wire on painting. I primered one night and then painted the sky blue the next with a couple cans of spray paint.

I wasn’t thrilled with the paint though. It looked SPLOTCHY and the color wasn’t quite what I expected it to be.

You can see in the pictures above just how splotchy the paint looked. Ugh. Noooo thank you. BTW those are my sisters on the left and my Dad is on the far right getting ready to toss a beanbag!

Needless to say, I couldn’t let her keep them looking like that. I brought them home with me to Missouri so I could give them a facelift.

…and that’s where the FUN begins!

Karen voted for kelly green as her color-of-choice! Don’t mind if I do! Turns out I LURVE that color too so I can’t wait to use the leftover paint on some future projects.

Looking SO much better already. Live and learn… I do much better with brush-on paint rather than spray paint.

I decided to spruce them up with a little chevron action. Who doesn’t love chevrons?!

I didn’t get fancy (or particular) with the chevrons. Just eye-balled them with wide painter’s tape. I used an exacto knife and metal ruler to trim the top peaks of the chevrons. Oh… and did you see my cheapo-version of a paint tray liner?! That aluminum foil worked perfectly. Perrrrfectly.

Two coats of white paint did the trick! I removed the painter’s tape right after finishing up the second coat so that the lines would stay crisp.

I have to say – I’m super excited about how they turned out. I think it’s SUCH an improvement over the splotchy blue paint job. LOVING the upgrade! Just hope Karen loves it too!

So what do you think? Was it worth the extra effort to fix?

Have you ever made something that you weren’t thrilled about? …and knew you could totally make it better? THIS was one of those projects for me. I’m so glad I took the time to make it right. They’re sitting outside right now with the second coat of Poly drying. I can’t wait to take them to the lake this weekend for a little R&R with the family.