I found cornhole boards that looked amazing on Etsy.com for my husband's birthday! So close to what I had thought up in my head... but wow, $200? That is a lot of money (at least that is what I thought - more on that later) and they aren't exactly what I had in my head, plus I couldn't be sure of their ACA regulations, so I decided to build them myself.
Since I had plenty of time to get this project going, I went to Lowe's and started getting supplies. But then I needed more supplies. Then I needed to buy some tools (palm sander) to make the job easier and better. Then I needed to borrow some more tools (6" hole saw) and made errand after errand after errand between putty drying.
20 hours later, here I am, built and primed. TWENTY.EFFING.HOURS.
What is keeping me sane is that I know what went into the construction... stainless steel fasteners, exterior grade wood filler, the best primer, paint, and poly - these babies are built to last.
But such high end products come with a high price... So I start tallying. Oops, by the time I had bought the paint and poly, I had spent well over $200 (this does include very cute embroidered bags too). Granted, I did save the $65 shipping charge from the pre-made boards, but is my time worth $1.50 an hour? Because I think that is what it ended up working out to...
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| Blue and Red Added |
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| Boston 'B' stencil in place |
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| Ready for logos and polyurethane! |
And, finally, the finished product. My husband was thrilled, but has been watching me slave over these for the past month - he had to be patient with the perfectionist! His birthday is September 2nd and I set the goal of my birthday (the 28th) to be done with them. Barely made it.
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| Final Boston Red Sox Cornhole Boards & Bags! |
What I would do differently next time:
- Lowe's mentioned that they sell the unfinished boards in their store... I think I would do a little more investigating on that and/or seeing if I could find the boards unfinished elsewhere. Although I love painting and designing, I am not that great (or fast) at woodworking.
- I would plan to make more than one pair at a time. Once you have all the stuff out to do one set, what is another set or two?
- Maybe not be so worried about all the paint being perfect and exterior grade. Once I polyurethaned everything, I realized that since the whole thing was coated and protected, the paint didn't really have to be that high of grade (and I spent $90 on paint and paint supplies). I mean seriously, if a hurricane comes we could probably float away on these...
I just found your page and wish I had seen it sooner. I got the creative idea to do the same project and I'm so stressed! Still not done and his birthday was yesterday. I wish I could start over.
ReplyDeleteWow, these are awesome. What did you use to get the "B" watermark, and did you buy the logos at the bottom?
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't see these questions until now! I was stressed too until they stopped being a surprise for my husband. I gave him the bags on his birthday and he was thrilled with those... then I just kept working on the boards to get them right and stopped trying to hide them. I didn't want to rush it.
ReplyDeleteFor the "B," I used our large format printer to plot out two gigantic Boston logo Bs and then I carefully cut them out and taped them on. I used them as a guideline and didn't really paint over the paper area since I figured the paper would be too thin. If you don't have access to a plotter, any print shop should be able to do it for you at about $5 a sheet. I mixed white paint with the colors to make it look lighter... not the easiest thing in the world, but worth it! Good luck!!!
And yes, the logos were bought online. Make sure they are die cut to have as little plasticky stuff as possible.
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