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...
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