How To Customize Your Cornhole Games And Equipment

The game of cornhole is a homegrown American pastime that started as a recreational activity amongst family and friends, first documented in Cincinnati on the west side. It soon crossed the borders of Ohio, spawning parallel games like baggo on the east side, and today continues to serve as quality bonding time in hometowns and cities across the country. It is only right to keep it in the family by customizing your cornhole games and equipment. Personalized cornhole gear are a great way to build group spirit and team pride while keeping game play fresh and fun at the same time.

Cornhole is a descendant of bean bag toss that is played using cornhole bags and a cornhole board primarily. Cornhole bags are typically duck cloth bags filled with feed corn while a cornhole board is typically a piece of plywood or plastic with a hole cut through one end. The goal is to throw, or pitch, the cornhole bags through the hole. This lawn game is divided into innings, with set distances between the cornhole board and the pitcher’s box and set scores for having a cornhole bag either hit the hole or land on the board. Cornhole is known variously as bean bag toss, baggo, corn hole, tailgate toss, dbags or bags.

Personalized Cornhole Themes

The creative foundation of most do-it-yourself projects is having a central idea or theme that you will apply recurrently on what you will be making. In the case of corn hole, easily the first theme that comes to mind is family, or friends, as the case may be. Start by designing a logo or insignia for your surname, or assign a name to your group of friends and do the same. As the surnames add up, it should get interesting. Update the concept behind American quilts by designing around your family history. That should win the young ones over and help them become familiar with their roots.

Another undeniable cornhole theme is home states. Ohio is the cornhole capital, where the American Cornhole Association is based, and it was tailgating Cincinnati Bengals games that first turned visiting NFL fans onto Ohio corn hole. Now, tailgating NASCAR games got North Carolina corn hole recruiting more bean bag toss followers at NC State and UNC, and among racing enthusiasts. Short of supporting your home state literally, be inspired by the idea and concoct your family’s version of home teams.

The above cornhole themes are especially relevant as cornhole matches historically spread from families to bars and had initially gained a local following in the community before going national. The possibilities are endless, to be sure, but if you get stumped while brainstorming ideas, these themes would make a good starting point.

Custom-made Cornhole Boards

Arguably the greatest cause for excitement among corn hole fans on a D.I.Y. streak is the thought of individualizing a corn hole board. From skateboards to team jerseys, custom-made sports gear are not uncommon just as every corn hole board is a blank canvas waiting to be pepped up. Corn hole boards are commonly sold decorated but the good news is that unfinished or unpainted boards are available in the market as well. Neither is it unheard of that a corn hole enthusiast would build his board from scratch, armed merely with a piece of plywood and good old carpentry skills.

You can decorate a corn hole board in four basic steps. First, fill any holes or gaps in the board, including screw holes, with wood putty or filler. Second, sand down the board. Third, prime the board. Fourth, paint the board. Go with a background color if you wish to decorate it further. Use contact paper to section the board into different areas for different colors. You can make it two-tone, like with team colors. Once the board is painted, then you need to get creative. Aside from applying a logo design, explore the use of lettering, monograms, decals, decoupage, airbrushing and handpainting.

Another “board” you can personalize is the corn hole scoreboard. It is commonly a free-standing structure with color-coded data grids on the board. It goes without saying that the organized grids should stay as is but you can soup up the framework itself for multi-tasking. Unsurprisingly, someone already thought of making the scoreboard double as beverage holders. Well, does your group require a hand towel rack or sunshade, perhaps? The scoreboard is practically the most constantly revisited area in corn hole matches, so think about what else you can do with it.

Customized Cornhole Uniforms

Going back to the team sport analogy, nothing builds group spirit like themed apparel a la team uniforms. It can be as simple as same-colored men’s shirts and women’s tank tops or something a little more dramatic like logo-emblazoned sweats. Silkscreen, stencils, embroidery and iron-on patches are some other ways to make uniforms out of apparel. Give this idea a twist by turning instead to hats, caps or wristbands.

You can keep the attire freewheeling but get matching cornhole gear bags much like sports equipment bags. Speaking of bags, the best way to sport team colors is with corn hole bags. They can be bought in a wide variety of colors. If you have not quite shaken off the home states idea, team uniforms are where to do it. That way, it is easy to move from an Ohio cornhole match to an NFL match, and not end up wearing rival colors.