Time for an upgrade?

The sun is out. We have no plans for the first weekend in ages. A day in the garden, a trip to the beach, a barbeque perhaps? Nope! Not us… Not in this family.

Wedding Planning

In preparing for my friend’s wedding, I have decided to upgrade my ‘Four-in-a-Row’ from our Giant Garden Games collection. The ‘old’ one that we had lovingly hand-made for my brother-in-law’s wedding (2021) is now looking shabby and starting to wither in places. It is no longer fit for purpose and is certainly not something I could charge hire for.

Reflecting on the time and money we spent on the original, I chose to shop around for one ready-made. I figured we would find something sturdy and well made, and it had come to the same amount we spent on it all the first time around.

I ended up with this one that I ordered from Amazon.

*I ordered the Mega version.

• It is the perfect size for adults and kids alike.

• The discs fit our brand colours.

• Won’t take much to sand it back and paint it grey to match the Beanbag Toss

• Already co-ordinates with our Toppling Tower.

Cue delivery day. Opened it, set it up and fell in love with the colours and the varnished wood. The only natural response...? To rebuild new, improved complimentary games to match! It’s out with the old, and in with the new…

Build A Beanbag Toss With Us

We kept it fairly simple and made use of items that we already had at home. This helped keep the costs down too, which was great because this was a completely spontaneous decision and had next to no room for it in the budget!

Materials Purchased:

• Square Edge Knotty Pine Furniture Board 2000mmx400mm (£40.97 at B&Q)

• Steel Butt Hinges 8cm in chrome (£1.79 at The Range) - we forgot to get these on our trip to B&Q and The Range is right near us!

Materials from Home:

• Shelf off-cuts

• Wood Stain/Varnish

• Dark blue paint leftover from son’s bedroom decoration

• Teal paint leftover from exterior house-paint

Equipment:

• Handsaw and Jigsaw

• Circle cutting attachment for drill

• Drill

• Paint brushes

• Masking Tape

How we did it:

Phase 1: Measure Twice, Cut Once

I wanted to maximise the use of the wood that we had purchased, and wanted an off-cut suitable for another little project, so I calculated the sizes based on that. I also wanted a set of two, like the classic game of cornhole. In my original version, we only made one. The final dimensions of the baseboards are 770mmx400mm.

We had some off-cuts from a shelving unit we built in our bedroom that were the perfect size to make leg supports out of. I used the supports of the Four-in-a-Row as a template to bring a cohesive look to the set, so made one for each.

When the sections were cut out, I measured up for the position of the hole; at a distance of 100mm from the top. I decided to go for a 100mm diameter hole. That just so happened to be the biggest size of the tool that we had. Convenient!

Phase 2: The Paint Job

I wanted to keep the same design on the baseboards from my original version so I masked up and prepared to paint the wood stain first. I painted along the grain and I thinned down the paint to ensure the grain would show through. I did this for all the prepared pieces of wood and they were dry within an hour thanks to the sun. This allowed me to paint all the surfaces in the one afternoon. I left them to dry properly overnight.

On Sunday afternoon, after determining that the one coat of wood stain was sufficient, I remasked and painted the coloured sections. Again, thanks to the sun, they dried very quickly and one coat was enough to show the grain through.

We left it all for a couple of days to dry thoroughly and finished it all off with a clear varnish for extra protection and clean-ability.

Phase 3: Putting It Altogether

Finally we attached the legs to the back using the hinges and set it all up for promotional photos.

I’m so happy with how it has all come together and each element compliments each other so well.