I’m not sure how I missed the cornhole craze until now, but I recently played with family and LOVED IT! I wanted a set of my own and I wanted one that would blend into my tiki themed backyard. I knew that I would have to design and paint the boards in order to get something that matched my tiki bar. I cannot stress enough that I am not a painter, there are skills in life that I am blessed with, painting is not one of them. I planned out what I wanted then grabbed some paints and hoped for the best.

Supplies

Brushes

#4
#6
#16
#24
(2) 3-inch-wide brush

Paints

Apple Barrel (1) 2 oz bottle of each

Antique Parchment
Tangelo
Flamingo Coral
Arbor Green
Parakeet
Lime Tree
Chocolate Bar
Nutmeg Brown
Khaki
Black

Behr (1) quart, smaller if you can find it

Caicos Turquoise

Other

Pencil
Water Vessel (cleaning brushes)
Blotting Rag
Painters Tape
Polyurethane
Cardboard or Paper plate
Dropcloth
Cornhole boards

Step 1: Cornhole Boards

Before I could get started painting, I needed a set of boards. I followed this project plan to make my boards. I made a few tweaks to accommodate materials that I had on hand, nothing that impacted the final product. It was a pretty easy build.

Step 2: Picking Your Colors

When I built my tiki bar 2 years ago, I wanted fun and vibrant shades of blue, lime and orange. I fell in love with a shade from Behr called Caicos Turquoise. It is the primary color in my tiki bar and would need to be the anchor color in my cornhole board project to help everything blend together.

I selected various shades of acrylic craft paint that would complement the turquoise color and that are typically found in tiki-style art. One bottle of each will easily cover the design.

Step 3: Prepping Your Design

Begin by lightly hand sketching your design on the board. This will help you to layout the spacing of each element. You want very light pencil lines to ensure that they cannot be seen through any of the light-colored paints.

Board Number One

I started by pencil sketching the outline of the tiki totem, I did not sketch the facial features knowing that I would be painting over the lines with dark brown paint. I sketched a few arcs for the leaves, but because the paint in this area is layered in various shades of green, you only need a general idea of the placement. I also sketched the word “Tiki”, and finally the cocktail. I did not sketch out the flower, I was never intended to be in the design. After I finished painting the leaves, I felt like that area needed something…the flower-filled the void and added a pop of color.

Board Number Two

The fun thing about the second board is that there are endless combinations of fun summertime quotes that you could use. I have a towel holder hanging near my pool that reads “A salty sailor and his mermaid live here”. I wanted that to carry over onto the board.

The same practice applies here. Begin by lightly sketching your message onto the board. Mix up your fonts and the slants to keep it interesting. Many of my colors on this board were going to be lighter so I ended up erasing the lines as I was painting to ensure that nothing showed through the paint.

Step 4: Painting

The tiki board was the harder of the two to paint. I started with it and hoped for the best. I used a piece of cardboard as my paint tray. I poured the paints as needed because it was 96 degrees outside, and the paints were drying quickly. Keep a vessel of water nearby to clean your brushes and a blotting rag to make sure that you remove excess water from them. You do not want watery paint streaks on your board.

Using a #16 brush and Arbor Green, begin making your base set of leaves. You want to create arcs in all directions that you will then fill in with smaller side arcs/leaves. As each set of leaves dries you will want to repeat this process two more times. First with Lime Tree, then with Parakeet. Some leaves will overlap. The combination of the three colors will give you a pretty spray of leaves.
Using the #24 brush and Chocolate Bar, outline and paint the tiki. Yes, it will look like a giant tootsie roll on your board. I rounded the top and bottom a little bit. I was also careful to leave a circle shape unpainted in the bottom corner where my cocktail would be. I did not want to paint over the dark brown color, the lime green would not have popped.
Using the #6 brush and Chocolate Bar, outline the word “Tiki”. At this point, I got a little creative and colored in the letters using both Chocolate Bar and Nutmeg Brown. I was hoping to achieve some dimension. I finished the letters by dropping in some squiggles of black to suggest wood grain.
Using the #6 brush and Antique Parchment, paint the entire cocktail, glass and lime. The light color will help others to be more vibrant once applied. Use black for the straw, be careful to only dry brush a faint hint of the straw once it has entered the glass. For the “cocktail” I used both Tangelo and Flamingo Coral. To create the lime, paint the circle with Parakeet. Once it has dried, go back with the Antique Parchment and paint in the lines. I did this using the narrow side of a #4 brush.
Using the #24 brush and Khaki, create a wavy base under Tiki and your cocktail. This gives a little hint of a sandy beach.

The Tiki Face

This was the most anguishing part for me. You will not have a sketched outline because the base is already painted. You simply must start painting your design. Luckily you will be painting with Antique White. If you mess up paint over it with Chocolate Bar.

Using a #6 brush and Antique White, begin by painting the bottom outline of the nose. This will allow you to build the rest of the features around it.
Paint the outline of the mouth next, followed by the eyes.
Once this was done, you are ready to connect the eyes to the nose and paint in that large white area.
Next paint in the mouth, it will be solid white – allow it to dry and then go back with Chocolate Bar to paint lines that will create the teeth.
Add the triangle accents and blue dots.

The Flower

To create the flower your leaves must be completely dry.

Begin by using a #6 brush and Antique White. Make 4 wavy petals in the center of the leaves. Paint in the petals so that they are completely white. This will help to cover the green and make your bright floral colors pop. Allow this to dry.
Next, use Flamingo Coral to paint over the white. It is ok if some of the white is visible as the outline, I really liked the look it created. Allow this to dry.
To give the flower some texture, I used a mixed up a shade using Coral and Tangelo, using a #4 brush and this blended color, paint smaller petals inside the large petals. While the paint is wet, go in with Antique White and add a few accents.

The Second Board

The second board is very easy. You are essentially painting the words you have selected and sketched. Keep the boards cohesive by using the same colors. I also used the limes on both boards and carried over my tiki face from the first board into the “o” in “welcome” to make them feel like a set.

Step 5: Finishing Your Boards

Once your boards are completely dry, you are ready to tape the edges and paint the sides. You want the side colors to spill up onto the boards by about ½ to 1 inch. This helps to frame in the design and pulls your primary color out.

Using painters’ tape, tape straight lines about ½ inch in from the edge of your top board.

Using your primary paint color and a 3-inch-wide brush, paint the 4 sides and the exposed surface edge of your boards. Allow this to dry completely before removing the tape.

Once dry and the tape is removed. Apply two coats of polyurethane to your boards.