DIY Lawn Games to Enjoy With Your Family
As the weather starts to get warmer, what better way to spend the day than outside playing some fun yard games with the whole family? While darts will always be a classic, there are a number of other lawn games you can DIY with a little elbow grease and imagination. Here are some ideas ranging in degree of skill level from one (easiest) to five (hardest). You won’t want to leave your yard all summer!
Tic-Tac-Toe
DIY skill level: One
Head out for a walk and pick up a couple stones, ideally the size of your palm. Divide the stones into two sets of four. Paint four X’s on one set, and four O’s on the other. Next, you’ll need to set your grid. You can either use some rope, or grab a piece of cardboard and paint a grid that fits your stones. Easy peasy.
Tic-Tac-Toe, or X’s and O’s, is a race to see who can line up three of their shape in a row on a 3 x 3 grid.
Materials:
Eight flat stones, about palm-sized
Paint
Paintbrush
Rope or board for grid
Lawn bowling with recycled bottles
DIY skill level: One
Put those used plastic bottles to good use! Making your own lawn bowling set is super simple. All you need are some plastic bottles of similar sizes filled with water, sand, or rocks to keep them from blowing away. You can also decorate them to your preference using weatherproof paint, and then believe it or not, you’re ready to play! Just make sure the ball you use is heavy enough to knock over the bottles.
The goal is to knock down all ten pins (bottles), but as with any game, you can also just make up the rules as you go. If you’re playing at night, try adding some glow sticks to make the bottles easier to find.
Materials
Ten bottles of the same size (could be old pop bottles, milk bottles, or water bottles)
Weatherproof paint
Sand, rocks, or water to fill the pins
A “bowling” ball
Ring toss
DIY skill level: One
Ring toss is a fun (and surprisingly hard?!) lawn game the whole family can participate in. Players get points if they manage to toss their ring around the neck of a bottle successfully. You can even add in different coloured bottles to count as higher points! Generally, players must stand about four feet away from the bottles, and get one toss per turn.
Simply place your glass bottles in each crate, cut and tape your rope into rings of your size preference, and you’re ready to go!
Materials:
One to two wooden crates, sized to fit at least six bottles per crate
Six to 12 glass bottles, ideally tall
Thick ¼ inch rope
Masking tape (to create rope loops)
“Yardzee”
DIY skill level: Four
Turn the classic dice game, Yahtzee, into a fun outdoor game with this more complex DIY. You’ll need to use safety equipment as it does involve a Miter saw.
To create the dice, you’ll need to saw a post into 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch cubes until you have five of them. Sand each cube down so they’re soft and easy to handle—no one wants a splinter! Next, paint small circles on each side of the cube, following a typical die pattern. You’re done!
Find a printable Yahtzee card sheet online to keep score, and you’ve got yourself a game of Yardzee.
Materials:
4 x 4 cedar or pine post
Miter saw
Safety gloves
Safety goggles
Dust mask
Sand paper
Black acrylic paint
Cornhole
DIY skill level: Five
DIY’ing Cornhole is definitely a more complex project, but well worth it for a completely custom board to last for years to come. You can read up on the rules of Cornhole here, but the premise is pretty straightforward. You get three points if the bag goes through the hole, one point if the bag lands on the board, and a host of family arguments when the bag lands half on, half off the board.
Follow this great instructional video to learn how to build your own Cornhole board.
Materials
6″ hole saw
Jig saw
Drill and driver set
Bora clamps
Tape measure
Miter saw
Earbuds
Festool ETS EC
Dust mask
Bandsaw
Backyard lawn games are a great way to enjoy the warmer weather while spending time with your family! Whether you go for the classic ring toss or opt for the more exciting “Yardzee,” have fun turning your backyard into a mini carnival!
