DIY Horseshoes Game Set

The husband and I have a pretty large backyard at our current house (not our new house that we bought and are renovating which has an itty-bitty backyard) and I realized that this is going to be our last summer to really use it. And we NEVER use it! But why not? I realized it might be because there is nothing to do but sit and eat. So I decided to remedy that with a quick (non-regulation sized) DIY Horseshoes Game Set.

I had some leftover horseshoes from my Kentucky Derby styled party, so I just needed to grab a couple lead pipes and some paint. Of course, you can paint your own horseshoe set or do the same thing I did and put together a set with some vintage horseshoes and lead pipes.

So I grabbed some paint, a paint brush, and some painter’s tape and got to work painting the horseshoes. First, spray your horseshoes with gold spray paint and let dry, then just tape off a couple areas on the horseshoes so you can add some color. Remember to do two sets the same for the two different teams/players.

Then I simply spray painted the lead pipes gold and daubed lines of turquoise and coral paint down them. I also painted the rubber tips they came with a bright pink because I’ve tripped over a lead pipe sticking out the ground before, it took a gash out of my shin, so I know it’s important to make them stand out!

Then I quickly made a scoreboard using a piece of scrap wood. I spray painted the wood mint, then brushed on two coats of chalkboard paint in the middle. I then used epoxy (don’t use hot glue, trust me, it won’t work) to attach a horseshoe “handle.” Once the chalkboard paint was dry, I painted the numbers 1-21 across the board twice in permanent paint. To keep score, teams just need to circle or cross out their score along the score board using a piece of chalk. The first to 21 wins!