This post is sponsored by Cabot. All opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links.
Whenever we get together with friends and family, we love to play games. Whether it’s a quick game of tic tac toe or a couple of rounds of cornhole, games are a true staple at our household.
So when we heard that Cabot 2023 Trend of the Year was outdoor gathering spaces, we knew we had to celebrate by bringing you a new game plan. What’s more fun than a giant DIY Connect 4 yard game?!
Alright, let’s start DIYing!
Recommended Tools:
- Miter Saw
- Circular Saw
- Drill
- Kreg Jig
- Brad Nailer
What You’ll Need:
- (1) 4×8 sheet of ¼” plywood
- (1) 2×4 sheet of ¼” plywood
- (2) 1x3x8s
- (1) 1x2x8s
- (1) 1x6x4
- (10) 36” ⅜” square dowels
- (1) 36” ½” square dowel
- 6” hole saw to make the chips (this is the same one we used for our DIY cornhole boards)
- 5” hole saw
- Wood glue
- ⅝” nails
- 1.25” nails
- Purdy XL brush
- Purdy White Sprig brush
- Cabot Solid Color Stain and Sealer in Newburyport Blue
- Cabot Semi-Transparent Stain and Sealer in Newburyport Blue
- Cabot Semi-Solid Stain and Sealer in Seacoast Gray
Cut List:
| For What? | Wood Type | Quantity | Size (inches) |
| Main Board | ¼” plywood | 2 | 46.5 x 36.25 |
| Chip Release | ¼” plywood | 1 | 46.25 |
| Chip Release Supports | 1×2 | 2 | 46.5 |
| Sides | 1×3 | 2 | 46 |
| Feet | 1×3 | 2 | 26.5 |
| Leg Support Box | 1×6 | 4 | 2.25 |
| Leg Support Box | 1×6 | 4 | 2.5 |
How to Make a Giant Connect 4
New to DIY? Download our free 5 Steps to Getting Start with DIY guide!
STEP 1: MAKE THE BASE FOR THE LEGS
One thing that’s really neat about this DIY Connect 4 is that the leg base is removable to make for easier storage. We’ll start by making a small box using a 1×6.
The inside of the box should be large enough for the side 1x3s to slide in and out. You don’t want them to be too tight where it requires strength to insert the 1×3 sides into the box, but you also don’t want it to be too large where the boards are swaying all over the place. Take extra care during this step to get a good fit.
Assemble the box using glue and 1.25” nails. The larger pieces will be placed on the smaller pieces.
Once the box is made, secure to the center of the feet (11.25” from either side) using glue and 1.25″ nails.
STEP 2: CUT THE MAIN BOARDS
Cut your plywood for the two main boards. Stack them on top of one another and mark lines at the following measurements:
- From the bottom: 3”, 8 7/8”, 14.75”, 20 5/8”, 26.5”, 32 3/8”
- From the side: 3 ⅞”, 10.5”, 17”, 23 9/16”, 30 1/16”, 36 ⅝”, 43 3/1
Using a 5” hole saw, you’ll drill through the wood where your lines intersect.
Before drilling, clamp your two pieces of ¼” plywood together so that they are lined up on both sides. We’ll drill through both pieces at the same time. Then place a few pieces of scrap wood underneath your plywood to protect the drill bit from cutting through your workbench and to help reduce tearout.
As you’re cutting the holes, be careful. When working with these large hole saws, if you accidentally tilt one way or another or apply too much pressure, the hole saw can catch and jerk your arms around.
It will also require a LOT of power to cut so many holes. You’ll likely only be able to cut about ½ the holes in one sitting. Our drills were eating through batteries when making these cuts, so we decided to invest in a corded drill after cutting about half of the holes.
The corded drill also has a handle which helped when the hole saw would catch. Even with the corded drill though, we could only make about ½ of the cuts before needing to let the drill cool down for a bit. I’d recommend working on this step and the next step across a few days or a week.
STEP 3: CUT OUT THE CHIPS
Before cutting out the chips, we first cut through a scrap piece of ¾” plywood with the hole saw to act as a guide. We don’t want the chips to have a hole poked in the center, so once we made the guide, we grabbed an allen wrench and removed the center drill bit.
We placed a few scrap 2x6s underneath the plywood to minimize the tearout on the other side of the chips. We clamped the guide board to the plywood before we cut each hole.
As you’re cutting the chips, the same warnings apply as we mentioned above.
STEP 4: PREP CHIP RELEASE PIECES
You can decide whether or not to do this step before or after assembling the main structure. We’re putting it here so that you can stain all the pieces at once, but it’s always more accurate to make cuts as you go throughout your project rather than all upfront.
Using the ¾” settings, drill (2) pocket holes on either end of the chip release support 1x2s.
Cut the chip release from the ¼” plywood and then glue a ½” dowels to the top of the plywood. The dowel will prevent the chip release from sliding all the way through the slot.
STEP 5: SAND
Even though we placed the scrap wood underneath our plywood when cutting, there was still some tearout that we need to sand off. We sanded all of our pieces with 120 grit sandpaper.
For the chips, we found it easiest to sand the front/back of the pieces with an electric sander and then go back with a hand sander to sand the sides.
We didn’t spend too much time sanding the cutouts on the main board pieces, but hindsight is 20/20. I wish we would have spent more time here. It would’ve made staining the inside of the cutouts faster and easier and would’ve required fewer touch-ups at the end.
STEP 6: STAIN
For the main structure, we’re using Cabot Solid Color Stain and Sealer in Newburyport Blue.
We applied this stain with a Purdy XL brush. You simply brush it on and wait for it to dry. No need to wipe after applying. It’s very thick, so it feels almost like paint when you’re applying it.
We used Cabot Semi-Transparent Stain and Sealer in Newburyport Blue for 21 of the chips, and Cabot Semi-Solid Stain and Sealer in Seacoast Gray for the other half of the chips.
For both of the chip colors, we used a Purdy White Sprig brush. Why the different brush? Both the semi-transparent and semi-solid stains by Cabot are deep penetrating linseed oil-based stains. When using oil-based finishes, natural bristle brushes work best!
To apply, just brush it evenly on the surface and allow it to penetrate into the surface of the wood.
With this type of project where there are moving pieces and chips hitting up against one another, there’s always a chance that your finish will take a beating over time. Be sure to reserve some of your leftover stain for potential future touch-ups!
STEP 7: ASSEMBLE THE MAIN STRUCTURE
Place one of your ¼” main boards on your workbench and then grab all of your ⅜” dowels and a handful of chips.
Place (2) ⅜” dowels on either side of your main structure, making sure to line them up at the top.
Then place your chips down on the board to act as spacers and guide where to put the rest of the dowels. You’ll want there to be a small gap between the chips and the dowels so that the chips can slide during game play.
Once you’re happy with the spacing, glue the dowels in place. Then add more glue to the top of the dowels and line the second piece of ¼” plywood on top, making sure to line up the sides.
Since we cut both of the pieces of plywood at the same time, there will be one way to position the second piece so that all the holes line up. Make sure to think through that before placing the second piece.
Once in place, secure with ⅝” nails. After adding a 2-3 nails to each dowel on one side, flip over the entire structure and add 2-3 nails to each dowel through the other side. Make sure to avoid the nails that are already in place!
STEP 8: ATTACH THE SIDES
Place your main structure on some 1x boards to act as a spacer. The 1x boards will raise the board up .75” so that the main structure is close to centered on the sides. It won’t be exact, but it’ll be close!
Line the top of the sides up with the top of main board and than attach with glue and 1.25″ nails.
STEP 9: INSTALL THE CHIP RELEASE SUPPORTS
Place the chip release up against the bottom of the Connect 4 board to act as a spacer.
Then position the chip release support boards just underneath the chip release. You want to leave enough room to easily pull the chip release in and out, but not so much that there’s a big gap between the bottom of the board and the chip release. Though we just eyeballed it, I’d recommend a 1/16 – ⅛” gap.
Install with 1.25” exterior Kreg screws.
Once everything is installed, insert the sides into the leg base and check to see if there are any touch-ups on the inside of the cut-outs on the main board. I found it much easier to touch-up the cutouts with a small paintbrush once the board was standing up rather than when it was laying down.
There you have it! Now you know how to build your very own giant Connect 4 yard game! It’s sure to be a talking point and fun activity for your next gathering with friends and family.
For more outdoor gathering space ideas, check out the Cabot 2023 Trend of the Year.
