DIY Cornhole Scoreboard Plans: Sliding Bead and Peg Styles

1. 01 Gather scrap wood and parts This is a scrap-bin build. You need a piece of half-inch plywood or a 1x6 board for the backer, roughly a foot or so tall, plus either two short dowels for sliding pegs or a couple of wooden tiles for sliders. Add a stick-on number set or a paint pen, and a little glue and a few screws. Almost any leftover wood from a cornhole build works here.
   cut listBacker = scrap plywood or 1x6 (~12" tall). Plus 2 dowels or 2 slider tiles, stick-on numbers or a paint pen, glue, screws.
2. 02 Cut the backer board Cut the backer to a comfortable size, something like 8 to 10 inches wide by a foot or more tall, with room for two number columns side by side. Two columns, one per team, with numbers running from 0 up past 21. Sand the edges so it is splinter-free, since this thing gets handled all game.
   cut listBacker ~8-10" wide x 12"+ tall, two columns side by side. Sand the edges smooth.
3. 03 Lay out two number columns Draw two vertical columns, one for each team. Number them from 0 at the bottom up past 21 at the top, evenly spaced. You can stencil, use stick-on numbers, or write them with a paint pen. Leaving a few numbers above 21 gives you room since a team can be sitting on 20 and need somewhere to land.
   cut listTwo columns numbered 0 up past 21, evenly spaced. Stencil, stickers, or paint pen.
4. 04 Add the sliders or pegs For a peg version, drill a small hole next to each number in both columns and use a short dowel peg you move from hole to hole as the score changes. For a slider version, cut a shallow vertical track or screw on a thin rail so a wooden tile slides up and down each column. Either way you want one marker per team that moves cleanly and stays put.
   cut listPeg version: drill a hole by each number, move a dowel peg. Slider version: a track or rail with a tile that slides per team.
5. 05 Finish and seal it Sand everything one more time, then prime and paint it in colors that match your boards if you like, or just seal the bare wood. A coat or two of clear exterior poly keeps it from warping if it lives outside or in a damp garage. Keep paint out of the peg holes or the slider track so the marker still moves freely.
   cut listPrime and paint or just seal. Clear exterior poly for weather. Keep finish out of the holes or track.
6. 06 Mount or stand it up Decide how the scoreboard sits during a game. You can screw a simple kickstand to the back so it leans on the ground, attach a stake to push into the grass beside the court, or add a clip so it hangs on a board or a fence. Set it where both teams can see and reach it, then run a quick test game to make sure the markers track the score easily.
   cut listAdd a kickstand, a ground stake, or a clip. Place it where both teams can see and reach it.

There are a few easy ways to track the score, and none is wrong. Sliding tiles are smooth and satisfying, you just nudge a tile up its track as the points climb, but they need a clean track to run in. Pegs are the simplest to build, just a dowel you move from hole to hole, though small pegs can get lost if you are not careful.

A flip-number board, where you flip hinged number cards, is a step up in effort but reads clearly from across the yard. For a first build, I would do pegs or a single slider per team. They are quick, they are hard to break, and they do the one job a cornhole scoreboard needs to do, which is settle who is winning on the way to 21.

Plenty of players skip the build and clip a magnetic scoreboard right onto the lip of the cornhole board. These are compact, the numbers flip or slide, and the magnet holds them on the board so there is nothing extra to carry or stand up. For a tournament feel without a project, they are hard to beat.

The tradeoff is that a magnet only sticks if your board has a steel plate or the scoreboard comes with an adhesive mount, so check how it attaches before you buy. If you would rather spend the evening playing than building, a magnetic scoreboard is the easy answer, and it tucks into the bag with the bags.

If you would rather skip the build, a magnetic or all-in-one cornhole scoreboard attaches to the board and flips the score with a fingertip. These are the ones I would buy.