As the weather heats up, homeowners around the country will embrace their patios and yards as extensions of their indoor entertainment rooms. Lawn games are part of the fun.
Traditional American lawn games include washers, cornhole, and horseshoes, but the sky’s the limit for those looking to entertain family and friends outdoors.
“I think people are trying to get back to more traditional, family-friendly games,” says Denise Cripps, content marketer for Universal Forest Products, which builds yard games under the Belknap Hill Trading Post brand. Among its products are a supersized twist on Jenga, called Towering Timbers. “I think the days of the stuffy cocktail parties for adults are over,” Cripps says.
Some especially active families opt for backyard sports courts. Sport Court of St. Louis installs multi-use half courts of about 1,400 square feet. “These tend to be popular with homeowners because of their versatility,” says company owner Austin Helfers. “You can play basketball, floor hockey, pickleball, volleyball—a little bit of everything,” he says.
Andy Quevreaux, owner of Tenix, which specializes in clay court installation, says that homeowners who are interested in building a tennis court on their property need at least 60 by 120 feet of flat space.
A relatively inexpensive court can run as high as $40,000 to install, depending on the site and materials chosen, Quevreaux says. A clay court costs somewhere between $70,000 and $80,000. “You could easily spend $100,000,” he says. “The most avid tennis players probably opt to schedule games at country clubs or public parks.”
Though a private tennis court isn’t in the realm of possibility for most, other lawn games are, and they bring people together for loads of fun until long after the sun goes down.
