How to make PVC Football Goalposts

DISCLOSURE:

I’m not a football fan. Not even a little.

A few years ago I was dating a guy who was a huge NY Giants fan, so by default I became a Giants fan too. If you’re going to watch, it’s way more fun to root for a team, so it was cool for a while. They won the Super Bowl that year, but then the boyfriend dumped me, the Giants started sucking badly and that was about the end of it. I think I still have a Brandon Jacobs jersey tucked away somewhere.

Anyway…

Whether you like football or not, Super Bowl parties are FUN. Truckloads of ridiculously fattening food, endless booze and grown men screaming at the television. It’s the only time of year when it’s acceptable, expected even, to serve the all of your guilty pleasure appetizers. What’s not to like?

My theory on Super Bowl parties, as with most things in life, is that you either go big or go home….and having 3.5′ tall goal posts on our buffet table next week is guaranteed to make you the coolest party thrower on the block.

(that, and never running out of booze)

One of my clients in my marketing & event business is a sports bar, and last fall I decided to make some props for their NFL Season Kick-off Party. They use them to spruce up the buffet table for football parties, but it was a pretty easy project and very do-able for an at home Super Bowl party.

I pinned a few tutorials for making PVC goal posts, but I didn’t think most of them looked very realistic – real goal posts have a curve in them and the bases are wrapped in padding and I couldn’t find anything like that online. This tutorial from Play Party Pin was my basic game plan, but we modified it a bit.

Goal Post Project List:

(makes 2)

6 – 12″ PVC pipes

(I used 1″ PVC. Make sure all your connectors are the right size for the PVC you buy)

4 – 6″ PVC pipe

2 – 1 ” CPVC sweeps (in electrical aisle)

4 – PVC elbow connectors

2 – PVC T joint connectors

4 – PVC end caps

Scrap wood for box (I used pallet wood)

4 metal conduit straps

2 – squares of artificial grass (mine was about 12×12 from Michaels)

Bright yellow spray paint

Brown spray paint

PVC Cleaner

Foam pipe insulation

We used a chop saw to cut the PVC to the right sizes, but you can usually get this done at Lowe’s or Home Depot for free if you ask. We added a curved piece of CPVC (a “sweep”) to the T connector give the goal posts a more realistic look.

I wasn’t sure if we would need glue to hold it together but it ended up not being necessary.

One thing I didn’t know is that spray paint will NOT cover up the writing on the PVC. Weird, right? I tried various cleaning products, nail polish remover, and mineral spirits, but this stuff doesn’t budge.

To remove the writing, you need this:

It’s made specifically for the task, you can find it in the same aisle as the PVC a the home improvement store.

I wanted the base to be about 12″ x 12″, but you could really make it any size you want. I used scrap pallet wood I had in my garage to make a simple box.

My plan was to put a brick or two in it to support the goal post since they are tall. The finished size is about 3.5′ and I didn’t want them to topple over, but in the end it wasn’t necessary. Once they were done, I coated them with brown spray paint.

I attached the goal posts to the boxes with 2 metal straps.

Once the painting was done I used a staple gun to attach the “turf”; you’ll have to cut a little chunk out to accommodate the goal post. I wrapped the base with the foam insulation to mimic the padding on real goal posts.

My next project was to tackle the “field”.

No pun intended. 🙂

I found a piece of indoor-outdoor carpet at a discount store and I used white duct tape and stencils to make it look like a football field. For the numbers, I just used some white semi-gloss I had in the house and a regular paint brush.

I had this set up in my jam-packed garage…please ignore the chaos. And the shadow of my arm.

To make the “penalty flag” buckets, I got 2 metal buckets at the Dollar Store and spray painted them white. I used black electrical tape to make the stripes, created the signs in PicMonkey and then used ModPodge to attach them to the buckets. I got the inspiration from THIS post on HGTV.com. Don’t forget the yellow napkins. 🙂

I Googled “football plays” to get a real play to put on the little chalkboard and added a football, coaches whistle and a clipboard.