How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 2

Beer pong HackCollege style at the 2010 Summit in New York.In Part 1 of our Ultimate Beer Pong Table build we learned how to turn a big piece of plywood into a regulation size playing field for the best party game in existence, beer pong. Today in Part 2, we’re going to learn how to turn our generic tables into beautiful works of art. I’ll be honest, this part of the build is pretty tedious, but after amazing your friends with the finished product, it’ll all be worth it.

Time Required: Variable, depending on complexity of the design. My table took about 5 hours to paint.

Materials

• Two rolls of painters tape
• Spray paint

Tools

• Fine precision knife
• Ruler

Step 1 - Pick a design.

You can be as creative here as you’d like, for my table I decided to keep it simple and clean with my school’s name and crest. When choosing a design do keep in mind that the more complex the lines are, the more difficult they will be to reproduce on your table. For example, the lions in the University of Waterloo crest gave me particular difficulty, in my opinion they turned out great, but they were a ton of work. Almost all beer pong tables I’ve seen have triangles on either end to mark where the cups are to be placed. Personally, I find this design element unnecessary and distracting from the table’s main artwork. I’ve chosen not to include them in my design.

Step 2 - Photoshop.

Unless you’re a whiz with a paintbrush, you’re going to want to let a computer do all the creative stuff for you. Design your table at full size in the photo editing suite of your choice. Yes, that means selecting a canvas size of 2’ x 8’, we’re talking big. Once you’re happy with your table graphic, you’re going to want to turn into a stencil. In Photoshop, the easiest way to accomplish this is by using the Thresholdtool to strip the detail out of your design. My photo editor of choice, Pixelmator, has a Line Overlay filter that works great as well. Save your image.

Step 3 - Print.

Unless you have access to a large format printer, getting your stencil onto paper is tough to do. Luckily there’s a wonderful multi-platform utility called PosteRazor that can help us print and assemble our design using regular 8.5” x 11” pieces of paper. Load your design into PosteRazor, and print it at full size. PosteRazor automatically chops your design into segments for easy printing. Tape the pages together to make your full sized stencil.

Step 4 - Cover your table in tape.

For clean lines with no skill, we’ll be cutting our design out of painters tape. Cover your whole table with painters tape. Easy.

Step 5 - Transfer your design into the tape.

Grab a stiff drink, this part can be tedious. Using a fine precision knife, cut through the paper stencil that you’ve laid overtop of your taped table surface. By cutting through the paper, you’ll also be scoring the painters tape underneath. When cutting straight lines, be sure to guide your knife down the line with a ruler. You’d be surprised how hard it can be trace a straight line. Once you’ve cut all the lines in your design, you should be able to just peel the painters tape off to reveal your bare table ready to be painted.

Step 6 - Paint.

Using high quality paint, cover your table with successive light coats of paint until the wood underneath is no longer visible. Take care not to soak the tape as color may bleed through if the tape gets overstaturated with paint. Leave your table to dry.

Whew! Another day of work is done. Our beer pong tables are almost ready for primetime, all that’s left are the finishing touches. Check back in tomorrow for Part 3, when we apply a protective coating and play our first game of pong. Good luck decorating!

Catch up here with Part 1, and then move on to Part 3!