The beauty of cornhole, says Colter Atelier’s Dwain Cox, “is that you don’t even need to set your drink down to play.” Most boards used to play the game are put together with plywood, hustled from tailgate to clambake, and if they’re adorned at all it’s with a collegiate crest. Not so with the Colter Atelier versions, turned out by Cox’s partner, his brother-in-law Chris Jones, a master woodworker with a 40,000-square-foot shop in Kingsport. The sets take a week to build, with mortis-and-tenon joints, marine-grade finishes, an embedded level, and a patented folding leg system. Chestnut paneling like that found in old Southern homes and reclaimed heart pine are most often used. The design nods to Shaker furniture and the Arts and Crafts movement. “There’s certainly a place for a cornhole game you can toss into a truck bed,” Cox says. “But we want to make games you don’t want to put up at the end of the party.”
>Cornhole boards, $2,000-$2,600 from colteratelier.com
MORE MADE IN THE SOUTH:
>Outdoors winner: Modus Studio
>Outdoors runner-up: Ian Balding
>Outdoors runner-up: Tom Beckbe
>Outdoors runner-up: Colter Atelier
See all winners and runners-up
