The Ultimate Board Game Table

I was destined to be stuck inside the house for essentially months, maybe more than a year, thanks to the COVID-19 global pandemic. It was the perfect time to redesign the basement. And there was nothing I wanted more than to host a board game night once again, inviting my friends over to share some refreshments and laughs as we spent the evening together. Half the fun is the games themselves, the other half is the excuse to catch up on everybody's lives. To facilitate the perfect game night, I needed the perfect game room, and THAT called for the perfect game table.

I spent hours searching online. What had others done? What features fell into the different categories of must-have, nice-to-have, and purchase-if-you-have-money-to-burn? I read through tutorials of individuals designing their own tables, using 3D printers to create elements they would attach, or taking advantage of apparently having an entire wing of an estate dedicated to woodshop or workshop efforts. I do not have those resources, nor that experience, so I assumed I would buy a nice board game table.

Unfortunately, I ran into challenges in that search as well. Everything seemed to cost several arms and legs, and the features I had read about were extra on top of that. If I wanted my family to still be able to eat, we'd have to accept a board game table devoid of all the upgrades I had just studied, despite having spent hours learning their importance! There had to be a solution, some middle ground.

I settled on the idea that I would buy a table as a base and just augment it with the parts and features I wanted. But then I had to design it, determine how to make that design a reality, and begin my preparations. I agonized over drawings, blueprints I was mocking up that highlighted how painfully terrible I was at any sort of artistic endeavor. If these were the kinds of drawings I cranked out, I feared any "masterpiece" I completed would be more recognizable as "abstract art..." or maybe just garbage.

Nevertheless, I pressed on. I determined I wanted a circular table. Most board game tables were rectangular. I preferred the idea of everybody having equal access (read: distance) to the playing field in the middle. I looked up the number of people who could sit at round tables of different sizes. I wanted to comfortably accommodate six players, but also be able to expand up to eight fairly easily. A table with a 5ft diameter seemed perfect.

I also wanted something that had a pedestal base because I hated bumping human legs on table legs in the course of the evening. Yet, it needed to be sturdy and stable. If someone leaned on one side casually, I didn't want the whole thing flipping over. And naturally, I was on a budget.

I found a total of ONE table that met all the necessary criteria. It ended up taking months to be delivered. Again, it was the pandemic, I had nothing but time. While I waited, I planned what would go on top of this table.

I wanted to cover it with a closed cell foam to provide a soft gaming surface and make it easier to pick up cards and pieces. The closed foam would minimize liquid seeping through to the wood table if ever there were a spill. On top of the foam, I would need a nice fabric. High-end game tables in Vegas use speed cloth, so that's what I wanted. I could have stopped there and had a wonderful table.

My teenage daughter was keenly aware of my excitement about this table, so she gifted me a nice set of LED strip lights. Of course, that meant I now needed to create a raised lip around the circumference of the table and attach the lights to the inside of that ring, shining on the playing surface. What else was I supposed to do with them?

I purchased two large sheets of MDF and used a router to cut out the circular shape of the table, tracing the actual table top. I then traced an inner circle which would leave about a 5" wide raised lip, and I cut that out with a jigsaw. Much sanding ensued afterwards.

Now that I had my table lip, I used it for the pattern to cut into the closed cell foam, speed cloth, and a separate black canvas that I planned to use on top of the lip (the speed cloth wasn't wide enough to serve both purposes). All this involved a lot of trimming with the household scissors...

I fixed the lip in place on the table top, but not permanently. With a special fabric/foam spray glue, I attached the foam to the table top, in the middle (the playing area). Then I removed the lip and attached the speed cloth on top of the foam. I wanted the speed cloth to spill out past the foam and for the lip to hold the excess down to reduce the amount of hard edges shown. I had cut the cloth accordingly to allow for this.

Next, I placed the lip back on, covering the excess speed cloth. I placed the lip's foam layer on top of it, but didn't glue it in place yet. Then I glued the secondary black canvas to this foam layer. I meticulously went around the table, tucking in the black canvas under the inside edge of the lip. Again, I didn't want the hard edges shown. At this point, I finally bolted the lip in place to the table and then glued the foam to it.

I had cut the secondary black canvas to provide some extra length on both the inner and outer rings of the lip. For the outer ring, I used a staple gun to lock it all in place and a hammer to ensure all those staples were flush with the table edge.

I had picked up an LED channel diffuser, which sounds really fancy but is just a housing for the LED lights. Unfortunately, it's a serious pain to run the lights through those. I cut one side of the diffuser along the edge with a razor blade, just to create an opening for me to push the lights into. That went a LOT faster. With the LEDs in place in the diffuser, I put the cut edge down along the inner ring and figured out where I'd need a hole in the table to plug them in. I drilled a little hole there, out of the way, in preparation for the light installation.

I then made my way along the LED strip, stopping every few inches to lift up the front of the diffuser and the LEDs on the inside, screw the back of the diffuser in place to the inside ring of the lip, and then keep moving. In retrospect, I should have put more of these screws in to hold the diffuser in place better. Ah well, live and learn, right?

With the LEDs and diffuser in place, and after pulling the end through the hole I had made, I installed the table top on the pedestal base finally. It was starting to really come together! There was a terrifying moment when I couldn't turn the LEDs on, but apparently the 4-pronged LED plug has to be facing the correct direction when plugged in. I made that mistake a few times trying to figure out why the lights weren't working after having checked them initially, then spending a couple hours installing them in the diffuser and then into the table itself!

At this point, I purchased some second-hand board and card games from a thrift store and pulled out about 160 cards that would decorate the lip (top and side). With ones that were just numbers, I grabbed a random smattering of cards. With others , I actually selected specific ones that were more meaningful to my family, mentioning shows we liked or trivia that would be interesting. I placed a layer of double-stick tape on the top and side of the lip, carefully lining both with cards. This hid the staples on the side and some imperfections on the top where glue had seeped through to be visible.

I had to take a pair of scissors to the cards on the side and trim the bottom off to make them all flush (pun intended!) with the table. Knowing this in advance, I had placed some cards at more of an angle to capture more of the content on the card. Also, knowing that only one side of each card would be showing, I had planned which side of every card would be showing, and I took pictures of all the other sides for the cards with a back that had information. I didn't want any guests asking for the answer to a particular question and not being able to supply it!

Finally, I took several rolls of clear flex tape and sealed the lip, cards, canvas, and all, with a few dozen strips running from the LED diffuser to the bottom of the table top. I had explored many options for this, but I wanted to obviously keep the cards visible, keep the padding and lip surface comfortable, and avoid ruffles or bumps on the sides of the table. This was the best option I could conceive. Be aware that clear flex tape is leaves a rubbery goop on the scissors or razor blade you use, making it tougher to make the next cut.

In the end, I probably paid about $750 and spent about 30 hours making this board game table. The bulk of that cost was the round base table of course. It's not a project I'm anxious to do again anytime soon, but I'm incredibly grateful to have a homemade board game table that makes me smile every time I see it. And now that it seems we're turning a corner with the pandemic, this table is even more amazing for game play with friends and family!