Our Gaming Table : Gypsy Gameschooler

/ June 9, 2022/ Board Games/ 2 comments

When we moved into our bus, one of my requests was that my husband make me a gaming table. I was tired of feeling like we couldn’t work on a puzzle because it would take up the whole table and we wouldn’t be able to eat around it, or having to plan when to play our bigger and longer games for the same reason. (Which let’s face it, means those games don’t get played at all.)

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Enter our custom gaming table. I started by setting out our biggest boards, and figured out that most of them fit within 2’x4’. Keep in mind that this table would be in our bus, so our space was definitely limited. Had we made this table for a house, we likely would have gone a bit bigger, to ensure we could always accommodate all our games.

Custom gaming table, leaf down, lid off — When we moved the table into the bus, we actually had to remove one leaf and even a leg! (Luckily, my handy husband was able to do this, and put the leg back on.) We decided to leave it with just one leaf, as it really didn’t fit with the second leaf. I especially love the **puzzle organizer** in the picture above – we store it in our table, and it’s great for organizing puzzle pieces, or even LEGO!

Design of custom game table

So that 2’x4’ is the base gaming area. It has 2” tall sides and, ideally, is lined in felt. I’m sensitive to extra noise, so I wanted a padded area to roll dice into. When we want to eat, we just need to put the top on the table. This covers up our game while keeping everything neat. Then one (originally, both) of the longer sides has a 1’ wing that can come up and is even with the top of the lid. This means we have a little bit of table space for individual pieces or boards. We frequently also use small folding tables for extra table space. Again, if this gaming table were designed for a house, I’d want something bigger.

Custom gaming table, leaf up, lid on — *Leaf up, lid on, ready for eating or a larger, temporary project.*

We decided against a built-in Chessboard for our gaming table

Originally we were going to have an 8×8 black/white grid in the top of the lid, for playing chess, checkers, and Othello. Then I decided it might be nice to be able to play these games during drives or outside. We’ll just buy a magnetic game board and call it good.