Board Game Storage: Build a Board Game Box

DIY board game storage box

Did your favorite board game box crash and burn? Yeah, mine, too. Here’s how to make your own board game storage to replace it.

We love games, especially sustainability-related games like GBO Hawaii. Sometimes we may love them too much! So when that box falls apart, your board games still deserve a better fate than being shoved, unprotected, on a shelf, its pieces stuck in junky Ziplock bags. You need sturdy board game storage! It’s easy to build a custom cardboard box to house your games even more securely than before, and your games will be even more beautiful than before, too, since you can decorate your custom board game box in any way that you’d like.

Board Game Storage Box

To build your better board game storage box, you will need:

  • very sturdy cardboard–I’m using mat board; for an even more eco-friendly option, find some large-scale cardboard boxes to break down and upcycle.
  • pencil and ruler
  • scissors and X-acto knife
  • hot glue gun and hot glue
corner view of the finished box

1. Measure the dimensions of your new board game storage box. 

The box sides are the width of the folded board + the width of a game piece + 1 cm.

If you still have your old box, you can simply copy its dimensions onto the new cardboard. You can also figure out dimensions from scratch, however, using just your game board and pieces. For this Sorry game, for instance, I measured out a rectangle the dimensions of the folded game board, plus 1 cm on all sides, to be the bottom of the box. I added the width of the folded game board, plus the height of a game piece, plus 1 cm, and measured that distance all the way around the box bottom–these are the sides of the box.

For the top of the box, use the same dimensions, but add an extra 1 cm to the box’s bottom measurement, to give room for the top of the box to be placed over the bottom.

2. Cut out the box halves. 

Cut the piece that will be the top box half and the piece that will be the bottom box half from the cardboard.

At each corner, there will be a square made from your overlapping lines when you drew the box sides. Cut down one side of this square at each corner–this will be a tab that you’ll fold over and glue to its adjacent side on each side of the box.

DIY board game box (2 of 4)
Score and fold all the box sides.

3. Score and fold. 

To be able to fold the heavy cardboard, first use a metal ruler and an X-acto knife to score all of the fold lines, then use the metal ruler to help guide you as you fold.

DIY board game box (3 of 4)4. Glue the tabs. 

Fold and glue each corner tab to its adjacent side.

You can leave the box plain, or cut out the original box’s cover art to glue to your new box, or decorate your new board game storage box with decoupage, paints, or Sharpies.

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