Board games are fun and easy to DIY!
Yeah, I know board games are cheap–and even cheaper if you thrift them!–but sometimes it’s fun just to make something by hand. And that’s not even mentioning all the creative possibilities for customization when you DIY your board game! Whether it’s a game of Guess Who that features the Supernatural characters and requires a 16-season in-depth knowledge of the plot to win or a tic-tac-toe board painted onto the picnic table in our yard where we’re most likely to play it with whatever we have on hand, it’s the fun of doing exactly what I want that inspires my love of DIYing board games.
Check out the below list of my favorite DIY board games for your own inspiration, then go off and make exactly what YOU want, too!
Fox and Geese
This is THE easiest DIY board game, because all you have to do is print the free pdf game board! To make your own game board from scratch, all you need is a ruler and a pencil.
Baby’s First Board Game
Got a very young kid who wants to get in on the board game action? The very best board game for a very little kid, the one that will thrill them the most, is so simple that it would be embarrassing to spend money buying it. Instead, make it in minutes!
Konane
Beginner router skills allow you to make this beautiful jumping marbles game. If you don’t want to do any woodworking, you could paint your board and craft pieces from clay.
Memory Lane
This is such a sweet game idea! Retheme a basic Candyland game board to instead serve as an adventure through all your favorite memories. I think it would work just as well for a friend group as it does for a family.
Paint Your Own Board Game from Scratch
You don’t have to have elaborate craft supplies or advanced technical skills to make a personalized board game. You just need paint, markers, and creativity! This is also a good way to beta test a board game idea before you use fancier materials and a bunch of your free time on the construction.
DIY Multiplication Touch
It’s a hefty DIY with lots of parts, but this game is genuinely super fun, and is by far the most low-stakes, low-stress way to help a kid get solid with their multiplication facts. There are also elements of chance and strategy just beyond memorizing the multiplication table, so the game has a surprising lot of playability even for mixed-age players.
Painted Game Table
If you’ve got a piece of furniture that needs to be refinished anyway, I highly recommend painting a game board on it! If it’s a piece of outside furniture like a picnic table, simple game boards like tic-tac-toe or checkers even allow you to play using the natural objects around you as game pieces.
DIY Qwirkle
Qwirkle is one of my favorite games, and I love the idea of making a smaller-scale, travel-friendly version. I also think it would be fun–challenging, but fun!–to change out the colors and shapes to a new theme.
Royal Game of Ur
Leather is a really fun and authentic-feeling choice for this game board, and it means that the game can be rolled up and easily transported. If you don’t want to craft with animal materials, stabilized canvas or Eco-fi felt would also work for this project.
Upcycled Tic-Tac-Toe
This is a great upcycling project, especially for younger kids since it’s so simple. Use whatever you’ve got on hand in the recycling bin, and when you’re done playing, well, back in the recycling bin it goes!
Travel Tic-Tac-Toe
I especially love DIYing travel games, because store-bought travel games mostly seem to be made of cheap plastic and the tiniest possible pieces. Try getting through a single four-hour car trip with a four-year-old and keeping any of those games intact! Here, felt solves ALL those problems by making a travel game that’s light and portable enough for packing but also contains pieces that won’t get lost under the car seat.
Make Your Own Board Game
You can retheme ANY favorite board game! The results are obviously for personal use only, but there are plenty of templates online that will help you personalize any game from Monopoly to Clue to Life to Sorry.
P.S. Do you have a favorite board game that you made by hand? Tell us about it in the Comments!
